Happy Independence Day, Everybody!

UPDATE: Here's a little marching music apropos for the day. A lot of younger folk think it's called "The Spirit of '76" as a result of hearing Bugs Bunny and other cartoon characters play it on the fife when aping the famous painting of that name, but as a matter of fact it's a much older tune called "The Girl I Left Behind Me" and was very popular on both sides during the Revolutionary War:

I'm lonesome since I crossed the hill
And o'er the moor and valley
Such heavy thoughts my heart do fill
Since parting from my Sally
I seek no more the fine and gay
For each doth but remind me
How swiftly passed the hours away
With the girl I left behind me.
I seek no more the fine and gay
For each doth but remind me
How swiftly passed the hours away
With the girl I left behind me.

Oh ne'er shall I forget that night
The stars were bright above me
And gently lent their silv'ry light
When first she vowed to love me
But now I'm bound for Brighton camp
Kind heaven then pray guide me
And send me safely back again
To the girl I left behind me.
But now I'm bound for Brighton camp
Kind heaven then pray guide me
And send me safely back again
To the girl I left behind me.

Her golden hair in ringlets fair
Her eyes like diamonds shining
Her slender waist, with carriage chaste
May leave the swain repining
Ye Gods above! Oh hear my prayer!
Thy beauteous fair to bind me
And send me safely back again
To the girl I left behind me.
Ye Gods above! Oh hear my prayer!
Thy beauteous fair to bind me
And send me safely back again
To the girl I left behind me.

And o'er the moor and valley
Such heavy thoughts my heart do fill
Since parting from my Sally
I seek no more the fine and gay
For each doth but remind me
How swiftly passed the hours away
With the girl I left behind me.
I seek no more the fine and gay
For each doth but remind me
How swiftly passed the hours away
With the girl I left behind me.
With the girl I left behind me.

And here's a nifty page of fife and drum midi's from the period.

UPDATE DEUX: Basil Seal posts a portrait of the villain of the day. As a matter of fact, I've always been quite fond of George III, Hanovarian though he was. (He did stand up to the Frogs and that Napoleon after all, when damn near everybody else in Europe knuckled under.) And in all fairness, it should be pointed out that although his government's treatment of the colonies was ham-handed and extremely shabby, they were also dealing with a set of circumstances and a type of people nobody had ever encountered before and it's not to be wondered at that they had no clue what they were up against.