82

The Yankee President, a satirical songsheet composed in Texas.

[Houston, TX?], circa January 1863
Letterpress broadside, 10¼ x 6¾ inches; laid down on a larger leaf from a steamboat receipt book, toning, folds.  

  • Notes: This song satirizes President Lincoln in unflattering terms, starting with his covert arrival in Washington to foil an assassination plot: "This Vandal left off splitting rails, and bade his friends good-bye . . . And clad himself with cloak and cap, and sneaked in like a spy." The penultimate verse celebrates Confederate General John Magruder's recent 1 January 1863 victory at the Battle of Galveston. Mocking the recent Emancipation Proclamation, it declares that the Confederate generals "are now ready for another proclamation / From that old humbug in the North, whose name is Abraham." An introductory note explains that "The following song was prepared and sung by 'High Private' at the Grand Concert, given on the 13th of January, 1863 at Perkins' Hall, under the direction of Mr. and Mrs. Buttler, for the benefit of Terry's Rangers." Perkins Hall was a concert venue in Houston; Houston author R.R. (Rensselaer Reed) Gilbert wrote under the name "High Private." The 8th Texas Cavalry, better known as Terry's Texas Rangers, were recruited in Houston in 1861, and became a renowned fighting force in the western theater of the war. One in OCLC (Yale) and none traced at auction.
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