Music of the Maryland US Colored Troops
As the war ground on, Union spirits received a much-needed influx of musical energy as the first African Americans enrolled in service. All six Maryland regiments of the US Colored Troops, mustered in late 1863, had field musicians, and one regiment had its own band. This band had begun in Hagerstown in 1854, as the Moxley Band. The former slave Robert Moxley, two of his brothers, and nine other civilian players proved quite competent as the First Regimental Band and quickly earned promotion to brigade band. Moxley’s talented group served as a Union army showpiece in Maryland, Virginia, and then Texas after the war, building an impressive service record along the way. Upon honorable discharge and return to Hagerstown, Maryland’s earliest African military band briefly returned to performing in public. [22]
22. Stephen R. Brockmiller, Hagerstown in the Civil War (City of Hagerstown, 2011), 59. Details on Joseph, Perry, and Robert Moxley and their military service are in Keller, Roster of Civil War Soldiers, 169.
Hildebrand, David and Schaaf, Elizabeth M. Musical Maryland : A History of Song and Performance from the Colonial Period to the Age of Radio. 2017. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. P. 84 – 85. (Citation, 22: P. 194)
Editor’s Note:
The emboldened last sentence of the entry for the Moxley Band in Musical Maryland is an egregious falsehood. Perpetuated by an incomplete survey of available public and private sources and archives, the truth of the matter is the original Moxley Band performed across a four-state area until the eve of the 20th century. A preliminary consultation of available databases reveals the Moxley Band performed upwards of 100 times for more than a half-century, including their distinguished service with the United States Colored Troops.
Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C.: The Lion of Anacostia 