The Band Plays On
Rome’s 8th Regiment Band has been preserving musical history for 30 years.
Llong gone are the sounds of Union and Confederate soldiers marching into battle. Their footsteps and their conversations are lost to history.
The men who fought and died on famous battlefields like Gettysburg and Shiloh and Franklin and Vicksburg are only shadows now — their lives and deeds only glimpsed in books or in letters.
But there’s one connection to the past that is still alive, a very tangible link between the present and the past.
Rome’s 8th Regiment Band celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. For 30 years its musicians have done their best to preserve the music of the 19th century — specifically, music of the Civil War.
John Carruth has always been a lover of history, particularly our military history, and of music. He was conductor of the Rome Symphony when in 1986 he was asked if his musicians could play for an event commemorating the Civil War.
Someone in the orchestra had read that there was a book available that contained 12 original Civil War songs. But there was a problem. “Modern instruments are pitched differently than those used during that period,” Carruth said. “We couldn’t just up and play that music.”
A couple weeks later, a friend of Carruth’s bought the book and someone arranged the music so it could be played with modern instruments. Carruth was asked to play the music at an upcoming event and said it couldn’t work with stringed instruments but he’d bring his brass players.
That very first performance was the birth of what is now the 8th Regiment Band. Wearing period uniforms and using authentic period instruments, the band travels across county and the state and even across the Southeast and beyond performing the music that, for many, is an emotional trip into the past.
“At first we used to wear just the Confederate uniform,” said Carruth, who is now Band Master Emeritus, “but we soon realized that some events called for us to be a Union band. So we also perform as the 8th New York Infantry Band.”
The band has no political ties and sometimes perform as a Confederate band, a Union band and even as a civilian band. Authentic reproductions of uniforms come all the way from Pennsylvania and the band now has 30 original horns and an original bass drum that was made in 1840 in Massachusetts. Their snare, however, drums are reproductions.
“That bass drum that we now use was in someone’s living room being used as a coffee table,” Carruth said. “We want to make this music as authentic as possible for those who experience it.”
Rome’s 8th Regiment Band performs at battle reenactments, living history programs, formal historic programs and at colleges, high schools and church services — pretty much anywhere people want to hear this music.
“As the band has evolved, we’ve become more of a recreation of a regimental brass band from that period,” said Jim Belzer, the band’s business manager and narrator. “When we perform, I usually introduce the songs and tell people a little of the history of each tune so they get a little bit of a history lesson while experiencing the music.” And the music is as authentic as it gets. The tunes the band plays are those that regimental bands would have played during the war. This is the music the soldiers would have drilled to and marched to and it’s also the music people would have heard out in public.
The band has a long list of invites to various Civil Warrelated events including two national Civil War festivals. In 2013 they were invited to Canada to perform and have an invitation to the United Kingdom as well.
“One of the things that set us apart is the emotion that we put into this music,” Carruth said. “We normally play with 16 members because that’s the number that would have originally played in the band at that time. And we’re all volunteers.”
Though the average age of the band is about 60, there’s no danger of the music dying out. Carruth said his best student, Casey Thomas, is taking his place as Chief Musician of the band.
“We’ve got all the equipment, the music, the uniforms and the interest,” he said. “When we perform people inquire about joining the band and so that interest is there. People want to continue this tradition.”
Belzer remembers one performance in particular at Gettysburg. The sun was setting ajd the band was on the steps of the Pennsylvania Monument. As musicians played their final tune, the sun set over the battlefield and the mist began to rise.
“And you could almost see the soldiers marching to that great battle,” Belzer said. “It was such an emotional performance for everyone who experienced it.”
And that’s why the musicians of Rome’s 8th Regiment Band put on their uniforms and travel to various places and events playing this music. They know that they are the last tangible link to an important part of our past.
No more will we hear the roar of Civil War cannons or the footsteps of Confederate and Union soldiers marching to battle. But we can still hear the music because the band plays on.
The 8th Regiment Band will perform a 30th Anniversary concert today at Second Avenue Baptist Church, 823, E. Second Ave., starting at 3 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students. Children under 6 enter free.
For upcoming performances as well as information in booking the band, search “8th Regiment Band” on Facebook. To see a video of the band performing, search “8th Regiment Band 2013” on Youtube.