Re: [Harp-L] Theory, etc. - history of positions

[Philharpn@xxxxxxx]

I would suggest that the only thing less rare than writings about Civil War 
era harmonicas is the harmonicas themselves.

The real test about Civil War harmonicas is this: If there were so many of 
them around during the Civil War how come lots of them have not been found? 
People have been collection items from the battlefields of the Civil War since the 
shooting stopped. If really true, there ought to be lots of old rusty 
harmonicas around -- almost as many as old rusty pistols.

The Civil War harmonica rivals the expanded facts surrounding the New Orleans 
casket girls who arrived from France with their "caskets" (like a hope chest 
full of linen and clothes) looking for suitable suitors in the New World in 
the 1730s. At the time, most of the women living in New Orleans were 
prostitutes. However, the fecundity of these casket girls was so great that nearly 
everyone born after their arrival in the New World traced his lineage to the casket 
girls -- not the whores.

What is even rarer than a Civil War harmonica or real descendant of the 
casket girls is a granddaughter of a casket girl who played the harmonica!

                                         * * *

Another canard about the Civil War is that Lincoln played harmonica. It 
supposedly dates from the quote: "Douglas needs a brass band but I only need a 
harmonica." which is supposed to be from Lincoln popular biographer Carl Sandburg. 
But Robert Lincoln always said he never knew his father to be musical and he 
never saw him with a harmonica.

And that "hoax quote" about Lincoln smoking hemp and playing his harmonica 
comes from the web site that promotes legalizing marijuana. There is no evidence 
of this beyond the web page.

 




In a message dated 2/23/07 9:53:47 AM, ndavid.coulson@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:


> In Winslow's  response to Iceman's posting he states that the popular 
> image of harmonica playing in the Civil War was the creation of 
> Hollywood screen writers, and that harmonica production was too low 
> until the 1870s or 1880s for the instrument to have been widespread. 
> However, in the Alan Bates collection site he links to in the same 
> response, it says this: "First imported in quantity in the early 
> 1860s, they (harmonicas) became popular with soldiers from both north 
> and south.   Many harmonica remains have been found around Civil War 
> camp sites."
> So which is correct?
> 
> David
> 
> On Feb 23, 2007, at 8:00 AM, winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> 
> > Harmonica production was too low in the 1860s for harmonicas to have
> > been very widespread in the US during slavery times. Production wasn't
> > really large enough until about the 1870s or '80s, which was in fact a
> > time of great hope for black folks, with African Americans actually
> > getting elected to State office, until white racists figured out ways
> > to shut them out of the entire democratic process for the better part
> > of a century.
> >
> > The popular image of the harmonica being played by Civil War soldiers
> > was created by Hollywood screenwriters. They remembered the very real
> > phenomenon of the harmonica being very widespread during the first
> > world war of 1914-1918, when annual harmonica production (and
> > exportation) was well into the multiple millions, and projected that
> > back to the Civil war scenes they were writing (soldiers gone off to
> > war, a past era, harmonica). Some folks I know will disagree, but I'm
> > pretty certain this is a false image. The production and distribution
> > just weren't there.
> 
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