ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how music was created and used in Civil War armies. Soldiers brought a love of music with them into the Union and Confederate ranks and were eager to hear and appreciate various types of music. They performed music themselves vocally or with instruments, developed strong attachments to a massive number of official regimental bands, and adopted and crafted songs that resonated with their military lives. This music helped them both understand and express their opinions on the complicated issues of the war and the emotional challenges they experienced as its participants. Songs and band music made the Civil War a remarkably musical war and its armies perhaps the most musical in American history.
