31 JULY 1808 Birth of English-American composer Frederick Nichols CROUCH. d-1896.Frederick Nichols Crouch was an English composer and cellist. Crouch was born in Marylebone in London. He emigrated to the United States in 1849 and settled in Richmond, Virginia. During the Civil War, Crouch took up arms and played the trumpet for the Confederacy. Crouch was noted as a fine cellist, having played in the King's Theatre as well as St. Paul's Cathedral in London, before coming to the United States, but the majority of his compositions were not successful. During his years in the United States, Crouch composed two operas and unsuccessfully tried various musical undertakings (conducting, singing and teaching). Well traveled after the Civil War, Crouch eventually settled in Baltimore, Maryland. Emma Elizabeth Crouch (1835–1886), the second daughter of his first marriage, became known in Second Empire France as the courtesan Cora Pearl. (---from Wikipedia, which indicates the 30th as birthdate.)
