Musical Reconnaissance and Deception in the American Civil War

Music was an omnipresent part of American Civil War battlefields, yet the role of music in tactical situations has received little scholarly attention. Firsthand accounts reveal that certain officers and enlisted men recognized and drew upon the communicative potential of military music. Alert scouts realized that field musicians and brass bands conveyed valuable information about the enemy position they were reconnoitering, while creative officers used both the connotative and denotative potential of music to enhance tactical deceptions. These occurrences affirm the intrinsic role that music played in the lives of nineteenth-century Americans while revealing an expanding awareness of battlefield psychology.