Sheet Music for "Over There"

One of my favorite research projects by a history student at Eastern Washington University was an interview Ted Kisebach did in 1985 with Weldon and Walter Armfield, Spokane brothers who fought together in World War I. In an article based on his research, Kisebach wrote:

"Locating a surviving veteran of World War I is an increasingly difficult task today, nearly seven decades after the "doughboys" first set foot in France. A veteran of the American Expeditionary Force, in good health and sound memory, is a valuable historical asset. So it was exciting to find 93 year-old Weldon 'AImy' Armfield living at the V. A. Hospital in Spokane, Washington. When complimented on his remarkable recollection of the past, Weldon replied that his brother, also a veteran living in Spokane, had an even better memory. He added that Walter, 95, was his older brother!"

At the time I edited a periodical called The Pacific Northwest Forum at Eastern Washington University. Kisebach was enrolled in a class called "Historical Writing and Editing" in which students learned digital publishing by working together on various theme issues. In this case, our theme was "Pacific Northwesterners in World War I," and Ted contributed a wonderful article titled, "Weldon and Walter Armfield: Two Spokane Veterans and a Diary."  (Click title to see full text.)

Recently with the help of research assistants Lacey Sipos and Gave Rose I have been finding and digitizing photos and tape recordings I made years ago. One is a photograph of the Weldon and Walter:

Weldon and Walter Armfield, Spokane, 1985
Photo by Bill Youngs

I also found and digitized a recording I made when I joined Ted Kisebach one afternoon to interview the Armfields. The high point of the meeting came when Weldon and Walter, both accomplished singers, sang from memory songs that they had first learned during the war.

They told us that they had first heard the famous World War I song, "Over There," while attending a concert at the Hippidrome, a huge theater iin New York City, during their basic training in 1917. In this sound clip they sing "Over There." Notice that they also discuss whether to sing in unison or to harmonize, and they recall that  when they heard the song at the Hippodrome, a model troop ship was pulled onto the stage.

The Hippodrome in New York City:
Weldon and Walter first heard "Over There" performed on this stage in 1917.

Ted Kiseback's article continues with this passage describing the Armfield brothers' embarkation for France -- and a song they learned along the way from black soldiers on board the vessel.

Almost seven decades years later the brothers remembered the words and lyrics to  "I Don't Bother Work." Notice that they begin their rendition by discussing whether to sing in unison or with one singing tenor and the other the melody.

In France Armfield brothers were stationed near the front and endured many artillery barrages including one that sent a shell through the roof of their hut without drawing blood. Neither was injured in the fighting, but naturally they were glad to hear of the Armistice ending the war on November 11, 1918. Ted Kisebach writes: Weldon Armfield's diary "shows us the unglamorous part of war normally ignored by larger scale history: endless drilling and details, long train rides in box cars, and ubiquitous rumors that are spread around to pass the time. The sad part was counting up the fallen comrades who never made it back. But to be part of great events is surely memorable, and it was gratifying to watch the Armfield brothers' faces light up as they recalled their war experiences." 

You can read more about the Armfields by clicking here to go to Kisebach's article, "Two Pacific Northwesterners in World War I." But first listen as the brothers sing a famous World War I song of longing for the return home: "Keep the Home Fires Burning."

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Thanks to Lacey Sipos for research assistance on this article.

The American Revolution was only three weeks old when Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold led a small force of volunteers in an attack on one of the mightiest British fortresses in North America, Ticonderoga. Located on Lake Champlain the fort had played a strategic role in the previous French and Indian Wars. Although it was located far from Boston, the focal point of the war in Spring, 1775, the Patriots realized that Ticonderoga's cannon would be a valuable prize for the American forces.

At dawn the Patriots brushed past the solitary soldier guarding the gate, and awed the sleepy Ticonderoga garrison without firing a shot. In one of the benchmark episodes of the Revolutionary War, Ethan Allen, leader of Vermont's "Green Mountain Boys," confronted British Lieutenant Jocelyn Felthan, demanding the surrender of the fort. 

I've always loved this scene: there is Feltham, caught with his pants down -- literally, breaches in hand looking out at a crowd of American soldiers already inside his fort. An authoritarian British soldier, Feltham demanded better credentials than mere force. And the interesting thing is that Allen respected his demand. He could easily have said, "by the authority of cold steel and hot lead!" But like his British adversary, he embraced in a certain orderliness in politics. What to do?

Believing in  natural rights, he could not say, like Monty Python in The Holy Grail, "The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I, Ethan Allen, am empowered to demand your surrender." 

And so he offered up the "The Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress."  And he added the phrase, "The authority of the Congress being very little known at this time." In other words, he might have simply claimed the power of Congress, but it being new, he reached into his pocket for a trump card, God!

The cannon at Ticonderoga would soon be on their way to Boston, carted along by a force led by Henry Knox, the future American Secretary of War. They would add "authority" to the American claim to Independence during the years ahead. And also the name of "the Great Jehovah" would be invoked often during the Revolution.

Ethan Allen

Fort Ticonderoga

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