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

[James Landau]

On  Sun, 20 Apr 2025 10:16:36 Zone-0400  Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
<quote>
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?

<snip, or considering the following, maybe parsnip>
("Salt horse": the usual army and navy term for salt beef, a standardration.)

<end quote>
The 1869 Riel Rebellion or Red River Rebellion may have been "limited" but it has considerable importance in Canadian history.  Among other things, it helped create the Canadian Pacific Railroad.
It is my understanding that Union soldiers were more likely to eat salt pork than salt beef, whereas Confederate soldiers more likely had salt beef.  I would guess that both sides referred to any salt meat as "salt horse".
Also a battlefield tour guide once told me that salt beef was known as "blue beef" because after being stored for a while it turned blue.

James Landau
jjjrlandau at netscape.com

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