10th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry Band : (left to right) Richard Stuemke, Rich Kriegsman, Ted Henry, Elizabeth Jones holding Flat Sousa, Ted Zelinski, Maureen Reagan, James McCauley, and Dawn Henry, June 28, 2014.
Flat Sousa joined the 10th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry Band in a special performance held at the Springfield, Illinois’ Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum on June 28, 2014. The members of the 10th Illinois Band have visited the Sousa Archives several times to play on the Center’s Civil War horns for American Music Month concerts that were sponsored by the Sousa Archives. When America’s Civil War began in 1861 John Philip Sousa was seven years old and could hear the cannon fire of the first major battle at Bull Run from his home in Washington, DC. The northern soldiers’ boastful march to the battle field that morning and their battle-shocked return to Washington that evening had a significant effect on the young Sousa that remained with him for the rest of his life. These childhood experiences and the time he later served as an apprentice musician with the U.S. Marine Band under his father’s tutelage, served John Philip Sousa well throughout his career as the Director of the U.S. Marine Band between 1880 and 1892, and the leader of Sousa civilian band between 1892 and 1932. To learn more about Sousa’s life and his personal experiences during World War I, visit the Sousa Archives’ new exhibition, World War I with America’s March King.