Walter Kittredge

Who was Walter Kittredge?

Walter Kittredge, was a famous musician during the American Civil War.

Born in Merrimack, New Hampshire, the tenth of eleven children, Kittredge was a talented self-taught musician who played the seraphine, the melodeon, and the violin. Kittredge toured solo and with the Hutchinson Family, a musical troupe. Over his career he wrote over 500 songs, many of them dealing with themes of the American Civil War. His most famous song, Tenting on the Old Camp Ground, was sung by both sides of the war and is known throughout the world.

Kittredge was also a noted supporter of abolitionism and the Temperance movement.

He married Annie E. Fairfield in 1861, and was drafted into the American Civil War in 1862 In 1905, he died in his birthplace.

Other songs written by him include:

No Night

Golden Streets

Scatter the Flowers Over the Blue and Gray

Sing the Old War Songs Again