About

The Stonewall Brigade Band had its beginnings as the “Mountain Saxhorn Band” early in 1855.

With the popularity of the Saxhorn, which had been patented by Antoine Adolphe Sax in 1845, and with the location of Staunton halfway across the Shenandoah Valley between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany Mountains, it was natural for the group to adopt the name of Mountain Sax Horn Band. While the first president of the band was Edwin M. Cushing, it was David W. Drake, the founder, who secured the band’s first director.