[Ads-l] "The Red River Valley" (song; antedating to 1879)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Bonnie, why should anybody have assumed that because a song is called "Red
River Valley" it has anything to do with a brief, limited ethnic rebellion
on the distant plains of Canada in 1869?

According to Wikipedia, the rebellion led to exactly *one* casualty.

OTOH, the Red River is prominent in Louisiana (there was even a Red River
campaign during the Civil War). My own theory (i.e., SWAG) is that
Speyerer was the author (of the lyrics, anyway), and that "Red River" was
an obvious concretization for Louisianans (and Texans) of the vague "happy"
valley.

Speaking of the Civil War, the earlier versions of the song "Hardtack [or
"Hard Crackers"] Come Again No More" were known in the Union Army at that
time.

E.g.:

Wisconsin Daily Patriot (Feb. 17, 1863):

"We know how to appreciate...good soft bread....You ought to have seen the
boys hop out, some of them singing, 'Hard tack! hard tack! come again no
more!'"

Urbana [O.] Union (March 1, 1865):

             "Hard Tack," Come No More

Let us look into our havre-sacks [sic], a moment let us pause,
While we all eat our "grub" outside the door;
Let us sing, brother soldiers, a song of tired jaws,
Oh! 'Hard Tack,' come again no more!

CHORUS.--'Tis the song of a weary, hungry soldier,
Hardtack [sic], hardtack, come again no more;
Many days we have chewed you, until our jaws are sore,
Oh! “Green-Backs,” come again once more.

Though we long for fresh provisions, and Paymasters every day,
We get hard-tack [sic], the weevil has run o'er;
And "salt horse" to tough for eating, and not one cent of pay,
Such hard times we never saw before.

There's a poor, tired soldier, who wears his life away,
And wishes his three years’ time were o’er;
Though his stomach may be empty, he is sighing all the day,
Oh! hard-tack come again no more.

‘Tis the prayer daily uttered by every soldier brave,
Now camped on the Chicamauga [sic] shore;
Come, pay us off and treat us better, and save us from the grave,
Such hard times were never seen before.

At the battle of Chicamauga, our boys were very brave,
And many will eat hard-tack no more;
They have left us now forever, to fill a soldier’s grave,
Such hard times were never seen before.


("Salt horse": the usual army and navy term for salt beef, a standard
ration.)

JL

On Fri, Apr 18, 2025 at 5:34 PM Bonnie Taylor-Blake <b.taylorblake at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I was thinking yesterday about the North American folk song "The Red
> River Valley." I had always assumed it was American, but I see that
> it's argued that it may well be Canadian and, further, that it may
> have originated around 1869's Riel or Red River Rebellion.
>
> Although this is summarized on the song's Wikipedia page
> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Valley_(song)), Edith
> Fowkes's "'The Red River Valley' Revisited" (1964;
> https://www.jstor.org/stable/1498900) might be helpful to some of you
> when considering the song's history in Canada and the States.
>
> I'm unfamiliar with more recent scholarship into the song's history,
> so this may simply be old news, but I believe the following is the
> so-far earliest extant version of the song. It appears as "Billy's
> Parting" and doesn't mention the Red River Valley at all.
>
> --------------------
>
> It's a long time, you know, I have waited,
> For those words that you never would say,
> But alas! all my fond hopes are vanished,
> For they tell me you're going away.
>
> CHORUS.
> Then sit down awhile ere you leave me,
> Do not hasten to bid me adieu,
> But remember the dear little valley,
> And the girl that has loved you so true.
>
> From this valley they tell me you're going,
> We will miss your blue eyes and bright smile,
> But alas! You take with you the sunshine
> That has brightened our pathway awhile.
>
> Remember the valley you're leaving,
> How lonely and drear [sic] it will be be,
> Remember the hearts you are breaking --
> Keep true to your promise to me!
>
> (New Orleans, November 22, 1879.)
>
> [Miss A.W. Speyerer, The Daily City Item (New Orleans), 25 November
> 1879, p. 3.
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-item-red-river-valley-11251/170546720/
> .
> I assume that Miss Speyerer was merely the contributor, not the
> author.]
>
> --------------------
>
> Compare this with the second earliest version that I've found
> (1885/1886), in "Halifax to the Saskatchewan: 'Our boys' in the Riel
> Rebellion: A musical and dramatique burlesque"
> (
> https://archive.org/details/P001432/page/31/mode/2up?q=%22remember+the+red+river+valley%22
> ).
>
> The existence of the above pamphlet suggests a clear connection
> between "The Red River Valley" and the Riel Rebellion, but I'll note
> that there were two Riel Rebellions, one in 1869-1870 and a second in
> 1885. As the Preface indicates, this pamphlet contains skits related
> to the second rebellion.
>
> Further, the song on the previous page ("Hard Tack Come Again No
> More") is a reworking of the well-known "Hard Times, Come Again No
> More," tailored specifically for this series of sketches. Is it
> possible, then, that this 1885/1886 appearance of "The Red River
> Valley" was also a reworking of an earlier form, one perhaps lacking
> mention of the Red River Valley, to fit into the context of the Riel
> Rebellion? Or is this the song that's been said to have emerged ca.
> 1870, shortly after the first rebellion was put down?
>
> The next version I've found (Wisconsin; 1887) seems to be a hybrid of
> the 1879 and 1885/1886 versions
> (
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-weekly-wisconsin-red-river-valley-9/170546463/
> ).
> Importantly, I think, this Wisconsin version and the 1879 New Orleans
> lyrics lack the last three stanzas of the Canadian 1885/1886 form,
> which includes "your home by the ocean," "the boy who came west," and
> "the western maid," phrases that seem to have been important to tying
> the song to the Riel Rebellion. (See Fowkes for more.)
>
> Fowkes had argued that the data she collected from Canadians
> remembering hearing "The Red River Valley" before 1896 suggested that
> the Red River of the song was the [Northern] Red River, which flows
> from North Dakota and Minnesota into southern Manitoba, and not the
> Red River [of the South], which flows along the Texas/Oklahoma border,
> into Arkansas, and finally into Louisiana.
>
> That may be true, but that a "Red River"-less song was known in New
> Orleans in 1879 makes me wonder whether, as is often the case, we're
> simply looking at an older song born well before either Riel
> Rebellion, one that was adapted to the different places and
> circumstances in which its singers lived. Perhaps it's just a tune
> about migration, love, and loss, themes common to Canadians and
> Americans at the time.
>
> If anyone can push this back beyond 1879, I'm all ears.
>
> -- Bonnie
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org