Day's of '49, researched.

[Old Cremona]

My apologies if this have been covered already. I've searched but couldn't find a thread.

There are plenty of "folk" style verisions of "The Day's of '49" around, and the lyrics are in "Old Put's Golden Songster" but to make sure we have the melody and the harmony just right we need some piano or guitar sheet music from the day. Anybody have a good source of this tune as originally done?

[AZReenactor]

All the sources I've seen suggest that this song is in fact post Civil War.

I've seen it credited to later editions of "Old Put's Golden Songster" a publication that I've not found any other reference to. "Puts Golden Songster, published in 1858, does not contain the lyrics. It is possible that the person who started this rumor was confused with a song titled "The Fools of '49" that was published in Put's Original California Songster.

The earliest publication date I've seen for "The Days of Forty-Nine" is 1874 in The Great Emerson's New Popular Songster. It's a great song and well known since Dylan polularized it, but I just haven't been able to find any good reson to assume it is appropriate to the Civil War era.

[Old Cremona]

Thanks, Troy, I appreciate that. I never thought to date the songster; I assumed. And we all know what happens when you ass-u-me.