“The Yankees Are Coming”
Description
"The Yankees are coming! Away! Which way? Who saw them? Do tell us. And what did they?... Fifteen hundred, they say, and they are at Lamar." The people's fear is mentioned, as well as the unionists' entry into the town and their determination
Notes
The references in this song make the historical situation hard to determine. The only specific names are:
Lamar (place name; there is a Lamar, Mississippi, but also one in Missouri). Both were the sites of small skirmishes: The one in Missouri on August 24 and November 5, 1862, both very small; the one in Mississippi on November 12, 1862 and only slightly larger (it involved the equivalent of a single brigade).
Mitchell (presumably a Confederate soldier, but the Confederacy never had a general of that name; the Union had a General Ormsby M. Mitchel who fought in the west but died 1862)
Grant (Ulysses S. Grant, who commanded at Shiloh and in the Vicksburg campaign)
Jayhawkers (usually refers to soldiers in Kansas or Missouri)
Vicksburg (the key to Confederate control of the Mississippi)
Pemberton (John C. Pemberton, the commander of the Vickburg garrison).
My best guess is that this refers to Benjamin H. Grierson's Mississippi raid of April 17-May 2, 1863, in which some 1700 soldiers raced from Tennessee to New Orleans, cutting railroads and spreading confusion. This helped Grant get his forced in position for the final attack on Vicksburg. But other possibilities cannot be discounted, especially if (as seems possible, since the song seems to shift between Union and Confederate persepectives) two songs have mixed. - RBW
Same tune
- The Campbells Are Coming (File: FSWB281B)
Cross references
- cf. "The Campbells Are Coming" (tune)
References
- Hudson 124, pp. 264-265, "The Yankees Are Coming" (1 text)
- Roud #4503
- BI, Hud124