My love and I;
We’ll wipe away all tears of sorrow then,
Her lovelit eye
Will all my many troubles then beguile,
And keep this wayward reb. from Johnston’s Isle.
The poetry dealing with incidents of the war is varied, and touches many subjects. There were such verses for example, as “The Silent March,” by Walker Meriweather Bell, written on an occasion during the war when General Lee was lying asleep by the wayside and an army of fifteen thousand men “passed by with hushed voices and footsteps, lest they should disturb his slumbers;” “Stonewall Jackson’s Way,” written on the theme of the great general’s ability “always to be where needed and in the thick of things;” “The Lone Sentry,” based on an incident, common to all wars, of the great general relieving a weary sentry; “The Battle Rainbow” by John R. Thompson, inspired by the rainbow that appeared the evening before the beginning of the Seven Days of Battle before Richmond. “The rainbow overspread the eastern sky, and exactly defined the position of the Confederate army, as seen from the Capitol at Richmond.” There were poems like “Music in Camp” also by John R. Thompson, suggested by an incident that occurred just after Chancellorsville: and “The Unknown Hero,” by W. Gordon McCabe, based on the discovery, “after the Battle of Malvern Hill, of a [Confederate] soldier lying dead fifty yards in advance of any man or officer, his musket firmly grasped in the rigid fingers, name unknown, simply ‘2 La’ on his cap.”
Another interesting group of poems, closely connected with the war, although not with the actual progress of events, is found in the national and the army songs which were sung in camp and field and by the fire-side. It was natural that “Dixie” should be the most popular of airs, and while it admitted of endless variations and sentiments, the words that were generally sung to it were those by Albert Pike. The Marseillaise was another widely popular air, to which were sung any number of poems. One of these “The Southern Marseillaise” by A. E. Blackmar, written early in 1861, was sung by the troops as they marched to their assembling points, and may very properly be called the Rallying Song of the South.
“The Bonnie Blue Flag,” by Harry Macarthy was the favorite of the popular national songs. It was first sung by him on the stage of the Academy of Music in New Orleans, in September, 1861, and caused such excitement that the event precipitated a riot. When General Butler was in command of the city, two years later, he threatened to impose a fine of twenty-five dollars on any man, woman or child who sang it. In addition he arrested the publisher, A. E. Blackmar, destroyed the sheet music, and fined him five hundred dollars. After the tune became established as a favorite, Mrs. Annie Chambers Ketchum of Kentucky wrote other words to the air, which were frequently used.[21] In addition to the national songs, the various states used particular anthems. Maryland had Randall’s song, “Maryland, My Maryland.” For South Carolina there were Timrod’s noble lines in the same strain, “Carolina.” “Georgia, My Georgia” was written by Carrie Bell Sinclair, and the “Song of the Texas Rangers” by Mrs. J. D. Young. These are but a few among a longer list.
It has been said[22] that while the Confederate Army was not “absolutely destitute of songs, it simply lacked a plentiful supply of songs written especially for the moment.” This is far from being the case. Indeed, the camp songs and marching ballads written in the Confederate camps during the war, are legion. They vary in excellence from “The Cavaliers’ Glee” by Captain William Blackford of Stuart’s staff, to the extremely popular and delightful “Goober Peas,” by A. Pender. For the camp catches there were certain stock tunes, such as the “Happy Land of Canaan,” “Wait for the Wagon,” “We’ll Be Free in Maryland,” “Gay and Happy,” which were used over and over, and to which words were improvised to fit the occasion. Even the slender Confederate Navy had her stock of ballads. “The Alabama,” by E. King, author of “Naval Songs of the South,” is the best representative of this class.
It is not strange that during the chaotic days of the Confederacy, poems that had been written by Southerners in antebellum days were published in the South as of Confederate origin; and that poems of the war period written in the North or abroad should be attributed to Confederate authors. In the first category are verses such as “My Wife and Child,” by Henry R. Jackson of Georgia, which he wrote during the Mexican War, and in the second class, “The Soldier Boy,” a widely popular poem which was really by the Englishman, Dr. William Maginn (1793-1842), whom Thackeray satirized as “Captain Shalow” in Pendennis, but which was assigned to “H. M. L.” of Lynchburg, and even given the circumstantial date of May 18, 1861. Another poem that was widely copied, but which was really written by T. Buchanan Read in Rome in 1861, was “The Brave at Home.”