The Southern war poetry of the Civil War

by Esther Parker Ellinger

Next to the appearance of the poems in the papers and journals, publication by broadside was probably the most common usage. Especially in the later days of the war, when newspaper publication was either temporarily or entirely suspended, this medium insured the quickest distribution of verse particularly applicable to the moment, a battle ode, a dirge of a fallen leader, or a song of peculiarly inspiriting phraseology. It was in this broadside form that “My Maryland” spread through the South almost in a day, anonymously, and often suffering from lines badly copied or cut. That Randall was the author was a fact silently understood and communicated: for it was safest and wisest in those early days, and particularly in the border states, that names be not mentioned. Even later, and after months of war, this condition still obtained. The appearance, in September, 1862, of “Stonewall Jackson’s Way,” written by Dr. John Williamson Palmer, as he listened to the guns of Sharpsburg, is a case in point. Dr. Palmer gives this history of the poem, and its publication:[12]

“In September, 1862, I found myself ... at Oakland ... in Garrett County, Maryland. Early on the sixteenth there was a roar of guns in the air, and we knew that a great battle was toward ... I knew that Stonewall was in it, whatever it might be: it was his way,—‘Stonewall Jackson’s Way.’ I had twice put that phrase into my war letters, and other correspondents, finding it handy, had quoted it in theirs. I paced the piazza and whistled a song of Oregon lumbermen and loggers that I had learned from a California adventurer in Honolulu. The two thoughts were coupled and welded into one to make a song: and as the words gathered to the call of the tune I wrote the ballad of ‘Stonewall Jackson’s Way’ with the roar of these guns in my ears. On the morrow I added the last stanza....

“In Baltimore I told the story of the song to my father, and at his request made immediately another copy of it. This was shown cautiously to certain members of the Maryland Club: and a trusty printer was found who struck off a dozen slips of it, principally for private distribution. That first printed copy of the song was headed ‘Found on a Rebel Sergeant of the Old Stonewall Brigade, Taken at Winchester.’ The fabulous legend was for the misleading of the Federal provost marshal, as were also the address and date, ‘Martinsburg, September 13, 1862.’”

It must not be supposed that this war verse which has survived to our day consists merely of battle songs and popular ballads on themes arising from the nature of the conflict. Just as the war was far reaching and general in its effect, touching every Southerner personally, and too often poignantly, so the poetic response was varied and modified to meet the demand of the moment. There is description, and narration; there are of course dialectics and polemics; there is satire; and there is even a little humor. And because through all this rings the personal and individual appeal, the prevailing note is lyric. Of the dramatic there is very little, notably Hayne’s “The Substitute,” and “The Royal Ape.” This last is a long dramatic narrative in iambic pentameter rimed couplets that is possibly more interesting as satire and propaganda than as pure drama. Yet neither of these is a work of free inspiration. The Southern war poet did his best work when out of the fulness of his heart, he either vowed allegiance to his beloved land, and her leaders, or wrote in passion and defiance as a resolved defender of the freedom of his Fathers.

Judged from an emotional point of view, this poetry falls into three distinct periods, obvious enough in themselves, but interesting in that by them we may see more clearly the issues of the war as reflected in the hearts of the warriors. There are the first poems of rebellion against oppression: lyrics of passionate defiance as well as of hortatory counsel: appeals to remember the glory of the past and the danger of the present. The second period started at the moment of invasion after which there was no longer need for a Congress to formulate the principles for which they fought, or to arrange for the unifying of the various State integers. Then began the poetry of actual conflict, taking the form of verses concerning particular battles, the narration of some heroic deed, the lament for a great hero, as well as camp ballads, and marching songs. As a connecting link with the first period, there are still the poems breathing the national spirit, and loyalty to the Southern cause. Even in the third and last period, that of disappointment, discouragement and actual defeat, this note continues, and is the more poignant for its unfaltering persistence in the face of calamity.

The poetry of the first period began in the closing days of 1860. In November of that year there had been elected by the North and West a President whose principles of government seemed to threaten the South with danger of extermination of her most precious interests. The platform of Republicanism she considered in every respect inimical to her importance as a unit in the central organization of states. Her very identity was endangered, and that to a section where pride of historic heritage was as dear as actual power of wealth and commerce, aroused her as could perhaps nothing else. Therefore, on December twentieth, 1860, South Carolina passed her order of secession, following it with the “Declaration of Independence,” which justified the previous action by recalling the two great principles asserted by the early colonies, namely, “the right of a state to govern itself, and the right of a people to abolish a government when it becomes destructive to the ends for which it was instituted. And concurrent with the establishment of these principles was the fact that each colony became and was recognized by the mother country as a free, sovereign and independent state.” It was a proud imperious challenge, and made immediate appeal to every Southerner to whom freedom and independence, personal or otherwise, was a precious birthright. The proclamation fired the imagination, as it did the poetic spirit of the land: the poetic response struck the same note. S. Henry Dickson’s “South Carolina” was one of the first poems to appear. Its verses are as lofty in tone as the lines of the proclamation, and equally as sincere. They are frankly exultant.

The deed is done! the die is cast;

The glorious Rubicon is passed:

Hail, Carolina! free at last.

Strong in the right I see her stand