Music for Flag Day

 

As a general rule
outdoor photos of town bands
come in two types –
bunches or lines.
The musicians might be arranged
in an orderly or haphazard fashion,
depending on the fastidiousness
of the photographer or the leader of the group,
but it's still either rows or clumps of people.

My favorites are vintage photos of small bands
which assembled near a residential home.
    It adds an element of time and place
which is absent in photos of a band
posed in front of a stone wall or park bandstand.

Most photographs of this kind
were taken on special occasions,
often on a summer's day
when the band's musicians wore
their best uniforms.
If the light was good
and the camera well focused
it becomes a portrait of individuals
as well as of an ensemble. 

This brass band of thirteen players
chose to stand in a line for their group photo.
They are on the grassy lawn of a large two-story house
built in a 19th century style called "Steamboat Gothic"
with a grand porch accentuated by fancy turned posts,

spandrels, balustrades, and millwork brackets.
The musicians are of various ages 
with a handful of boys and girls in their teens.
Their caps and uniform coatss are decent quality with 

braided knots on the cuffs and around the buttons.  
Standing center on the porch behind them
is an older man, age 60+,  holding an American flag.

This large albumen photo, mounted on card stock 11 x 10 inches,
has no photographer's imprint to identify where it was taken.
However neatly written on the back
are the names of the band's musicians. 

I believe the names top to bottom correspond
to the players left to right.

• Harry Reynolds
• Neil Reynolds
• Lloyd Hill
• Lynn Hill
• Martin Wilder
• Edd Brown
• William Schade
• August Hinz
• Percy Townsend
• Semore Reynolds
• Ola Higbee
• Grover Johnson
• John Johnson
• Arron Holben  Holding flag

Despite my best efforts searching for these names
in Ancestry.com and newspaper archives
I've been unable to find the solution to the puzzle
of where they are standing.
The names are just too common.

And so, for now anyway, this small town band
must otherwise remain unknown. 
My best guess as to its date is roughly late 1890s to early 19o0s.

But that flag is a hint that this photo
commemorates a holiday concert by the band.

It might be May 30th, Memorial Day,
once known as Decoration Day.
Of it could be July 4th, Independence Day,
commonly called the Fourth of July.

But I think is might be June 14th, Flag Day,
the day set aside to honor the adoption
of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777. 

Storm Flag raised at Fort Sumter
Source: Wikipedia

Flag Day was first proposed in 1861
not long after the attack by Confederate forces
on Fort Sumter, the island fortress which guarded 
the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.  

On 13 April 1861, after a relentless bombardment,
Fort Sumter's Federal Army commander, Major Robert Anderson,
was compelled to lower Fort Sumter's flag and surrender.
Thus began four years of America's terrible Civil War. 

I will let Fort Sumter's flag's Wikipedia entry tell the rest of the story:

Anderson brought the flag to New York City for an April 20, 1861, patriotic rally, where it was flown from the equestrian statue of George Washington in Union Square. More than 100,000 people thronged Manhattan's Union Square in what was, by some accounts, the largest public gathering in the country up to that time. The flag was then taken from town to town, city to city throughout the North, where it was frequently "auctioned" to raise funds for the war effort. Any patriotic citizen who won the flag at auction was expected to immediately donate it back to the nation, and it would promptly be taken to the next rally to repeat its fundraising magic. The flag was a widely known patriotic symbol for the North during the war.

On April 14, 1865, four years and one day after the surrender and as part of a celebration of the Union victory, Anderson (by then a retired and sickly major general), raised the flag in triumph over the battered remains of the fort. Author Shelby Foote quotes Anderson as saying, "I thank God that I have lived to see this day," as he took the flagpole's halyards in his hands.

The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was the principal orator at the 1865 celebration, and gave a lengthy speech, as was the custom of the day. He said in conclusion:

"On this solemn and joyful day, we again lift to the breeze our fathers’ flag, now, again, the banner of the United States, with the fervent prayer that God would crown it with honor, protect it from treason, and send it down to our children.... Terrible in battle, may it be beneficent in peace [and] as long as the sun endures, or the stars, may it wave over a nation neither enslaved nor enslaving.... We lift up our banner, and dedicate it to peace, Union, and liberty, now and forevermore." — Rev. Henry Ward Beecher

Later that night President Lincoln would be shot at Ford's Theatre.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Flag Day was never a big celebration in the United States since it was initially scheduled in June boxed in-between larger more memorable patriotic holidays. But some states, mainly in the north, did continue this tradition of honoring our flag's anniversary on 14 June. While I can't confirm that this little brass band's photo is connected to this holiday, there is no evidence that it isn't either. So let's pretend that long ago Major Anderson's flag inspired Uncle Holben to join the fight to protect the Union and our flag. 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where parades only work 

if everyone marches in the same direction.