Hello Everyone,

For all of you interested in Virginia Civil War tidbits, the following
appeared on a Rowan County NC rootsweb list.  I thought it might be of
interest to some of you.  At the end I have posted excerpts from an email I
received from a gentleman who has taken up bugling as a hobby and
participates in bugling organizations.  My g grandfather was a bugler,
serving in SW Missouri, but for the Union.

<insert>
"
My local newspaper (Norfolk Virginian Pilot) had an article in it on
April7, 2002 regarding the last bugle call at Appomattox in April, 1865.
This article was written by George Tucker, a local historian, working
with sources in the Norfolk Genealogy Library.

"Detested 'Dixie' often required of Rebel bugler."
Summary:
Andrew Benjamin Bowering (1842-1923) was reared in Fredericksburg VA from
early childhood.  At the opening of the Civil War, he joined the
Confederate Army and served as musician and bugler with the 30th Virginia
Infantry, Corses Brigade, Pickett's Division.  Interviewed for the
"Dictionary of Virginia Biography," Bowering, who had marched with Lee's
Army of Northern Virginia for four years, recalled the two highlights of
his musical army life.  (1) Directing of the band at Stonewall Jackson's
funeral in Richmond in May 1863, where the band performed Handel's "Dead
March from Saul; and 2) blowing the last assembly call at Appomattox.

Bowering went on to explain to the interviewer the westward march toward
Appomattox, during which the band was almost captured by the Union
troops.  Upon seeing Yankee officers and soldiers come through
Confederate lines under a flag of truce early on the morning of April 9th
and realizing that the war was over, Bowering hung his bugle on a tree
limb and walked away from it.  Shortly a Confederate officer asked him to
blow the call for religious services.  Bowering said, "That assembly
call, which I played, was the last note that I played in the war."  The
recent article states that most authorities now recognize that Bowering's
last Confederate bugle call was the final one blown at Appomattox.

After the Army's surrender, Bowering walked home to Fredericksburg,VA,
only to find that his family had left there for Salisbury, NC.  He went
to Salisbury and for a while remained there with his family, living by
teaching music and doing odd jobs.  He and his family left in August 1865
to return to Fredericksburg, VA.
He was frequently seen in later years at reunions of the United
Confederate Veterans in many areas of the South, where he conducted the
band music but didn't "play" Dixie unless forced to.  He explained that
he had always disliked "Dixie," and he implied that most of the Rebel
troops also disliked the song. He gave no explanation for this dislike of
"Dixie" throughout the war and afterwards.   He recalled that the
favorite marching songs of Confederate men was the now- forgotten
"Lorena" and "Maryland, My Maryland."

[I am not sure that Bowering was interviewed for the on-going "Dictionary
of Virginia Biography," or just that his interview was later included in
Volume 2 of that work.]

Betty Pace"
<end excerpt on Bowering>

<The bugler's functions -- insert>
    The bugler in the WBTS [war between the states] served two functions
basically: camp clock and
relayer of orders on the field of battle...  In camp he woke the troops up,
summoned them for various functions (roll calls, fatigue duty, sick call,
meals, guard duty, etc) and told them when it was lights out and time to go
to bed...   In the field he had various calls for various orders coming from
the brigade command level: to march, to halt, how to march (cadence calls and
direction calls), when to fire, or cease fire, etc.  Each branch of service
(infantry, cavalry, and artillery) had their own calls and a good bugler knew
them all, amounting to about 150 calls.  The regs state that every officer of
company rank (cpt. and above) not only had to know the calls to recognize
them, but also how to sound them!  But I'll bet that was honored more more in
the breach than the observance!   Two excellent sources on WBTS bugling are
www.acwbugler.org and an article in the Oct 2001 issue of CW Times
Illustrated on field music in general and buglers in particular.
   The WBTS bugling community has done extensive research into all this and
we hold an annual Field Musicians School in Ft. Delaware in June.  If you
want to see all this in practice, visit there on June 15-16 next year [2002]
<end excerpt>

   Cpl. Tim Fisher, Bugler and Historian, 2nd SC Vol Inf (Palmetto Regt), Co H
     The Lancaster Invincibles
   "To Commemorate, To Educate, To Emulate"

   "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to
the battle?"  I Cor. 14:18

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