War Song. Battle of Lavergne. N.p., [1863?]. Two 5 7/8 x 12 ¾ in. printed songsheets.

With Engraved calling card of S.C. Armstrong. Ink inscription has added an apocryphal title "Gen." before Armstrong's name. Pencil inscription to verso.

Subtitled: "Fought January 1st, 1863, between the Michigan, Engineers and Mechanics, under Col. Innes, and a Brigade of Cavalry and two pieces of Artillery, under the rebel Gen. Wheeler." Fought at La Vergne, Tennessee, partway between Nashville and Murfreesboro, the battle was fought to occupy the railroad depot in order to control the line into Murfreesboro. The 16 four-line stanzas recount the heroic battle of the outnumbered Union troops defeating the Confederate cavalry. In the regimental history "My Brave Mechanics": The First Michigan Engineers and Their Civil War by Mark Hoffman, it is noted that the songsheet was "in circulation within the regiment in printed form by the fall of 1864" although its authorship was unknown.

Samuel C. Armstrong (1842-1933) of Oakland County, Michigan enlisted on 23 September 1861 as a private and was mustered into Company E of the 1st Michigan Engineers. He was promoted to hospital steward and transferred on 22 September 1864. After the war, he was a member of GAR Post #1 (John A. Logan Soldiers Home) in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Condition: Songsheets brittle with short tears at margins. Soiling to calling card with abrasion.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Broadsides, Ephemera, Songsheets, Handbills, Prints, Manuscripts, Documents, Letters].