Two other poems whose origins have attracted much attention are “The Confederate Note,” by Major S. A. Jonas of Mississippi, and “All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight,” by Mrs. Ethel Lynn Beers. Major Jonas seems to have established unquestionable claim to his poem in a letter to the Louisville Courier, under date of December 11, 1889. The poem by Mrs. Beers was a long time claimed for Lomar Fontaine. Mrs. Beers had written the verses in 1861, in which year they had appeared in Harper’s Weekly. Late in ’62 they began to circulate in the South, and for some unknown reason were assigned to Lomar Fontaine. He was at once showered with praise and eulogy, but it is interesting to note that in the Editor’s Table of the Southern Literary Messenger for June, 1863 (p. 375) at the end of verses by Henry C. Alexander “To Lomar Fontaine, the author of the verses entitled ‘All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight,’ and if report be true, one of the unrewarded heroes of the South” the Editor has subscribed the following discriminating comment: “It is questionable whether Fontaine wrote the ‘All Quiet Along the Potomac.’ There was no occasion to incite such a poem. Our pickets along the Potomac were rarely if ever shot: those of the Yankees were shot night after night.[23] We have heard that the author of the lines attributed to Fontaine is an Ohioan. A brave man—a hero, if you will,—Fontaine has yet to prove that he is a poet.”
One other poem whose origin has been questioned is “The Countersign,” which, reprinted in the Philadelphia Press in 1861, was declared to have been written by a private in Company G, Stuart’s Engineer Regiment, at Camp Lesley, near Washington. F. F. Browne, in Bugle Echoes, cryptically adds: “But it may now be stated positively that it was written by a Confederate soldier, still living. The third line of the fifth stanza affords internal evidence of Southern origin.” This Confederate soldier was Colonel W. W. Fontaine.
Metrical study of the Southern war poetry leads inevitably to the conclusion that Southern temperament lent itself naturally to rhythmic expression. The poets of the South, many of them untrained in the technique of their art, wrote in every metrical arrangement that can be imagined, from curious irregular unrhymed rhythms to ballad measure, and to the long and intricate stanzaic forms used by Simms and Timrod. In nearly every case, except, of course, with the cruder camp songs, the verses flow felicitously, and the effect is melodious. Even in the sonnet form[24] although the Southerner did not seem capable of writing a true sonnet, the rhythm moves with ease and harmony. The verses may infringe every rule of the sonnet form, but the result is effective.
Such is the achievement of the Southern war verse. It is a wonderfully effective expression of sentiment, and becomes all the more remarkable when one considers the conditions under which it was created. It was written in a land first rich and prosperous, then through four weary years ravaged and starved into ruin: by soldiers in the field and in the prisons, and women suffering silently at home. Even the mediums through which this poetry was published, shared the vicissitudes of the land, and have been generally destroyed or scattered. Nevertheless the war poetry of the Confederacy which remains to us today, stands as an enduring memorial to the inherent nobility of the Southern heart and to the fidelity of devotion to principle, which has always given the South the admiration of those who, while they cannot agree with her point of view, must nevertheless respect her courage and spirit. At the same time it forms a notable contribution to the literature of our land. Best of all, this poetry satisfies the function of those “Sentinel Songs” of which Father A. J. Ryan wrote, on May sixth, 1867:
When sinks the soldier brave
Dead at the feet of Wrong,
The poet sings, and guards his grave
With sentinels of song.
When marble wears away