In 1864, Captain Richard Worsam Meade II prepared to leave USS North Carolina for a new command. His departure was marked in an unusual way: with a piece of music.
Composer Luigi de Perini wrote The Adieu March, a piano composition dedicated to Meade as he left North Carolina to take command of USS San Jacinto. More than 160 years later, the surviving sheet music offers a small but fascinating connection between two men—and to an earlier USS North Carolina that served the United States during the Civil War.
A career that spanned decades
Richard Worsam Meade II was born in Cádiz, Spain, on May 21, 1807, to American parents Richard Worsam Meade I and Margaret Coats Butler Meade. His younger brother, George Gordon Meade, would later become one of the best-known Union generals of the Civil War, commanding the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg.
Richard chose the Navy. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman in 1826 and spent much of the next four decades in and out of naval service. His assignments took him aboard ships including USS Brandywine, USS St. Louis, USS Fulton and USS Erie. He also served with the U.S. Coast Survey and at the New York Navy Yard.
By the time the Civil War began in 1861, Meade was already an experienced naval officer. He returned to active duty and was given command of USS North Carolina. This was not the battleship, BB-55, that visitors know today. It was the first commissioned U.S. Navy vessel to bear the name North Carolina, a 74-gun ship-of-the-line launched in 1820.
By the Civil War, the aging vessel was no longer serving as a front-line warship. Instead, it was stationed at New York as a receiving ship, where sailors could be housed, processed and assigned before joining other vessels in the Union fleet. Meade commanded North Carolina from 1861 until 1864.
In 1864, Meade received a new assignment. Promoted to captain, he left USS North Carolina to take command of the steam frigate USS San Jacinto. Around the time of his departure, Luigi de Perini turned Meade’s farewell into music.
Who was Luigi de Perini?
That question is much harder to answer. Compared with Meade, little biographical information about Luigi de Perini survives in historical records. What we do know about him comes through his music. De Perini composed piano pieces during the Civil War period, including a North Carolina Mazurka and, in 1864, The Adieu March. Published in New York by Wm. A. Pond & Co., The Adieu was dedicated to Captain R.W. Meade, commanding officer of the USS North Carolina.
The piece fits into a much larger 19th-century tradition. Before recorded music, sheet music was an important form of popular entertainment. People purchased new compositions to play at home, and publishers produced music inspired by public figures, military units, battles, national events and wartime sentiment. A march dedicated to a naval officer could be both a personal tribute and a piece meant for a broader audience.
Exactly what relationship existed between de Perini and Meade is less clear. We do not know whether they knew each other personally, whether someone associated with Meade commissioned the piece, or whether de Perini simply chose to recognize the departing captain. That uncertainty is part of what makes this music intriguing.
Saying goodbye in 1864
The title of the music gives us the clearest clue about the composition’s purpose: The Adieu. Meade spent three years aboard North Carolina, from the beginning of the Civil War through 1864. Now he was moving on to San Jacinto, an active steam warship with a very different role from the receiving ship he was leaving behind. For the officers and sailors who knew him aboard North Carolina, it was the end of one command. For Meade, it was the beginning of another. De Perini gave that farewell a soundtrack.
Military history is often preserved through official reports, ship logs, orders and lists of dates. Music tells us something different. The existence of The Adieu March suggests that Meade’s departure was considered worth marking, not only with naval paperwork, but in a form that people could take home, play, enjoy, and remember.
What came next
Meade’s command of San Jacinto was brief. On January 1, 1865, the ship struck a reef in the Bahamas and was wrecked. The Civil War ended just a few months later. Meade remained in the Navy until his retirement in December 1867. He died in Brooklyn, New York, on April 16, 1870, at age 62, and was buried at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia.
Luigi de Perini remains the more elusive figure. His biography may have faded from view, but his work survives; and because it does, so does this brief connection between composer, captain and ship. More than a century and a half later, we can still hear it.
Play The Adieu March for Us
We’d love to hear this piece brought to life again. If you play piano—or know someone who does—download the sheet music below and send us a recording of your performance of The Adieu March. We may share selected recordings on the Battleship’s social media channels and preserve them in our archives as part of the continuing story of USS North Carolina.
- Download the sheet music: Adieu – North Carolina
- Send a link to your recording to marketing@battleshipnc.com. Because recording files can be large and may not convey as attachments, links are preferred to email attachments.