Sam Sweeney - "This Fine Music"
At Winchester, Virginia, General Stuart arrived one evening bringing Sam Sweeney and his band to serenade General Lee at his headquarters. Somehow a demijohn of whiskey appeared in camp, too. The concert was a lively one; finally, General Lee came out of his tent and seeing the demijohn perched on a boulder, asked with a smile, "Gentlemen, am I to thank General Stuart or the jug for this fine music?"
The Sweeney family was a musical one. Sam's brother, Joe, is credited with inventing the lively fivestring banjo, said to be the only musical instrument ever invented in North America. He was one of the first minstrels, incorporating the Negro influence into his music. He once gave a command performance for Queen Victoria.
His brother Sam Sweeney is best known as the banjo player on General J.E.B. Stuart's staff. Sam joined Co. H, 2nd Virginia Cavalry on January 1, 1862, at Centreville. Stuart would abduct Sweeney from his commander, Colonel Thomas Munford of the 2nd Virginia Cavalry, to lead his band. (Sweeney was not actually attached to Stuart's staff until December 1, 1862.) Munford wrote: "Stuart's feet would shuffle whenever he was in Sweeney's presence, or even at the calling of his name. He issued an order for him to report at his quarters and 'detained' him. It was a right he enjoyed, but not very pleasing to me or my regiment."
Stuart often arranged concerts and balls, even in the middle of campaigning. He frequently broke into song during a long ride and Sweeney and his band were always nearby. Of course this did not always strike everyone as dignified. Wrote General Lafayette McLaws: "Stuart carries around with him a banjo player and a special correspondent. This claptrap is noticed and lauded as a peculiarity of genius, when, in fact, it is nothing but the act of a buffoon to get attention." The band consisted of Sweeney on the banjo, his cousin Robert on the fiddle, and Bob, a black man, on the tones. Most of the band members were black.
Fortunately, the program for the concert that Stuart had at "The Bower" the night before he launched his Chambersburg, Pennsylvania raid survives. Anyone who has ever seen the house or the beautiful grounds of "The Bower, " the Dandridge home near Martinsburg, West Virginia, need little imagination to picture the scene. The program was elaborate:
Grand Overture.............................. |
Orchestra |
The sound of minstrel music was surely new to the ears of the English correspondents, Fitzgerald Ross and Frank Vizetelly. Vizetelly captured one of the concerts in a sketch, "Camp Entertainment," for the readers of the Illustrated London News.
Sam Sweeney died of smallpox at Orange Court House on January 13, 1864. It is not known where he is buried, but his brother Joe is buried in Appomattox County. It is hard to believe that Sam Sweeney (whose name, incidentally, shows up on records as "Sampson D. Sweeney" and sometimes as "Samuel D. Sweeney") lies in an unmarked grave. Perhaps someone with a necrological bent can clear up this matter. When the news reached Stuart and his staff of his death, no doubt it was a sad day for the headquarters of the cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia.
This article first appeared in Volume 10, No. 4 of The Cannoneer.
Sources:
Burke Davis, "The Swinging Sweneys, " The Iron Worker, Autumn 1969, contributed by Wes Rine.
Bob Trout confirmed the dates and information.
