“To Light Us to Freedom and Glory Again”:
Civil War Poetry with a Purpose
OVERVIEW
Poetry written during the Civil War was used as a vehicle for individuals
to express their opinions and attitudes. Using the Library of Congress's online
collections, this videoconfernce explores how poetry written by soldiers and citizenry
from the North and the South helped unify citizens, inspire troops, memorialize
the dead, and overcome the anger and resentment
of both sides in the aftermath of the war.
MAJOR CIVIL WAR POETS
Walt Whitman
Drum-Taps,
1865.
"Sequel
to Drum-Taps." Leaves of Grass. New
York, 1867.
This first issue of the 1867 edition of Leaves of
Grass,
available through the Walt
Whitman Archive, includes the 18 poems of Sequel
to Drum-Taps, which were oginally published as part of the second
edition of Drum-Taps (1865-1866).
Corrected
reprint of Walt Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain" with
comments by author, 9 February 1888.
Herman Melville
Battle-Pieces
and Aspects of the War (1866)
"The Portent"
"Shiloh"
John Greenleaf Whittier
Barbara Frietchie (Audio)
THE PERVASIVENESS OF WAR
George Henry Boker
"Blood, blood! The lines of every printed sheet"
TYPES OF CIVIL WAR POETRY
Many types of poetry were written during the Civil War era. This section
highlights several of these types, and provides access to representative examples
of each
in the Library of Congress's American
Memory collections.
Type One: Early Poems Of Unity
Leading up to the Civil War, and during the early periods of the war, poems
of unity were intended to unite the citizens of the North or of the South.
Poem: "Ethnogenesis" (also
found on pages
100-104 of The Poems of Henry Timrod.)
Summary:
Written by Henry Timrod, known as the "Laureate of the
Confederacy," during the first the meeting of the Confederate Congress
in February 1861. The poem envisions a separate Southern nation, one heading
to battle with God and all of nature on its side.
Supplemental Resources:
"Ethnogenesis"
song sheet
Meeting
room of the first Confederate Congress
Journal
of the Confederate Congress, First Session
The Constitution of the Confederate States of America
Poem: "Hurrah
for the South"
Poem: "Hurrah
for the Union!" (found on page
46)
Type Two: Calls to Arms
A second type of Civil War poetry, "calls to arms," called men of
the North and South, respectively, to join the army and fight for their side.
Poem: "The
Texan Marseillaise" (found on page
385)
Note:
One of several Southern "Marseillaise" poems and songs (e.g., "The
Virginia Marseillaise")
Supplemental Resources:
Audio of "La Marseillaise"
Poem: "A
Cry to Arms" (found on pages
83-85)
Supplemental Resources:
Volunteer
troops trying the arms (Charleston, S.C.)
Poem: "My
Maryland"
Summary:
Written by James Ryder Randall in response to the April 19, 1861 shooting
of Baltimore civilians who had attacked soldiers from the 6th Massachusetts
Infantry as they marched to Washington. Randall's poem was a call for Maryland
to secede from the Union, and became a popular rallying cry. Although Maryland
did not join the Confederate cause, it did adopt "My Maryland" as
its state song in 1939.
Supplemental Resources:
The Lexington of 1861
Poem: "Answer
to 'My Maryland'" (found on pages
241-244)
Note:
It was common during the Civil War for one poem to be written in response
to another, and it was also common for one side to alter the content of a
poem written by the other side in order to turn it against them.
Poem: "300,000
More"
Summary:
This poem, by John S. Gibbons, was written to aid Lincoln's 1862 call for
300,000 more Union troops. Originally published in the New
York Evening Post.
Supplemental Resources:
"The
Union Volunteer"
"The
Flag of Our Union"
Type Three: Poems about Women's Contribution to the War
Another type of poetry published early during the war was written by women
and grappled with the issue of how women, who did not fight in the war, might
contribute to the war effort.
Poem: "The
Will for the Deed" (found on page
238)
Poem: "Song
of the Southern Women"
Poem: "Hospital
Duties"
Type Four: The Quest for a National Song
Other poems written during the war were set to music and attempted
to function—or became so popular that they effectively did function—as
national songs that represented the ideals and missions of each side.
Poem: "The
Southern Cross"
Summary:
This poem, written by George Tucker, is patterned after
"The Star-Spangled Banner" and is an attempt to adapt it to the Confederate
cause. First published in The Southern Literary Messenger (March,
1861), it was soon printed in broadside form with the note that it was
to be sung
to the air of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Supplemental Resources:
Image of the Southern
Cross
History,
text, and audio of "The Star-Spangled Banner"
Poem: "Battle
Hymn of the Republic"
Note:
Although written to the tune of "John Brown's Body," "The
Battle Hymn of the Republic" was originally published as a poem in the
Atlantic Monthly (Volume 9, Issue 52, Feb. 1862).
Supplemental Resources:
History,
text, and audio of "The Battle Hymn of the Repulic"
Image of Julia Ward Howe
"Yankee
Volunteers Marching into Dixie"
Marching Union Soldiers
Julia Ward Howe's
personal account of how the "Battle Hymn
of the Republic" came
to be written; found on pages
706-709 of The Atlantic Monthly. (Volume 83, Issue 499, May
1899)
Type Five: Poems about Individual Soldier's Experiences
Although the calls to arms, poems of unity, and the other types of poems mentioned
above were published throughout the war, another type of poetry that was published
during the war and grew more popular as the war progressed was poetry that
focused on the individual soldier's experience of war. This type of poetry
helped people face the grim reality of the war, to
make sense of soldiers' sacrifice, and to memorialize their efforts. It was
also a way to connect the experiences of soldiers, who were often far away
from home, with those remaining at home.
Poem: "Somebody's
Darling" (found on page
450)
Poem: “The
Dying Confederate’s Last Words”
Poem: “The
Picket-Guard”
Type Six: Humorous Poems
There were other types of poems published during the Civil War as well, including
humorous poems on all subjects.
Poem: "The
Craven"
Summary:
The poem is set during the Battle of Malvern Hill (Virginia), which took
place July 1, 1862, and in which the Union Army, outnumbered, was able to
hold off Confederate troops thanks in part to the gunpowder of the Union
warship USS Galena. This poem appears to be criticizing General George B.
McClellan for remaining safely away from the heat of the battle while the
Galena, out of harm's way, shelled the Confederate
troops from offshore.
Supplemental Resources:
Revised plan of battle of Malvern Hill, July 1st, 1862
Extracts from the log book of the Galena for July 1, 1862
"The Gunboat Candidate at the Battle of Malvern Hill"
Type Seven: Postwar Poems
There were many different types of poems written after the war. Some poems
memorialized fallen heroes; some Southern poems expressed continued defiance
towards the North despite losing the war; and some Northern poems depicted
the South as an evil overcome by the forces of good. For the most part, though,
poems written by the North and South weren't hostile to the other side.
Poem: "The
Conquered Banner" (found on page
452)
Summary:
Written by "Moina," the pseudonym of Abram Joseph Ryan, who was
born in Maryland and spent part of his childhood in Virginia. He served as
a chaplain during the Civil War, and his war poetry quickly led to him becoming
known as the "poet-priest of the South." The night he found out
that Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, he wrote the poem "The
Conquered Banner," a memorial to the South's failed efforts in the war.
Supplemental Resources:
Image of "The Conquered Banner"
Image
of "The Conquered Banner"
Poem: "Acceptation"
Supplemental Resources:
"Compromise
with the South"
Poem: "The
Blue and the Gray" (found on pages
369-370)
Supplemental Resources:
Sheet Music
"Richmond,
Virginia. Graves of Confederate Soldiers in Hollywood Cemetery"
"Soldier
Standing at Graves of Federal soldiers" (Antietam, Maryland)
ADDITIONAL
RESOURCES
Civil War Poetry: Online Books
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