"Pharoah's Army"

48th Illinois Infantry

I wrote the lyrics to "Pharoah's Army" over the course of several weeks in 1996, beginning work shortly after I discovered the 48th Illinois' website maintained by Dr. David Stumpf. This tale is told through the eyes of William C. Farmer, a friend and tentmate of Corpl. Anderson (Andy) Avitts, who is David's great great grandfather. The Col. Haynie refered to in the song's opening line is Col. Isham N. Haynie, a distant relative of mine who recruited the 48th in autumn, 1861.  There are several influences on this song, including a childhood spent listening to Time-Life albums of period Civil War music, an ongoing fascination with history in general and the Civil War in particular and the music of one of our country's best singer/storytellers, Steve Earle.

The challenge was to write lyrics that accurately reflected the four hellish years in which the 48th fought, but do it in the first-person perspective of Farmer.  Here, after all, were young men, most of whom had never been more than 50 miles from home, suddenly thrust into a conflict that would see them move from the Midwest to the Deep South to South Carolina's Atlantic shore and then back to Arkansas before mustering out.

Fortunately, the song benefited from some tight editing by my brother, Carl Funk, who wrote the music and sings this version of "Pharoah's."  Carl is a singer/songwriter from Seattle who also grew up on a steady diet of Time-Life records and Disney movies such as Johnny Shiloh.  Carl is in the midst of recording his second independently produced CD, which will include "Pharoah's."  Playing the pennywhistle is David Kincaid, a childhood friend of Carl's.  On February 24, Kincaid released the critically acclaimed "Songs of the Irish Union Soldier 1861-1865," a compulation of music written by Irish-American songwriters during the Civil War.  Many of the songs on the CD were rediscovered in the stacks of the New York Public Library and Brown University after more than 130 years.

Finally, if you listen very closely to the final chorus of "Pharoah's," you might hear a woman's voice around the campfire.  It is the voice of my wife, Pam McGaffin.  While we haven't proved it yet, there must have been a McGaffin or two tramping with the boys of the Irish Brigade.

• The Irish Volunteer
• Union & Confederate Songs
• Songs of the South
• Poetry & Music of the War Between the States