Battle Hymns
Battle Hymns

Author: Christian McWhirter

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2012-03-19

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 0807882623

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Music was everywhere during the Civil War. Tunes could be heard ringing out from parlor pianos, thundering at political rallies, and setting the rhythms of military and domestic life. With literacy still limited, music was an important vehicle for communicating ideas about the war, and it had a lasting impact in the decades that followed. Drawing on an array of published and archival sources, Christian McWhirter analyzes the myriad ways music influenced popular culture in the years surrounding the war and discusses its deep resonance for both whites and blacks, South and North. Though published songs of the time have long been catalogued and appreciated, McWhirter is the first to explore what Americans actually said and did with these pieces. By gauging the popularity of the most prominent songs and examining how Americans used them, McWhirter returns music to its central place in American life during the nation's greatest crisis. The result is a portrait of a war fought to music.

Soldier Song
Soldier Song

Author: Debbie Levy

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Published: 2017-02-07

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781484725986

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Amid the fearsome battles of the Civil War, both Union and Confederate soldiers were urged onward by song. There were songs to wake them up and songs to call them to bed, Songs to ready them for battle and to signal their retreat, Songs to tell them that their side was right, and the other wrong . . . And there was one song that reminded them all of what they hoped to return to after the war. Defeated in the battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, the Union soldiers retreated across the river. There, a new battle emerged as both armies volleyed competing songs back and forth. With the Christmas season upon them, however, Federals and Confederates longed for the same thing. As the notes of "Home, Sweet Home" rose up from both sides, they found common ground for one night. Interwoven with soldiers' letters and journal entries, this is a true story of duty and heartbreak, of loyalty and enemies, and of the uniting power of music. Debbie Levy's moving text and Gilbert Ford's vibrant, layered illustrations come together to create an unforgettable tale of American history.

Irish American Civil War Songs
Irish American Civil War Songs

Author: Catherine V. Bateson

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2022-09-28

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 0807178381

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Irish-born and Irish-descended soldiers and sailors were involved in every major engagement of the American Civil War. Throughout the conflict, they shared their wartime experiences through songs and song lyrics, leaving behind a vast trove of ballads in songbooks, letters, newspaper publications, wartime diaries, and other accounts. Taken together, these songs and lyrics offer an underappreciated source of contemporary feelings and opinions about the war. Catherine V. Bateson’s Irish American Civil War Songs provides the first in-depth exploration of Irish Americans’ use of balladry to portray and comment on virtually every aspect of the war as witnessed by the Irish on the front line and home front. Bateson considers the lyrics, themes, and sentiments of wartime songs produced in America but often originating with those born across the Atlantic in Ireland and Britain. Her analysis gives new insight into views held by the Irish migrant diaspora about the conflict and the ways those of Irish descent identified with and fought to defend their adopted homeland. Bateson’s investigation of Irish American song lyrics within the context of broader wartime experiences enhances our understanding of the Irish contribution to the American Civil War. At the same time, it demonstrates how Irish songs shaped many American balladry traditions as they laid the foundation of the Civil War’s musical soundscape.

Propaganda from the American Civil War
Propaganda from the American Civil War

Author: Paul J. Springer

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2019-03-07

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1440864446

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Offering comprehensive coverage for those examining Civil War propaganda, this volume provides a broad analysis of efforts by both Union and Confederate sides to influence public opinion of America's deadliest conflict. This illuminating reference work contains excerpts from roughly 100 individual pieces of propaganda generated during the American Civil War in the North and the South, as well as contextual analysis to assist readers in understanding its utility, importance, and effect. It includes written arguments, staged photographs, and political cartoons, all of which were used to advance one side's objectives while undermining the enemy's. This helps readers to understand the underlying arguments of each side as well as the willingness of each to distort the truth for political, military, or economic advantage. This book is organized chronologically, allowing readers to understand how propaganda developed and expanded throughout the war. It includes a chapter dedicated to each of the war years (1861–1865), an antebellum chapter, and a postwar chapter. Each document comprised in the volume includes an analysis of the significance and effectiveness of the piece and guides readers to examine it with a critical eye. The original source documents remain in their original verbiage, including common spelling errors and other interesting aspects of 19th-century communication.

The Imagined Civil War
The Imagined Civil War

Author: Alice Fahs

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2010-03-15

Total Pages: 425

ISBN-13: 0807899291

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In this groundbreaking work of cultural history, Alice Fahs explores a little-known and fascinating side of the Civil War--the outpouring of popular literature inspired by the conflict. From 1861 to 1865, authors and publishers in both the North and the South produced a remarkable variety of war-related compositions, including poems, songs, children's stories, romances, novels, histories, and even humorous pieces. Fahs mines these rich but long-neglected resources to recover the diversity of the war's political and social meanings. Instead of narrowly portraying the Civil War as a clash between two great, white armies, popular literature offered a wide range of representations of the conflict and helped shape new modes of imagining the relationships of diverse individuals to the nation. Works that explored the war's devastating impact on white women's lives, for example, proclaimed the importance of their experiences on the home front, while popular writings that celebrated black manhood and heroism in the wake of emancipation helped readers begin to envision new roles for blacks in American life. Recovering a lost world of popular literature, The Imagined Civil War adds immeasurably to our understanding of American life and letters at a pivotal point in our history.

Songs of the Civil War
Songs of the Civil War

Author: Irwin Silber

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 1995-01-01

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 0486284387

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Reprint. Originally published: New York: Columbia University Press, 1960.