Rail Road March for the Fourth of July. Dedicated to the Directors of the Baltimore...

Sheet music cover for the “Rail Road March for the Fourth of July. Dedicated to the Directors of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road”, composed & arranged for the piano by C. Meineke. Published and sold by Geo. Willig Junior, [No. 151 Market St.] Baltimore, and Entered according to act of Congress the 3d. day of July 1828 by George Willig Jr. of the State of Maryland. The music was composed for the groundbreaking of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between the planned Carrollton Viaduct and Mount Clare. It is one of the earliest known compositions concerning American railways, and features one of the earliest illustrations of a railroad in the United States. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first passenger railroad in the United States; on 4 July 1828, a huge celebration was held for the groundbreaking of the line, at the site of the present Camden Yards baseball park in Baltimore, where Charles Carroll of Carrollton laid the 'cornerstone'. This sheet music was written for that momentous event. Although the frontispiece for the Rail Road March depicts a steam engine, the first trains were pulled by horses. The horses were changed at Relay, Md, midway along the eleven mile route. Here, the engineer is shown standing on the side of the engine, and the fireman is sitting on the front of the tender. The scene is surmounted by a large eagle, which holds two shields in its beak, one of which resembles the Maryland state flag. The music was composed by Christopher Meineke, a German-born composer and pianist who settled in Baltimore; Meineke composed much original music, both sacred and secular, and was for many years the organist of St. Paul's Church, Baltimore, Maryland.