The song is dedicated to Union general Benjamin F. Butler, who was the first Union commander to allow escaped slaves to stay within Union lines. Claiming the former slaves were "contraband of war," Butler used the Confederates' insistance that slaves were property against them. He claimed that as property they could be legally "confiscated" under the rules of war. Butler's policy allowed thousands of slaves to find safety behind Union lines and influenced Lincoln's later decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation."]]>
On verso: "San Juan, Puerto Rico - Pablo Casals offers wedding congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Carleton Smith of New York, who visited the master cellist in his San Juan home recently. As a wedding gift, he played the Catalan folk-song, "Song of the Birds", for them. Smith is president of the National Arts Foundation."]]> th 1863)."

Governor Curtin organized the effort to create a national soldiers' cemetery at Gettysburg.]]>