1783—Salem, North Carolina

Trombones accompany the Te Deum on New Year’s Day at the Moravian settlement (Gombosi, A Day of Solemn Thanksgiving 208). Later the same year, at “A Day of Solemn Thanksgiving,” a Moravian 4th of July patriotic celebration, records of the event mention, “The congregation was awakened with trombones, and at the beginning of the Preaching Service, the Te Deum was sung with the joyous pealing of the trombones” (Gombosi, A Day of Solemn Thanksgiving 42).  An order to Herrnhut, Germany is also placed the same year for “a set of trombones,” with the instruments arriving 2 years later (Gombosi, A Day of Solemn Thanksgiving 209).