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During the Civil War circuses made a point of locating their tents as near to troop concentrations as they could. Idle soldiers with money in their pockets were a promising audience.
James A. Nixon closed his show |in Alexandria, Virginia, for a month when business fell off in April 1863, and reopened when fresh troops were quartered in the town. Dan Castello, in 1864, followed the Seventeenth Corps down the Mississippi from Memphis into Arkansas, performing at every place the army encamped. These are just two examples of the affinity between tent shows and the army. The procedure was an extension of the habit that the circus had throughout its early existence of setting up wherever crowds might gather. Circuit court hearings, legislative sessions, race meetings, and militia musters were all popular venues for performance.
In November of 1864, George Thomas’ Union forces and John Bell Hood’s Rebel army were facing off at Nashville, Tennessee, for what was expected to be an important engagement. A new circus title, Howes & Norton’s Champion Circus, organized in Chicago, moved to Nashville to take advantage of expected crowds.
The title was a successor one to Robinson & Howes’ Champion Circus, which had been on tour in Ohio and Michigan and Western Pennsylvania during the summer of 1864. It also contained a portion of Lake & Co.’s Mammoth Circus, which had ended its season on the upper Ohio River.
Robinson & Howes’ was owned by James Robinson, the famous rider, and Frank J. Howes. Lake & Co. was owned by William Lake, the clown, and Horace Norton, the multi-horse rider. Robinson sold out at season’s end to Norton, who joined Howes and some performers from each of the entities to staff their new effort.
From Lake & Co. there came William Lake, his wife Agnes, and adopted daughter Alice; Horace Norton; John Lowlow, the clown, and Silas Baldwin, the juggler. Robinson & Howes’ people who went to the new roster included Frank Howes, John Glenroy, John Davenport, and Albert Aymar. To replace the loss of the great James Robinson, Charles Fish was recruited along with Henry Madigan and his son, Charles. The horses were apparently Lake’s property.
Fortunately, both John Lowlow and John Glenroy left descriptions of this winter show, though their recitations vary a great deal in some respects. Writing in the New York Sun, Lowlow said, “Every man, woman and child who was in Nashville during the winter of ‘64 and ‘65 will remember Bill Lake and Levi North’s circus which showed there from October 1864 to February 1865.” Lowlow gave this interview when he was an old man and was confused in his titles. In 1863, Lake, Norton and Levi North had been partners, but North had sold out at the end of that season.
“We got that far south on our regular route,” he continued,” And then one fine morning we found that we were booked to stay in Nashville until Hood whipped Thomas or Thomas whipped Hood.”
In his autobiography, Glenroy said, “On arriving at Nashville we found that the army of the South under General Hood lay outside of the town (in Brentwood), and between it and the town lay the Union army under Thomas. We planted our canvas in the very heart of the city (on Market Street near the Louisville and Nashville Depot), thinking thereby to escape the shells of the Rebel army, but it was a common occurrence during our stay of six weeks there for the shells to keep dropping and bursting four or five times a day within a distance of twenty yards from our canvas.”
Lowlow remembered that, “We run our prices up to a dollar in good Federal money for a single ticket, twenty-five cents for an orange, and twenty-five cents for a glass of pink lemonade. There were plenty of strangers and plenty of money in town, and as nobody knew how long he would keep his property they were not backwards in blowing it in at the show.”
Glenroy recalled that, “During our stay there some of our boys thought that they would like to go and see the entrenchments, so they started out one morning, and on their arrival at the (front) they were immediately seized by our own troops and made to work at digging for three hours each. A more tired, worn out and sorry looking set of men were never seen than they were when they returned.”
Lowlow was one of these involuntary workmen, and he reported that “Lake, Norton, and myself, got permits from General Thomas to go out to the battlefield and view the battle. We were non-combatants, you understand, and you may rely upon it, we kept out of gunshot |range for the first half-hour. But, all at once, an aide came riding up to our stand. ‘Her you three,’ he said, ‘get shovels and report at the front for duty.’
“We showed him our permits, but it was no go; all permits had been revoked within the hour, he said, and so we were hustled off to the front to help throw up a slight fortification. We were all experienced in that sort of work, having worked at throwing up the circus ring many a time, but never before had we handled a shovel under fire. The bullets were flying around us pretty thickly, and in five minutes every regular in our vicinity knew who we were and the circumstances under which we had been pressed into service. They guyed us unmercifully. I was not exactly scared, but I did not feel first-rate, and had to put on a little extra swagger to hide my nervousness.”
“In Nashville,” Glenroy remembered, “we boarded in a house kept by a lady of southern sympathies, and so confident were those whose sympathies were with the South that Hood could and would beat Thomas, that they got ready to give a reception to Hood on his entrance to the city.”
The circus had begun performing on 22 November. On 6 December, at nine o’clock in the morning, according to Lowlow, the personnel were in the ring practicing a new grand entry when an army officer appeared. He took Lake aside and informed him that he (the officer) was requisitioning eighteen of the nineteen ring horses, refusing to take one that was lame.
In Glenroy’s memory, “The day after our arrival (which would have been sometime in November, not October, as Lowlow reported) General Thomas, who was very short of horses, pressed all of ours, leaving us only two mules and one ring horse. “Glenroy is obviously in error in saying it was the day after their arrival.
Major General James A. Wilson was in charge of Thomas’ cavalry and his scouring the area for horses gave Thomas an excuse not to attack Hood but Grant was urging Thomas to act. This portion of the story (or stories) can be checked elsewhere, as General Thomas had telegraphed General Grant that he would march against Hood as soon as he had a respectable force of cavalry. General Wilson was even then pressing horses, and expected to have six to eight thousand in three days, Thomas added.
The circus proceeded to give two performances a day with the one horse that had been left to it. John Lowlow tells us of Alice Lake’s determination to retrieve the horses, which included three black stallions she had trained for use in her manege act. Nothing Lowlow could say served to deter her.
“She was a mere girl, and with a girl’s audacity she did a thing that an older person would have considered the wildest folly. She marched in on General Wilson at his headquarters on the morning of the 10th (of December) and asked for her horses back.” Giving in to the girl’s pleading, Wilson had the horses returned.
But Lowlow claimed that one of Wilson’s officers told him that because the animals had been taught to lie down when they were touched on the haunches (this for the grand entry) they were of no use to the cavalry. In any event, after four days as a “one horse show,” Howes & Norton’s program was restored.
We get a different version of events in reading Glenroy. He claims that Frank Howes went to General Thomas, but got no satisfaction. On the 7th of December, Vice President Johnson came to Nashville, and Howes laid his case before him. Johnson wired the President, and asked for instructions. Back came a telegram saying that Howes could have his horses if he provided substitutes. Thomas gave up the mounts, and Howes spent the next week rounding up eighteen replacements.
The Nashville Dispatch of 9 December said, “We are happy to state for the information of the lovers of exhibitions of muscular energy, and daring feats of horsemanship, that the interruption to their gratification has been removed; the famous trick horses having been returned, all is in good order. The mammoth circus is again in full blast.”
“When our horses were returned to us,” Glenroy reported, “each of them had a large U. S. stamped on them, but we were glad to get them back in any condition.”
The Battle of Nashville was fought on the 15th and 16th of December, 1864. Contrary to what one might expect, the show was well attended. Lowlow said, “. . . while the guns were booming like thunder, our show was jammed. Whether the people came to meet each other, and hear the news, or whether they wanted the fun in the ring to relax their tensely strung heart-strings, I can’t say, but on Thursday and Friday nights, while the battle was in progress in easy hearing, almost on the battlefield, the people and strangers in Nashville came to the circus in great crowds, and laughed like children.”
Howes & Norton announced on 22 December that they were in their last week. The date ended on 24 December. According to Glenroy, Frank Howes dissolved the show almost immediately. William Lake took his family and his horses to Zanesville, Ohio, for the winter. His Hippo- Olympiad went on the road from there in April 1865. Frank Howes went to Chicago, and framed a new show. Horace Norton signed on for the summer season with Lewis B. Lent.
CHS webmaster J. Griffin, last modified December 2005.