Weeping Sad And Lonely: A Song History

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“Weeping, Sad and Lonely,” subtitled “When This Cruel War Is Over,” joined words by Charles Carroll Sawyer to music by Henry Tucker. It was issued as a song with chorus by the Brooklyn firm of Sawyer & Thompson, its cover bearing the dedication “Inscribed to Sorrowing Hearts at Home.”[1] Library catalogs date that Brooklyn edition to 1863, while at least one writer places the song’s first appearance in 1862, so the year is best given as 1862–63.[1][2][3] The verses are sung by a young woman to her absent soldier: she recalls their parting, frets over his safety even as she urges him to do his duty, and closes each chorus praying they will meet again once the fighting ends. Sawyer’s songs steered clear of taking sides or mocking the enemy, and a historian cited by the Ballad Index credits that even-handedness with winning him a following in both North and South.[2]

Hand-colored tintype of a young woman holding a small cased photograph of a uniformed soldier

Unidentified woman holding a cased photograph of a soldier, hand-colored tintype, 1861–65. Liljenquist Family Collection, Library of Congress. No known restrictions.

According to the Traditional Ballad Index, it is commonly thought to have been the best-loved song of the war, at least with Union soldiers.[2] Most soldiers met it not as 25-cent sheet music but on penny broadsides and in cheap pocket songsters.[4] Its war-weary mood reportedly worried officers, and accounts say it was barred in some camps for fear it would sap morale.[4][3] Confederate publishers in Richmond and in Macon and Savannah put out their own editions with the soldier’s blue uniform changed to gray.[3][5] The song’s success also brought a run of answer songs and parodies, among them John Hill Hewitt’s more hopeful “When Upon the Field of Glory” and “When This Cruel Draft Is Over,” a complaint about conscription.[2][3]

After the war its heavy sentiment fell out of favor, and songs such as “Tenting Tonight” took its place in memory.[2] It did not vanish, though: folklorists later found it in oral tradition in the American South and even in Aberdeen, Scotland.[2] Modern performers of Civil War music have brought it back, including the vocal ensemble Anonymous 4 on their 2015 album 1865: Songs of Hope and Home from the American Civil War.[4]

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Sources

  1. Johns Hopkins University, Levy Sheet Music Collection: "Weeping, Sad and Lonely, or, 'When This Cruel War Is Over.' Song, with Chorus".
  2. The Traditional Ballad Index: "When This Cruel War is Over (Weeping Sad and Lonely)".
  3. Musicology for Everyone: "Answers to a Civil War tearjerker: Weeping sad and lonely".
  4. Musicology Now (American Musicological Society): "Sad, Lonely Weeping".
  5. Wikipedia: "When This Cruel War Is Over".