Substance Abuse Noted in Camp Songs of the Civil War

The following music CD contains a collection of songs & melodies well known to the troops on both sides of the War Between the States & is played on authentic instruments of the period

Southern Soldier © 1997
Favorite Camp Songs of the Civil War by the
2nd South Carolina String Band


old mailing address for them:
2nd South Carolina String Band / Kershaw's Minstrel Band
1820 Old Harrisburg Road,
Gettysburg, PA 17325

The jacket inside the CD cover states the tune, Rock the Cradle, Julie...

Pvt. James Dinkins, of Co.C, 18th Mississippi, described the march of McLaw's Division—which included Kershaw's South Carolina Brigade—toward Sharpsburg in September of 1862. Dinkins recalled, "The men moved along at a lively gait. As night came on, we sang all kinds of plantation songs, 'Rock the Cradle, Julie', 'Sallie, Get Your Hoecake Done', 'I'm Gwying Down the Newburg Road', and so on. The men ... moved along the road. The woods rang with their melodies." It was this vivid scene which inspired us to produce this album. The melody, the familiar 'Soldier's Joy', has been traced back to traditional Scottish fiddle tunes.

Part of Rock the Cradle, Julie lyrics state ...

Its 25¢ for the morphine,
Its 15¢ for the beer,
Its 25¢ for the morphine,
Lord drink me away from here!

Both sides would have been very familiar with this tune and sung it. Drugs were sold to get high within the camps of the soldiers ... both north and south

~ from the notes of Lady Victorian Historian