Can You Just Imagine? The Biggest Choir in History.

Ed. Note: The following true story took place between 8:00-9:00PM on December 30, 1862, at Stone’s River, Tennessee.

Admission–it is hard for me to even read fiction any more, with true stories like this one.

Background. The Civil War not only pitted the North against the South, but often brother against brother. A southern young man would move to the north, and find himself weeks later, fighting for a cause he didn’t understand against his own flesh and blood. Generals on both sides had been educated at West Point and often knew the commanders on the other side of the battle lines. It was at once a brutal war, but marked by odd agreements and ‘time-outs’ to pick up the dead and wounded. The South was at a disadvantage for most of the War, as supplies ran short and Army discipline was often replaced by the individual bravery shown by young men who had grown up in tough times. Johnny Reb would sometime put down his rifle to take the shoes off a fallen enemy because fighting in the wintertime, shoeless, caused him to ignore his officers’ pleadings to stay engaged in the battle.

So, the federal army under the new command of General Rosencrans engaged the Confederate Army, led by General Braxton at Mufreesboro, TN. The battlelines were only about a half mile apart and stradded the Stone’s River in middle Tennesse. In other words, the lines were so close that insults could thrown back and forth. One non-related story about the closeness of the lines involved baseball, which had just started to gain popularity in the North. The soldiers were playing ball one day during a lull in that day’s fighting, and Johnny Reb sharpshooters would pick off the centerfielder when a ball was hit over his head. But balls were in such demand, that the new center fielder would be carried back and subsequently replaced by another player/soldier who would ask for the ball to be thrown back by the Confederates.

Anyway, this battle of Stone’s River was important for both sides, and there were about 81,000 soldiers on both sides, and before the Battle was over 23,000 of them were killed. 23,000.

But at about 8 pm on the evening of December 30, 1862, something special happened that soldiers from both sides would tell their grandchildren. The two generals had gotten together and agreed upon a truce of sorts, before the battle resumed the next day. The Union band started playing songs, a common occurrence and a pick-me-up for northern soldiers. The Confederates were close enough to hear and would yell across the empty fields. Imagine that: in the cold and damp winter, mostly shoeless Confederates who would yell “That’s a great one,” across the field and finally “Play some of ours!!” to remind them of home. I imagine they were requesting songs like “It’s Hotter Than Hell in Mississippi,” or the favorite of so many “Your Womenfolk Love Our Accents.” (Ok, a bit of WWDS humor there, the actual songs were “Dixie”and “Bonnie Blue Flag.” Finally, it got a bit late, so the Union band broke into “Home Sweet Home,” a national favorite. You may have sung this song yourself in grade school, lyrics here.

As the band played, nearly every single one of the 81,000 soldiers began singing along. A stirring spectacle I imagine, on the eve of a day that brought certain death to so many. This is still called the biggest choir ever in history.

I wish Hollywood would make a movie of something like this instead of another “Fast and Furious.”

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