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Latest revision as of 19:03, 12 January 2025

According to Blue Ridge Mountain local history the tune was known in the Civil War era. Geoffrey Cantrell, writing in the Asheville Citizen-Times of Feb., 23, 2000 relates the story of the execution of three men by the Confederate Home Guard on April 10th, 1865, the day after Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.

That news would not have been known to them, given the difficulty with communications at that time. It is documented that Henry Grooms, his brother George and his brother-in-law Mitchell Caldwell, all of north Haywood County, North Carolina, were taken prisoner by the Guard under the command of one Captain Albert Teague-no one knows why, but the area had been ravaged by scalawags and bushwackers, and the populace had suffered numerous raids of family farms by Union troops hunting provisions.

One theory is that the men were accused of being Confederate deserters who, perhaps knowing the war was nearly over, had aided the Union cause in some way. There was much back-and-forth guerilla warfare, however, and the village of Waynesville had been burned two months earlier (by Unionists), and the citizenry was beleaguered and anxious. Caldwell and the Grooms brothers were captured in the Big Creek section of Haywood County, close to the Tennessee border.

Cantrell writes: "The group traveled toward Cataloochee Valley and Henry Grooms, clutching his fiddle and bow, was asked by his captors to play a tune. Realizing he was performing for his own firing squad Grooms struck up Bonaparte's Retreat," his favorite tune.

When he finished the three men were lined up against an oak tree and shot, the bodies left where they fell. Henry's wife gathered the bodies and buried them in a single grave in the family plot at Sutton Cemetery No. 1 in the Mount Sterling community, the plain headstone reading only "Murdered."

The original source for the story is George A. Miller, in his book Cemeteries and Family Graveyards in Haywood County, N.C.

...more at: Bonaparte's Retreat - full Score(s) and Annotations

X:1 T:Bonaparte's Retreat [1] M:C L:1/8 Q:"Andante" N:DDAd tuning N:Drone strings throughout. B:Ford - Traditional Music in America (1940) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D % V:1 clef=treble name="0." [V:1] [G,2D2] [G,D]F [D2A2]F2|(ED) (EF) (GF) (EF)|[G,2D2][G,D]F [D2A2]F2|(ED) (EF) [G,3D3]:| "accelerando"(3A/B/c/|d2 d>f d2 (3A/B/c/|(dB) (AG) (FD) (3A/B/c/|d2 d>f d[D2A2]|(FD) (EF) (GF) (EF)| [G,D][G,D]F [D2A2]F2|(ED) (EF) (GF) (EF)|[G,2D2][G,D]F [D2A2]F2|(ED) (EF) [G,3D3]z2|| (3A/B/c/|[G,2D2]d>"poco"f d2 (3A/B/c/|[G,D]>B (AG) (FD) "poco"(3A/B/c/|[G,2D2]|d>f d2A2|(F>D) (EF) (GF) (EF)| [G,2D2][GD]F [D2A2]F2|"Piu moto"(ED) (EF) (GF) (EF)|[G,2D2] {G,D]F [D2A2]F2|(ED) (EF) [G,4D4]|"Coda"[A8e8]|| M:2/4 L:1/8 "Allegro"(g/e/g/e/ bg|g/e/f/g/ a/g/f)|(g/e/g/e/ bg|1 f/e/f/g/ [A2e2]):| |2f/e/f/g/ [Ae](3A/B/c/||"Allegretto"d2 d>f d2 (3A/B/c/|(dB) (AG) (FD) (3A/B/c/|d2 d>f d2A2|(FD) (EF) (GF) (EF)|

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{SheetMusic
-|f_track=Mr Isaacs Maggot.mp3
+|f_track=GroomsTune.mp3
-|f_pdf=Mr Isaac.pdf
+|f_pdf=Bonaparte Retreat.pdf
-|f_artwork=Mr-isaac.jpg
+|f_artwork=GroomsPension.jpg
-|f_tune_name=Mr. Isaac’s Maggot
+|f_tune_name=Bonaparte's Retreat
-|f_track_title=Mr._Isaac’s_Maggot
+|f_track_title=Bonaparte's Retreat_(1)
 |f_section=abc
-|f_played_by=[https://soundcloud.com/auburn_witch Auburn Witch]
+|f_played_by=[https://soundcloud.com/dollyparton Dolly Parton]
-|f_notes= Mr. Isaac, painted by Louis Goupy. The original portrait is lost, but this engraving of it by George White was published in the early 18th century.
+|f_notes=To this day, North Carolina mountain fiddlers will refer to Bonaparte's Retreat as "Grooms' Tune".
-|f_caption=Dance researcher Moira Goff has discovered that "Mr. Isaac" was in fact a Royal dancing master named Francis Thorpe, offering as proof the will of his uncle, Jerome Gahory, who previously occupied the post of Royal dancing master.
+|f_caption=The last card in his file is from 1893. His widow was probably years obtaining a widow's pension. She had to have "deserted" cleared from his record. A notation on that last card says :{{break|2}}
-|f_source=[https://soundcloud.com/auburn_witch/mr-isaacs-maggot Soundcloud]
+"''The charge of desertion against this man has been removed. It has been determined from evidence presented, that he was killed by the enemy, April 22, 1864, while absent on recruiting service in Haywood County, NC''".
+|f_source=[https://soundcloud.com/dollyparton/grooms-tune-bonapartes-retreat Soundcloud]
 |f_pix=420
 |f_picpix=200
-|f_article=[[Mr._Isaac’s_Maggot | '''Mr. Isaac’s Maggot''']]
+|f_article=[[Bonaparte's Retreat_(1) | '''Bonaparte's Retreat''']]
-Sixteenth and seventeenth century country dance tunes sometimes had the word "maggot" in their titles, perhaps derived from Italian ''Maggiolatta'' or Italian May song, but used in England to mean a whim, fancy, plaything, 'trifle'--essentially an 'earworm'<ref>Emmerson (1972) states that maggot derives from the Italian ''maggioletta'', which he translates as a 'plaything', but what his source is for this translation is unknown.</ref>.
-A ''maggot'' was also another name for a dram, a small unit of liquid measure. This anonymous melody dates to 1695, when it first appeared in Playford's '''Dancing Master''', 9th edition. The dance and tune were retained in the long running series through the 18th and last volume, then published by John Young, heir to the Playford publishing concern. It also was included by the Walsh's (father and son) in their '''Compleat Country Dancing Master''', editions of 1718, 1735 and 1754. For more on Isaac see Jennifer Thorp's article "Mr. Isaac, Dancing-Master" in '''Dance Research''' - Volume 24, Number 2, Winter 2006, pp. 117-137, where, for example, she gives:
+According to Blue Ridge Mountain local history the tune was known in the Civil War era. Geoffrey Cantrell, writing in the '''Asheville Citizen-Times''' of Feb., 23, 2000 relates the story of the execution of three men by the Confederate Home Guard on April 10th, 1865, the day after Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.
-<blockquote>
-''The earliest references to him as a performer in London connect him with the Stuart Court, for in April 1673 a'' ''dancer named Isaac was one of several dancers (along with Mr. Priest) who performed as Venetians, a Spaniard, a'' ''Conjuror, Devils, and Shepherds, in a masquerade for King Charles II's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth.''
+That news would not have been known to them, given the difficulty with communications at that time. It is documented that Henry Grooms, his brother George and his brother-in-law Mitchell Caldwell, all of north Haywood County, North Carolina, were taken prisoner by the Guard under the command of one Captain Albert Teague-no one knows why, but the area had been ravaged by scalawags and bushwackers, and the populace had suffered numerous raids of family farms by Union troops hunting provisions.
-</blockquote>
-A version of "Mr. Isaac's Maggot" has been found included the '''Suite in C Major'''<ref>A recording of Plaisible's suite has been issued as Arcana Recordings A527, "The Queen's Favourites: Music for Oboe Band at the Court of Anne Stuart", performed by La Petite Ecurie. We are indebted to David Schonfeld for information on this connection. </ref> by English court composer and recorder player James Paisible (1656-1721) as an "Ornepaipe"
+One theory is that the men were accused of being Confederate deserters who, perhaps knowing the war was nearly over, had aided the Union cause in some way. There was much back-and-forth guerilla warfare, however, and the village of Waynesville had been burned two months earlier (by Unionists), and the citizenry was beleaguered and anxious. Caldwell and the Grooms brothers were captured in the Big Creek section of Haywood County, close to the Tennessee border.
+Cantrell writes: "The group traveled toward Cataloochee Valley and Henry Grooms, clutching his fiddle and bow, was asked by his captors to play a tune. Realizing he was performing for his own firing squad Grooms struck up Bonaparte's Retreat," his favorite tune.
+When he finished the three men were lined up against an oak tree and shot, the bodies left where they fell. Henry's wife gathered the bodies and buried them in a single grave in the family plot at Sutton Cemetery No. 1 in the Mount Sterling community, the plain headstone reading only "Murdered."
+The original source for the story is George A. Miller, in his book '''Cemeteries and Family Graveyards in Haywood County, N.C.'''
 }}