Uploaded June 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/0Gt38YT4AQDg4xRLFH5xuD?si=BNV8P5WQTlqoVoj8rlwA6A
Apple Music: music.apple.com/us/album/historical-songs-on-piano-the-american-civil-war/1810528848

Good day! This is a piano instrumental of “Tenting on the Old Camp Ground” (Also known as “Tenting Tonight”), which was a popular song during the American Civil War.

Discord: discord.com/invite/SGMHeZ7

The Civil War was the first American war to have a general military draft; there were drafts in both the Union and the Confederacy. American songwriter Walter Kittredge (1834-1905) was drafted into the Federal Army in 1863, but was rejected by the draft board due to illness. That night, he was inspired to compose “Tenting Tonight.” The song was an appeal for peace and quickly became popular among civilians and soldiers on both sides of the war, though it was a particular favorite of the enlisted men in the Union Army.

“Tenting Tonight” is Kittredge’s most famous song and has been adapted for use in other religious and political contexts. Interestingly, when Kittredge initially offered the song to a Boston publisher for fifteen dollars and was rejected. When the song was published some months later, ten thousand copies were sold within the first three months.

The painting shown in the video is “Rainy Day in Camp,” by American painter Winslow Homer (1836-1910). Homer was an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly Magazine, an American political magazine based in New York. Harper’s sent Homer to the Army of the Potomac, where Homer sketched battle scenes and camp life. He created “Rainy Day in Camp” six years after the war ended, based on studies he had made during the siege of Yorktown, Virginia.


Lyrics:
We're tenting tonight on the old campground,
Give us a song to cheer
Our weary hearts, a song of home
And friends we love so dear.

Chorus:
Many are the hearts that are weary tonight,
Wishing for the war to cease;
Many are the hearts looking for the right
To see the dawn of peace.
Tenting tonight, tenting tonight,
Tenting on the old campground.

We've been tenting tonight on the old camp-ground,
Thinking of days gone by,
Of the loved ones at home that gave us the hand,
And the tear that said, "Good-bye!”

Chorus

The lone wife kneels and prays with a sigh
That God his watch will keep
O'er the dear one away and the little dears nigh,
In the trundle bed fast asleep.

Chorus

We are tenting tonight on the old campground.
The fires are flickering low.
Still are the sleepers that lie around,
As the sentinels come and go.

Chorus

Alas for those comrades of days gone by
Whose forms are missed tonight.
Alas for the young and true who lie
Where the battle flag braved the fight.

Chorus

No more on march or field of strife
Shall they lie so tired and worn,
No rouse again to hope and life
When the sound of drums beat at morn.

Chorus

We are tired of war on the old camp ground,
Many are dead and gone,
Of the brave and true who've left their homes,
Others been wounded long.

Chorus

We've been fighting today on the old campground,
Many are lying near;
Some are dead, and some are dying,
Many are in tears.

Final Chorus:
Many are the hearts that are weary tonight,
Wishing for the war to cease;
Many are the hearts looking for the right,
To see the dawn of peace.
Dying tonight, dying tonight,
Dying on the old campground


The music in this video was made using Logic Pro.