1 In an effort to distinguish them from the modern Republican Party, Jefferson and his allies are today often referred to as Democratic-Republicans. For simplicity's sake, this study will generally refer to them as Republicans. The name of the president's home did not take on any public or official standard until the mid-nineteenth century and it was known variously as the President's Palace, the President's House and, after about 1811, the White House.

2 Letter from Smith, Samuel Harrison to Mary Ann Smith, 5 July 1801, in The First Forty Years of Washington Society, ed. Hunt, Gaillard (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1906), 30Google Scholar.

3 Jefferson's musical interests are discussed in Cripe, Helen, Thomas Jefferson and Music (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009)Google Scholar. The best source on Burrows is Ryan, Brendan P., ‘William Ward Burrows’, in Commandants of the Marine Corps, ed. Millett, Allan R. and Shulimson, Jack (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2004), 27–35Google Scholar.

4 Sources of this type include Kenneth Carpenter, ‘A History of the United States Marine Band’ (PhD dissertation, University of Iowa, 1970); Paul LeClair, ‘The Francis Scala Collection: Music in Washington, DC at the Time of the Civil War’ (PhD dissertation, Catholic University of America, 1973); John J. Mula, ‘Use of the Strong Interest Inventory to Determine Similarities of Interest Among Musicians in “The President's Own” United States Marine Band’ (DM dissertation, Florida State University, 2001); James Stokes, ‘The Musical Life and Career of James B. Underwood’ (DMA dissertation, Ohio State University, 2008); Jeffrey Malecki, ‘Colonel John R. Bourgeois: A Biography and Analysis of Transcription Style’ (DMA dissertation, University of Nevada, 2011); and Mark Jenkins, ‘“Musicians of Unusual Merit”: A Biographical History of the Euphoniumists of “The President's Own” United States Marine Band’ (DMA dissertation, George Mason University, 2017).

5 McClellan's comprehensive ‘History of the United States Marine Corps’, the typescript and notes for his history of the band and Thacker's unpublished history can all be found at the Marine Corps History Division, Quantico, Virginia (hereafter MCHD).

6 See Kirk, Elise K., Music at the White House: A History of the American Spirit (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986)Google Scholar; McCullough, David, John Adams (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002)Google Scholar; and Ressler, D. Michael, Historical Perspective on The President's Own U. S. Marine Band (Washington, DC: Headquarters, US Marine Corps, 1998)Google Scholar.

7 Record Group 127, Records of the United States Marine Corps, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC (hereafter RG 127, NARA). The letters in entries 41 and 42 appear to be those used by McClellan. Also important are the main collections of letters sent and received (entries 4 and 8), the summaries of orders issued (entry 19) and the service records of enlisted men (entry 76).

8 Adams, Henry, History of the United States of America during the First Administration of Thomas Jefferson (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1909), volume 1, 31Google Scholar.

9 John C. Haskins, ‘Music in the District of Columbia, 1800–1814’ (MA thesis, Catholic University of America, 1952).

10 Each of the United States services has a premier band, and most also have major command bands at various bases, as well as smaller post or fleet bands. In each case, the word ‘band’ is used to identify the unit itself, which may include an orchestra as well as jazz, vocal and chamber ensembles. The modern Marine Band is therefore just one of several musical ensembles in the Marine Corps, and it currently consists of a band and a chamber orchestra whose players and singers can be combined to handle a wide range of musical styles.

11 Privy Council Register, C. II, volume 4, fol. 264; quoted in Field, Cyril, Britain's Sea-Soldiers (Liverpool: The Lyceum Press, 1924), 15Google Scholar.

12 The best history of British military bands can be found in Herbert, Trevor and Barlow, Helen, Music and the British Military in the Long Nineteenth Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Despite its title, this study is limited to music in the British army. For details on the bands of the Royal Marines see Ambler, John, The Royal Marines Band Service (Portsmouth: Royal Marines Historical Society, 2003)Google Scholar.

13 Quoted in Field, Britain's Sea-Soldiers, 15. Quotations from early printed and manuscript sources are here silently adapted to modern conventions regarding spelling, capitalization and punctuation.

14 Herbert and Barlow, Music and the British Military, 16–37. Useful sources on signalling instruments include Derbidge, G., ‘A History of the Drums and Fifes, 1650–1700’, Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 44 (1966), 50–55Google Scholar; Clark, James, Connecticut's Fife and Drum Tradition (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2011)Google Scholar; Norris, John, Marching to the Drums: A History of Military Drums and Drummers (Stroud: Spellmount, 2012)Google Scholar; and Hall, Mike, With Trumpet, Drum and Fife (Solihull: Helion, 2013)Google Scholar.

15 Cuthbertson, Bennett, Cuthbertson's System for the Complete Interior Management and Oeconomy of a Battalion of Infantry (Dublin: Boultier Grierson, 1768), 12–13Google Scholar.

16 Earlier marine forces did exist in what would later become the United States. The first of these, Gooch's Regiment, was formed in the early 1740s to provide marines for the Royal Navy's expedition against Spanish holdings in the Caribbean. As these men were commanded by British officers, they are not typically treated in histories of the Marine Corps. The regiment did include drummers, but virtually nothing is known of their music. For an overview see Offen, Lee G., America's First Marines: Gooch's American Regiment, 1740–1742 (Jacksonville: Fortis Publishing, 2010)Google Scholar. For a transcription of rolls belonging to the regiment, which include the names of drummers, see Clark, Murtie June, Colonial Soldiers of the South, 1732–1774 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1983), 125–258Google Scholar.

17 An American Guesser [Benjamin Franklin], ‘The Rattlesnake as a Symbol of America’, Pennsylvania Journal (27 December 1775). Selected rolls from the Continental Marines are transcribed in Smith, Charles R., Marines in the Revolution: A History of the Continental Marines in the American Revolution, 1775–1783 (Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1975), 387–428Google Scholar. In a handful of cases, pension applications filed after the war provide details about the service of individual musicians. See Record Group 15, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, U. S. Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA.

18 ‘Account of Small Arms, etc., Belonging to the Marine Department Left on Board the Continental Frigate Alliance’, 20 June 1783, John S. Barnes Collection, New York Historical Society; quoted in Smith, Marines in the Revolution, 290–291.

19 ‘An Act for the Establishing and Organizing a Marine Corps’ (11 July 1798); reproduced in The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, ed. Peters, Richard (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1845), volume 1, 594–596Google Scholar. Congress's intent was unclear, as they could have meant either thirty-two of each instrument or thirty-two musicians total. This uncertainty continued for several years, and as drums and fifes were tools of war, their numbers were raised and lowered with the political climate.

20 Letters from William Ward Burrows to Henry Caldwell, 6 September 1798; Burrows to Reuben Lilly, 19 September 1798; and Burrows to Jonathan Church, 24 September 1798, RG 127/4; letter from John Johnson to Burrows, 14 July 1800, RG 127/8. All in NARA.

21 Letter from Burrows to Benjamin Stoddart, 10 October 1798, RG 127/4, NARA.

22 Letter from Burrows to Benjamin Stoddart, 10 October 1798, RG 127/4, NARA.

23 Letters from Burrows to David Stickney, 1 November and 12 December 1798, RG 127/4, NARA.

24 Letters from Burrows to John Hall, 8 September 1798; Burrows to Newton Keene, 21 May 1799; Burrows to James Weaver, 29 September 1798. All in RG 127/4, NARA.

25 Letters from Burrows to Lemuel Clark, 16 January 1799; Burrows to Edward Hall, 17 June 1800. Both in RG 127/4, NARA.

26 Burrows, 23 April 1799, RG 127/19, NARA. Identifying the names and ranks of individual band members can sometimes be done through RG 127, Microfilm Publication T1118, Muster Rolls of the U. S. Marine Corps, 1798–1892, NARA. The meaning of military ranks has changed over time, but these early drum and fife majors were considered non-commissioned staff, more or less equivalent to the sergeant ranks. Today, virtually all members of the Marine Band fall into these grades, with the conductors holding officer ranks.

27 In 1812 the ensemble's second drum major, Charles Ashworth, published an instruction manual entitled A New Useful and Complete System of Drum Beating. On the title-page, he identifies himself as ‘Leader of the Marine band of music, Washington City’, suggesting that both the band and its leader had become informally established by that time.

28 For more on American military apprentice programmes see Bishop, Eleanor C., Ponies, Patriots and Powder Monkeys: A History of Children in America's Armed Forces, 1776–1916 (Del Mar, CA: The Bishop Press, 1982)Google Scholar.

29 Letter from Burrows to Weaver, 21 April 1799, RG 127/4, NARA.

30 Burrows, 27 November 1799, RG 127/19, NARA; Philadelphia Gazette (29 November 1799), 3.

31 Burrows, 20 February 1800, RG 127/19, NARA. For details on the public mourning of Washington see Kahler, Gerald E., The Long Farewell (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008), 31–35, 113Google Scholar.

32 Gazette of the United States (Philadelphia) (5 July 1800), 4.

33 Fifth US Congress, second session, House of Representatives, 28 May 1798, Annals of the Congress of the United States (Washington, DC: Gales and Seaton, 1851), 1836.

34 Letter from Burrows to Strother, 5 July 1800, RG 127/4, NARA. On Stoddard see Joel D. Thacker, ‘Highlights of U. S. Marine Corps Activities in the District of Columbia’, Records of the Columbia Historical Society 51/52 (1951–1952), 78.

35 Ford, Worthington C. and Mrs. Thornton, William, ‘Diary of Mrs. William Thornton, 1800–1863’, Records of the Columbia Historical Society 10 (1907), 181Google Scholar.

36 Letter from Burrows to an unknown friend, 2 October 1800, William Ward Burrows Papers, MCHD. Wilkinson is most likely James Wilkinson, the Army's ranking officer whose treasonous activities on behalf of Spain have now been well documented.

37 Letter from Burrows to Williams, 28 August 1800, quoted in Ryan, ‘William Ward Burrows’, 34; letter from Burrows to Hall, 31 August 1800, RG 127/4, NARA.

38 On the instruments’ arrival see the letter from Burrows to Johnson, 6 November 1800, RG 127/4, NARA. Several letters indicate an ongoing search for instruments. In May of 1801 the commandant asked for a fiddle bow and ‘an octave flute with a silver key’ that was ‘played with a mouth like a clarinet’, likely a recorder or transposing flute. See the letter from Burrows to Franklin Wharton, 25 May 1801, RG 127/4, NARA. In January of 1803 the commandant was informed that two dozen clarinet reeds would be sent to Washington. See the letter from Thomas Jenkins to Burrows, 18 January 1803, RG 127/8, NARA.

39 National Intelligencer (6 July 1801), 2.

40 Gray, Myron, ‘A Partisan National Song: The Politics of “Hail Columbia” Reconsidered’, Music and Politics 11/2 (2017)Google Scholar.

41 National Intelligencer (6 July 1801), 2. On the vocalist see Brown, Gordon S., The Captain Who Burned His Ships (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2011)Google Scholar.

42 National Intelligencer (7 July 1802), 3 and (6 July 1803), 3. For a year-by-year chronology of celebrations see Heintze, James R., Music of the Fourth of July (Jefferson: McFarland, 2009)Google Scholar and The Fourth of July Encyclopedia (Jefferson: McFarland, 2007)Google Scholar.

43 Burrows, 28 December 1801, Marine Band Chronologies, Marine Band Library and Archives, Washington, DC; National Intelligencer (4 January 1804), 2. Jefferson recorded paying the band $20 for their New Year appearance in 1805. Cripe, Thomas Jefferson and Music, 30.

44 Smith, First Forty Years, 14.

45 Cutler, William Parker and Cutler, Julia Perkins, Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler (Cincinnati: Robert Clark, 1888)Google Scholar, volume 2, 183.

46 Smith, First Forty Years, 14.

47 Letter from Franklin Wharton to Anthony Gale, 17 December 1806, 127/4, NARA; letter from Gale to Wharton, 26 December 1806, Marine Band Chronologies, Marine Band Library and Archives, Washington, DC.

48 Foster, Augustus John, Jeffersonian America: Notes on the United States of America, ed. Davis, Richard Beale (San Marino: The Huntington Library, 1954), 86Google Scholar.

49 National Intelligencer (10 September 1802), 3.

50 Olio (19 May 1803), 375.

51 Letter from Burrows to Wharton, 31 March 1801, Marine Band Chronologies, Marine Band Library and Archives, Washington, DC.

52 For Italian Band performances see National Intelligencer (24 June and 8 July 1803; 4 and 30 January, 6 and 30 July and 14 and 19 November 1804).

53 For details of the Italian misadventure see Heintze, James R., ‘Gaetano Carusi: From Sicily to the Hall of Congress’, in American Musical Life in Context and Practice to 1865, ed. Heintze, James R. (New York: Garland, 1994), 76–131Google Scholar.

54 John W. Eppes, eighth US Congress, first session, House of Representatives, 13 February 1804, Annals of the Congress of the United States, 989. For a detailed overview of the early Marine Corps’ political situation see Alfred James Marini, ‘The British Corps of Marines, 1746–1771 and the United States Marine Corps, 1798–1818: A Comparative Study of the Early Administration and Institutionalization of Two Modern Marine Forces’ (PhD dissertation, University of Maine, 1979).