Boots and Saddles (bugle call)


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"Boots and Saddles" is a bugle call sounded for mounted troops to mount and take their place in line.[1] In the British Army it is used as a parade call.[2] Its name drives from the French phrase boute-selle, "put on saddle".[3]

The call has been used by the United States Army during the American Civil War[4] as well as World War II.[5] While the call was originally meant to apply exclusively to cavalry,[6] it was used later as an inspiring call for other military units as well.[5]

The tune was recorded in 1919 for the Victor Talking Machine Company's "Bugle Calls of the U.S. Army: Part 1".[7]

In literature

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"Boots and Saddles" is blown several times in Mark Twain's 1907 novel A Horse's Tale.[8]

Elizabeth Bacon Custer's 1885 biography of her husband, General George Armstrong Custer, was titled Boots and Saddles: Or, Life in Dakota with General Custer.[9]

References

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  1. ^ Gilman, Daniel Coit; Colby, Frank Moore; Peck, Harry Thurston (1905). The New International Encyclopedia. Dodd, Mead. p. 310.
  2. ^ Byron Farwell, The Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-century Land Warfare: An Illustrated World View (W. W. Norton & Company, 2001), ISBN 978-0-393-04770-7, p. 118. Excerpt available at Google Books.
  3. ^ Wedgwood, Hensleigh (1855). "On False Etymologies". Transactions of the Philological Society (6): 70.
  4. ^ Nesbitt, Mark (2001). Saber & Scapegoat: J. E. B. Stuart and the Gettysburg Controversy. Stackpole Books. ISBN 9780811741361. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  5. ^ a b Tillman, Barrett (2012). Enterprise: America's Fightingest Ship and the Men Who Helped Win World War II. Simon & Schuster. p. 36. ISBN 9781439190890. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  6. ^ "What the Bugles Tell in the Army and Navy". San Francisco Chronicle. June 5, 1898. p. 1. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  7. ^ Catalogue of Victor Records. Victor Talking Machine Company. 1919. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  8. ^ Twain, Mark (1907). A Horse's Tale. Harper and Brothers. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  9. ^ Hutton, Paul Andrew (August 16, 2017). "Libbie Custer: 'A Wounded Thing Must Hide'". HistoryNet. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
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