Tag Archives: Willard’s Hotel

A Musical Tribute to Beloved Commanding Officers: The 47th Pennsylvania’s Regimental Band “Serenades” Generals Grant and Sheridan (May 22, 1865)

Willard’s Hotel, Washington, D.C., circa 1860-1865 (public domain; click to enlarge).

On the eve of the headline-making Grand Review of the National Armies in the nation’s capital in late May 1865, members of the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers’ Regimental Band made their own small headlines in newspapers nationwide when they performed a selection of patriotic and popular musical numbers during an hour-long, impromptu concert for Union Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant and Major-General Philip H. Sheridan, who were engaged in a meeting at Willard’s Hotel. Also joining in the musical tribute were musicians from one of Maine’s volunteer infantry regiments.

Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant (public domain).

As the 47th Pennsylvanians performed, a crowd gathered nearby to listen. When the music ceased, calls of “Speech! Speech!” to Grant and Sheridan began to ripple through the crowd. Both men demurred, however, choosing instead to continue their “parting interview,” according to the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier — a decision which evidently did not disappoint the throng for long. Per The Philadelphia Inquirer, “The music was very fine, both bands rivaling each other in doing honor to the greatest General of the age” (General Grant).

Joseph Eugene Walter, Regimental Band, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, circa 1861.

Among the 47th Pennsylvanians who may very well have performed for Grant and Sheridan that evening were Private Joseph Eugene Walter and Principal Musician Daniel Dachrodt. (Walter, a private with Company E, had been a cornetist with Pomp’s Cornet Band in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania prior to the start of the American Civil War and had previously served with the 47th Pennsylvania’s highly-regarded first Regimental Band, which had been led by Thomas Coates, the “Father of Band Music in America.” Dachrodt, who had been promoted to the rank of Drum Major and had then been placed in charge of all of the regiment’s field drummers, would ultimately survive the war — and all of his comrades — to become the last living member of the regiment in 1939.)

Major-General Philip Sheridan, U.S. Army (c. 1864, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

Standing on the balcony of Willard’s Hotel again the next morning (May 23), Major-General Sheridan was treated to another rousing tribute as members of his cavalry “passed before him to pay a farewell salute … while the bands played ‘Hail to the Chief!'” Those same units would take part, later that morning and afternoon, in the Army of the Potomac’s march down Pennsylvania Avenue during the parade on day one of the Grand Review. That evening, Sheridan would depart for the train depot in Baltimore, Maryland, for transportation to his new assignment — spearheading regional Reconstruction efforts as the military governor of Louisiana and Texas.

Sources:

  1. “Discover Our History.” Washington, D.C.: Willard Intercontinental Hotel, retrieved online May 20, 1865.
  2. “General Philip H. Sheridan.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Park Service, retrieved online, May 20, 2025.
  3. “Grant” (television mini-series). New York, New York: History Channel Education, 2020.
  4. “Our Heroes! The Grand Review at Washington. Honor to the Brave. Immense Outpouring of the People. The Troops Reviewed by Gen. Grant.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Daily Telegraph, May 23, 1865.
  5. Regimental Band of the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers (report on the band’s performance for Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant in Washington, D.C.), in “Special Dispatch to the Boston Journal.” Bangor, Maine: Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, May 23, 1865.
  6. “Review of the Armies; Propitious Weather and a Splendid Spectacle. Nearly a Hundred Thousand Veterans in the Lines.” New York, New York: The New York Times, May 24, 1865, front page.
  7. “Serenade to General Grant” (performance for Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant by the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers’ Regimental Band), in “Washington.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Inquirer, May 22, 1865.
  8. “The Final March: Grand Review of the Armies.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Park Service, retrieved online May 20, 2025.
  9. “The Grand Review: The City Crowded with Visitors: Order of Corps, Divisions, Brigades and Regiments.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Daily Constitutional Union, May 23, 1865.