Sheet Music Of The Confederacy

During the American Civil War, songs united and inspired people on both sides. The North had a well-established music publishing industry when the war broke out, but the South had no such industry. The importance of music as an expression of the South’s beliefs was obvious; as one music publisher said, “The South must not only fight her own battles but sing her own songs and dance to music composed by her own children.” Southern entrepreneurs quickly rose to the challenge. This reference book is distinguished by three major differences from previously published works. First, it lists sheet music that is no longer extant (and listed nowhere else). Second, it gives complete lyrics for all extant songs, a rich source for researchers. And third, a brief historical background has been provided for many of the songs. Each entry provides as much of the following as possible (staying faithful to the typography of each title page): the title as published, names of all lyricists, composers and publishers; dates of publication; cities of publication; and if applicable, the names of catalogs or magazines in which the song appeared. Music published in Southern cities under Federal occupation is excluded.

The creation of the Confederate States of America and the subsequent Civil War inspired composers, lyricists, and music publishers in Southern and border states, and even in foreign countries, to support the new nation. Confederate-imprint sheet music articulated and encouraged Confederate nationalism, honored soldiers and military leaders, comforted family and friends, and provided diversion from the hardships of war. This is the first comprehensive history of the sheet music of the Confederacy. It covers works published before the war in Southern states that seceded from the Union, and those published during the war in Union occupied capitals, border and Northern states, and foreign countries. It is also the first work to examine the contribution of postwar Confederate-themed sheet music to the South's response to its defeat, to the creation and fostering of Lost Cause themes, and to the promotion of national reunion and reconciliation.

Thirty-seven songs: The Battle Cry of Freedom, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, Battle Hymn of the Republic, 34 more.

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

Subject: Cover image of a firing cannon.

For decades, historians have debated the meaning and significance of Confederate nationalism and the role it played in the outcome of the Civil War. Yet they have paid little attention to the actual development and content of this Confederate ideology. In The Creation of Confederate Nationalism, Drew Gilpin Faust argues that coming to a fuller understanding of southern thought during the Civil War period offers a valuable refraction of the essential assumptions on which the Old South and the Confederacy were built. She shows the benefits of exploring Confederate nationalism “as the South’s commentary upon itself, as its effort to represent southern culture to the world at large, to history, and perhaps most revealingly, to its own people.”