Augustus John Turner, (October 12, 1818 – May 14, 1905), known as "A. J. Turner", was an American composer, band leader and music professor. He was the first director of the Stonewall Brigade Band of Staunton, Virginia, the oldest continuous community band funded by tax moneys in the United States. They were mustered into the Stonewall Brigade under Stonewall Jackson of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Turner was a professor of music at both the Wesleyan Female Institute and the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Institute, and he played a part in the temperance movement.
Ancestry and early years
Augustus John Turner was born on October 12, 1818, in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, to Samuel M. Turner and Mahala Johnson Chapman. His father Samuel was a farmer living near the site of Fort Prince.
Both Turner's grandfathers fought in the Revolutionary War. His father Samuel's father was James Turner, who settled in South Carolina near Coulter's Ford on the Pacolet River with his father George Henry Turner, after the death of his mother Hannah Middleton in Virginia. James Turner prepared beef for the patriots the night before the Battle of Cowpens. He married Margaret Headen. Horseshoe Robinson married Sarah Headen, making James Turner and Robinson brothers-in-law.
Turner's mother's father was Jack Chapman, a Revolutionary war captain in Virginia. Jack Chapman married the sister of Jammie Seay. Both Samuel Turner and Jack Chapman were active at Mount Zion Baptist Church, whose pastor was John Gill Landrum. On his death, A. J. Turner wrote this acrostic:
Lo! a Prince in Zion has been taken away.
And mourners thread the streets day after day.
No face is seen that does not deepest sorrow show;
Departed are our joys and only bitter woe
Remains, since thou, oh! Counselor and friend,
Unto thy grave are gone can no longer lend
Mankind thy sage advise - God pity on us send.
Frederick County
Before moving to Staunton, Turner lived in Middletown and Newtown (now Stephen's' City), near Winchester in Frederick County, Virginia. He married Catherine ("Kate") Montrose Aby on July 1, 1845, in Frederick County. The ceremony was performed by John Allemong. Kate Aby's father was a shoemaker and veteran of the War of 1812. Her mother, who lived at Thorndale Farm, was the daughter of a drummer in the American Revolution.
In 1846, a son was born in Newtown, Charles W. Turner. Turner also spent time at Greenville, where he played with the famous banjoist Joel Sweeney in 1847, and organized a band in Middlebrook. In 1847 a second son was born in Middletown, T. M. Turner.
Turner's house in Newtown was destroyed in a fire on December 2, 1856.
Staunton
Stonewall Brigade Band
In Staunton, Virginia, in 1855, David W. Drake sought help in founding a band. He enlisted the help of Turner, his former music teacher in Newtown, persuading him to move to Staunton. Together with two other citizens of Staunton, they formed the Mountain Saxhorn Band. Turner was the band's first director, and it is still active today, the oldest continuous community band funded by tax moneys in the United States.
They gave their first formal concert on July 17, 1857, at Union Hall on Beverley Street in Staunton. By 1859 the band had come to be known as Turner's Silver Cornet Band. At Armory Hall on April 4, 1861, Turner's Silver Cornet Band, together with the Staunton Musical Association and the Glee Club, presented the last concert to be given before the Civil War. Turner played the soprano cornet.
Civil War
The band was mustered into the 5th Virginia Infantry Regiment under Stonewall Jackson and Colonel William S. Baylor, and left Staunton on April 17, 1861. Soon after the Battle of First Manassas, the band earned the name Stonewall Brigade Band, and has been known as such ever since. As well as playing their instruments, band members fought and acted as couriers and letter bearers or medical assistants. In addition to entertaining the troops in the field, the band frequently appeared in concerts in Fredericksburg, Richmond, Staunton, and elsewhere to support recruiting rallies, clothing drives, and war relief fundraising.
An account of the Battle of Hoke's Run in the Staunton Spectator reads: "Little Charley Turner, a boy about 15 years of age, insisted so strongly on going with the Augusta Guards that his father finally yielded to his importunities and allowed him to go. The result shows that little Charley went to perform service, for he made one of the enemy bite the dust." Though not in the band, Turner's first son Charles was an orderly and courier for Stonewall Jackson.