What Jeb Sang To Flora by Jim Surkamp with Terry Tucker

by Jim Surkamp on September 12, 2014 in CivilianConfederateJefferson CountyWartime

Made possible with the generous support of American Public University System, providing an affordable, quality, online education. The video and post do not reflect any modern-day policies or positions of American Public University System, and their content is intended to encourage discussion and better understanding of the past. More:

VIDEO: What Jeb Stuart Sang to Flora With Terry Tucker. Click Here. TRT: 11:13.
Flickr Set: Click Here. 30 photos.

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What JEB Sang To Flora by Jim Surkamp with Terry Tucker

William.Blackford


JEB Stuart, the famed Confederate Civil War cavalryman, sang well and often even in the saddle, well, especially in the saddle. William Blackford, his closest confidant, wrote: “The gayer he was the more likely it was we were to move soon”

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Terry Tucker sings verse 1:
When the swallows homeward fly,
When the roses scatter’d lie,
When from neither hill nor dale,
Chants the silv’ry nightingale,
In these words my bleeding heart,
Would to thee its grief impart.
When I thus thy image lose,
Can I, oh! can I e’er know repose?
Can I, oh! can I e’er know repose?

Flora.Cooke.Stuart
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And he sang for his beloved wife, Flora. Before the war he sang; she sang and played the piano or guitar.

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Flora Cooke was born on January 3rd, 1836, at Jefferson Barracks, outside St. Louis, Missouri. Her father was a native

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Virginian, her mother from Philadelphia. Flora not only played the piano and the guitar, she rode horseback and could shoot. She planned to visit her parents at Fort Riley in the Kansas Territory, where her father was commander. During the troop

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review at Fort Riley, however, her equestrian skills seduced young Lieutenant J.E.B.Stuart, fresh from West Point. They soon married in 1855. Their first child, Flora, was born in September, 1857. When the Civil War broke out and Stuart joined the

St_George_Cooke


Confederate army, Flora’s father, Philip St. George Cooke, remained with the Union, ultimately becoming a General. So they renamed their second child, a son born in 1860, to be “James E. B. Stuart Jr.”

December 12, 1861: Stuart asks Flora for the words to “When Swallows Homeward Fly.”

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“Send me the words of “When the Swallows (Homeward Fly)” & “The Dew is on the Blossom.” . . . those songs which so much remind me of you.”

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He would write to Flora the following year:

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Indeed I often ask myself in surprise why it is that any one girl can absorb my soul’s affection as you do. But I find a ready answer. In the fresh remembrance of that smile, that trusting look, that little finger’s potential crook, that put Polk to flight and conquered me. Ah my sweet one, I wish every conquest was so sweet to the vanquished. And how about the

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Vanquisher, you little, matter-of-fact importune queen that gloried in the conquest of Bvt 2nd Lieut of horse, and now in a lapse of a few years lord it over a Major General of Cavalry. How do you bear the transition? – from the Bower October 26, 1862.

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Stuart always the ringleader at festivities, set up a still-famous ball at the home of the Dandridges called the Bower, set for Wednesday October 7th 1862 aided by Sweeney and his musical stars. And Stuart gave himself the starring role, singing “When Swallows Homeward Fly”

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Terry Tucker sings verse 2:

When the white swan southward roves,
To seek at noon the orange groves,
When the red tints of the west,
Prove the sun is gone to rest,
In these words my bleeding heart,
Would to thee its grief impart.
When I thus thy image lose,

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Can I, oh! can I e’er know repose?
Can I, oh! can I e’er know repose?

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But the gaiety was near the precipice on the eve of a dangerous mission to take over 1,000 cavalry men unmolested around the full army of Federal General George McClellan still resting over the river in Maryland and Pennsylvania. William Blackford wrote of Stuart’s deep foreboding at the outset of the mission. He clearly sensed the nearness of tragedy. Their beloved five-year-old daughter, Flora, was deathly ill, and she would die of typhoid fever in 28 days. Stuart wrote Flora for a daguerreotype of their daughter a week before her passing. Love burns brighter at the feet of oblivion.

Terry Tucker – 2:
Can I, oh! can I e’er know repose?
Can I, oh! can I e’er know repose?

May 11, 1864 – Repose Comes

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Stuart was to have said during the war: “All I ask of fate is that I may be killed leading a cavalry charge” – a wish somewhat granted on May 11, 1864 at Yellow Tavern with a bullet fired by a retreating private in a Michigan unit.

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Flora and her two surviving children raced by private train and reached Ashland, Virginia finding there that the tracks had been torn up by the Union troops. A group of sympathetic Confederate cavalrymen gave them their ambulance which the group

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drove through a rainstorm. Near death, Stuart was by that time praying with Rev. Peterkin, who he then asked to sing with him the song, “Rock of Ages.”

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Flora arrived at the home of Stuart’s doctor and brother-in-law, Charles Brewer, at 11:30 PM but too late, about four hours after Stuart had died. As was the custom, Flora Stuart wore black thereafter in public. What remained to keep was a lock of JEB’s hair that she kept until dying when she was in her mid-eighties in 1923. The sacred lock became their son’s.

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Terry Tucker sings verse 3:
My poor heart, why do you cry,
Once also you in peace will lie!
All things on this earth must die;
Will then we meet, you and I?
My heart asks with boding pain
Will faith join us once again?
After today’s bitter parting pain.

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References:

When the swallows homeward fly (Franz Wilhelm Abt)
traditionalmusic.co.uk 1 February 2001 Web. 5 September 2014.

When Swallows Homeward Fly
1852, Franz Abt (1819–1885) [Stratton Military Band Journal]
Gen. J.E.B. Stuart was an excellent singer and was known to serenade the ladies in town with this beautiful song accompanied with his personal musicians, the Sweeney brothers. Franz Abt was a German songwriter and conductor whose style was so natural that people assumed he used authentic folk songs for his works. He composed over 600 works.
otbrass.com 18 August 2000 Web. 5 September 2014.

Peggy Vogtsberger. “This Fine Music.” (NOTE: This program first appeared in an article in Volume 10, No. 4 of The Cannoneer. Sources: Burke Davis, “The Swinging Sweeneys,” The Iron Worker, Autumn, 1969, contributed by Wes Rine. Bob Trout confirmed the dates and information). The linked music is believed to be, but not with certainty, the music played by Sweeney’s orchestra.-JS.
civilwarscholars.com 9 JUne 2011 Web. 5 September 2014.

“Send me the words of when the swallows & The Dew is on the blossom. Passing away & Napolitain those songs which so much remind of you.” – J.E.B. Stuart to Flora Cooke Stuart, December, 1861
from:
Caroline Moseley. “’Those Songs Which So Much Remind Me of You’: The Musical Taste of General J.E.B. Stuart.” American Music, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Winter, 1991), pp. 384-404.
jstor.org 6 September 2011 Web. 5 September 2014.

p. 392.

Blackford, William W. (1945). “War Years with Jeb Stuart.” New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Print.

Blackford, William W. (1945). “War Years with Jeb Stuart.” Google Books. 19 July 2008. Web. September 5, 2014.
pp. 89-90. – “The gayer he was the more likely it was we were to move soon.”
More:

“Letters of General J.E.B. Stuart to his Wife, 1862,” ed. Bingham Duncan, Emory University Publications, Series I, 1943: 28.

Letters of General J.E.B. Stuart to his Wife, 1862,” ed. Bingham Duncan. 6whitehorses.com 19 October 2012 Web. September 5, 2014.

“I regard it as a foregone conclusion,” said Stuart, “that we shall ultimately whip the Yankees. We are bound to believe that, anyhow; but the war is going to be a long and terrible one, first. We’ve only just begun it, and very few of us will see (Page 123) the end. All I ask of fate is that I may be killed leading a cavalry charge.” The remark was not a boastful or seemingly insincere one. It was made quietly, cheerfully, almost eagerly, and it impressed me at the time with the feeling that the man’s idea of happiness was what the French call glory, and that in his eyes there was no glory like that of dying in one of the tremendous onsets which he knew so well how to make. His wish was granted, as we know. He received his death-wound at the head of his troopers. – Eggleston, George Cary. (1875). “A Rebel’s Recollections.” New York, NY: Hurd & Houghton. Print.

Eggleston, George Cary. (1875). “A Rebel’s Recollections” Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina Library. 22 Aug. 2008 Web. 28 Dec. 2010. – p. 123.
More:

Von Borcke, Heros. (1867). “Memoirs of the Confederate war for independence.” Philadelphia. PA: J. B. Lippincott & Co. Print.

Von Borcke, Heros. (1867). “Memoirs of the Confederate war for independence.” Internet Archives archive.org 9 August 2002 Web. 20 April 2014.

Heros Von Borcke remembers Flora singing a ballad to Stuart in camp, Von Borcke Vol. 1. p. 48.
More:

Image Credits:

Title: [General Jeb Stuart] / Gurney & Son, photo, N.Y.
Creator(s): J. Gurney & Son, photographer
Date Created/Published: N.Y. : J. Gurney & Son, Photographic Artists, 707 Broadway ; [between 1861 and 1864].
loc.gov 16 June 1997 Web. September 5, 2014.

When the swallows homeward fly
dc.lib.unc.edu 11 August 2013 Web. September 5, 2014.

Silhouette of a swan in flight
milliande-printables.com 22 March 2009 Web. September 5, 2014.

General JEB Stuart: A Large Lock of His Sandy Brown Hair
The hair was removed from his head on the night of his death by his wife Flora and saved for their son JEB Stuart, Jr. Flora had rushed to be beside her husband, but arrived only to see him in death at the house of Dr. Charles Brewer. Word of her husband being wounded in battle reached her at Beaver Dam Station via messenger due to the telegraph wires being cut by Union General Sheridan’s troops. Flora and their two children raced by private train and reached Ashland, finding that the tracks had been torn up by the Union troops. A group of sympathetic and loyal wounded Confederate cavalrymen gave them their ambulance which the group drove through a growing rainstorm. Throughout the journey Flora would receive erroneous word that her husband was doing well, only slightly wounded, giving her hope she would reach him in time. Finding the bridge at the Chickahominy River destroyed, blocking them from easy access to Richmond, they forded the river a mile downstream delaying their arrival at the Brewer home until 11:30 P.M. Her husband had died almost four hours earlier, receiving Confederate President Jefferson Davis as one of his last guests. The lock is accompanied by her original hand written note, “Hair of your dear father cut off. May 1864.” A priceless memory of the greatest cavalry officer in American history.
thecivilwarparlor.tumblr.com 14 September 2012 Web. September 5, 2014.

Flora Cooke Stuart
11/11/2007
findagrave.com 5 December 1998 Web. September 5, 2014.

Capt James Ewell Brown Stuart, II
Added by: SheWalksTheseHills
findagrave.com 5 December 1998 Web. September 5, 2014.

Rock of Ages Louise Homer (contralto); Alma Gluck (soprano vocal) start at 1:07 1:51 very end (not used).
loc.gov 5 December 1998 Web. September 5, 2014.

Philip_St._George_Cooke
wikipedia.org 2 December 2003 Web. September 5, 2014.

Little Flora
Birth: Sep. 15, 1857
Kansas, USA
Death: Nov. 3, 1862
Added by: stars&bars
11/11/2007
findagrave.com 5 December 1998 Web. September 5, 2014.

Flora Stuart (daughter) tombstone
Added by: stars&bars
11/11/2007
findagrave.com 5 December 1998 Web. September 5, 2014.

Jefferson_Barracks_Military_Post
wikipedia.org 2 December 2003 Web. September 5, 2014.

The Corps of Cadets circa 1850 (not used)
wikipedia.org 2 December 2003 Web. September 5, 2014.

Vivandieres: Part 3
Fortune after Hippolyte Lalaisse, Paris, c.1855. Hand-coloured lithograph.
vam.ac.uk 20 November 1996 Web. September 5, 2014.

Strother, David H., “Personal Recollections of the Civil War.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. New York, NY: Harper and Bros. Volume 36, Issue: 213, February, 1868. Print. –
More:

Strother, David H. (February, 1868). “Personal Recollections of the Civil War.” Harpers Magazine. Cornell Digital Library – The Making of America. 19 July 2011. Web. 29 January 2014.

p. 273 – men dining (not used)

p. 288 – mourning – woman arriving, man pointing direction

p. 290 – hand writing letter by candlelight

Fort Sumter, South Carolina, APril, 1861
Currier & IUves Lithograph
nps.gov 20 April 1997 Web. September 5, 2014.

Elisabeth Nourse (American painter, 1860-1938) Mother and Baby
bjws.blogspot.com 10 June 2010 Web. September 5, 2014.

Rev. Joshua Peterkin
added by George Seitz
findagrave.com 5 December 1998 Web. September 5, 2014.

Flora Cooke Stuart
Added by: stars&bars
11/11/2007
findagrave.com 5 December 1998 Web. September 5, 2014.

Date: Sunday, May 13, 1923. Paper: Richmond Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA) Page: 1
genealogybank.com 11 October 2008 Web. September 5, 2014.

Flora Cooke Stuart (1836–1923)
Contributed by Catherine M. Wright
encyclopediavirginia.org 11 September 2010. Web. 4 September 2014.

Plate 98 White-bellied Swallow – John James Audubon
Artist: John James Audubon
Style: Naturalism
Series: Birds of America 1827-1838.
wikiart.org 11 August 2013. Web. 4 September 2014.

Nachtigall (Luscinia megarhynchos)-2CC BY-SA 3.0 (not used)
Nachtigall_(Luscinia_megarhynchos).jpg: J. Dietrich derivative work: Bogbumper (talk) – Nachtigall_(Luscinia_megarhynchos).jpg
Singing Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos), in Berlin, Germany
wikipedia.org 15 December 2005 Web. 4 September 2014.

Common nightingale (not used)
csupomona.edu 7 June 2004. Web. 4 September 2014.

Swallow-Birds
youtube.com 4 January 2012 Web. 4 September 2014.