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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 Michie.mp3
+|f_track=GroomsTune.mp3
-|f_pdf=Mr Michie.pdf
+|f_pdf=Bonaparte Retreat.pdf
-|f_artwork=angus_fitchet.jpg
+|f_artwork=GroomsPension.jpg
-|f_tune_name=Angus Fitchet
+|f_tune_name=Bonaparte's Retreat
-|f_track_title=Biography:Angus_Fitchet
+|f_track_title=Bonaparte's Retreat_(1)
-|f_section=
+|f_section=abc
-|f_played_by=[[https://soundcloud.com/alex-barrass Alex Barrass]]
+|f_played_by=[https://soundcloud.com/dollyparton Dolly Parton]
-|f_notes=Angus Fitchet, of Dundee (1910 - 1989)
+|f_notes=To this day, North Carolina mountain fiddlers will refer to Bonaparte's Retreat as "Grooms' Tune".
-|f_caption=Having overcome deafness and a severe bout of arthritis when he was no longer able to play his beloved fiddle, Angus found relief with a course of 'gold' injections.
+|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/alex-barrass/mr-michie-a-fitchetrookland-lasses-t-w-piggrosewood-j-scott-skinner 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=[[Biography:Angus_Fitchet | '''Angus Fitchet''']]
+|f_article=[[Bonaparte's Retreat_(1) | '''Bonaparte's Retreat''']]
-Angus Fitchet, of Dundee, was one of Scotland's foremost fiddlers and bandleaders. He was also a remarkably versatile musician whose experience ranged from village dances to network television shows accompanying high profile international guest artists. Check out The Music of Angus Fitchet vol 1 and Volume 2 in our book store and The Legendary Angus Fitchet CD
-Angus's father worked on a small dairy farm outside Dundee and Angus recalled being wakened in the morning to the sound of his father's fiddle. He was understood to be a fine player and had been taught by John Lamond of Monikie. It wasn't long before he uprooted the family and settled in Dundee where he hoped to make a better living. It was he who gave young Angus his first lessons when he was five years old and before he was very much older, Angus was playing at dances alongside his father. When he got tired, he lay down at the back of the hall and slept for a while before taking his place once more in the band, quite often playing until 2.00am! He went to various teachers but seems to have gained his considerable musical knowledge from watching and listening and from natural ability.
+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.
-In the days before 'talkies', the cinemas hired small orchestras to add musical drama to the films being shown. In the street where Angus lived, these musicians used to congregate on a Sunday afternoon for a "session". Angus was right in there, handing out music, running errands, listening, watching, discovering the joys of classical music, hearing for the first time of Haifitz and Kreisler, borrowing records and playing them slowly until he could play along with them. He would play scales and arpeggios for hours (something he continued to do even when he was quite an old man), and then, at the ripe old age of twelve, a visiting piano tuner heard him and asked if he could play one night at the local cinema as the violinist was absent.
+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.
-This was the beginning of Angus' professional musical career.
+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.'''
 }}