The Southern war poetry of the Civil War

1 July 1862

Battle of Malvern Hill

CHAPTER II

Let us hail in this crisis the prosperous omen
That our senate shows virtue higher than Roman;
It has spurned all titles of honor, for rather
Than claim that each member be called “Conscript Father,”
All self-aggrandizement they lay on the shelves,
And declare all men conscripts, excepting themselves!

During May and June of ’62 Jackson and Lee endeavored to arrest
McClellan’s progress by their counter campaign in the Shenandoah. For
the South it was a most successful move. Not only were the Southern
arms carried to victory, but, through the unfortunate wounding of
Joseph E. Johnston at Seven Pines, Lee, whose fame had grown in the
Shenandoah, was placed in supreme command of the army of Northern
Virginia. The turning point of the Southern fortunes had arrived. The
battle of the Chickahominy, Malvern Hill, and the Seven Day’s fighting
before Richmond, resulted in the defeat of McClellan’s campaign, and
Richmond, for the next two years, was saved.

CHAPTER II

There’s hope ahead! We’ll one day meet again--
My love and I;
We’ll wipe away all tears of sorrow then,
Her lovelit eye
Will all my many troubles then beguile,
And keep this wayward reb. from Johnston’s Isle.

The poetry dealing with incidents of the war is varied, and touches
many subjects. There were such verses for example, as “The Silent
March,” by Walker Meriweather Bell, written on an occasion during the
war when General Lee was lying asleep by the wayside and an army of
fifteen thousand men “passed by with hushed voices and footsteps, lest
they should disturb his slumbers;” “Stonewall Jackson’s Way,” written
on the theme of the great general’s ability “always to be where needed
and in the thick of things;” “The Lone Sentry,” based on an incident,
common to all wars, of the great general relieving a weary sentry;
“The Battle Rainbow” by John R. Thompson, inspired by the rainbow
that appeared the evening before the beginning of the Seven Days of
Battle before Richmond. “The rainbow overspread the eastern sky, and
exactly defined the position of the Confederate army, as seen from the
Capitol at Richmond.” There were poems like “Music in Camp” also by
John R. Thompson, suggested by an incident that occurred just after
Chancellorsville: and “The Unknown Hero,” by W. Gordon McCabe, based on
the discovery, “after the Battle of Malvern Hill, of a [Confederate]
soldier lying dead fifty yards in advance of any man or officer, his
musket firmly grasped in the rigid fingers, name unknown, simply ‘2 La’
on his cap.”

Another interesting group of poems, closely connected with the war,
although not with the actual progress of events, is found in the
national and the army songs which were sung in camp and field and by
the fire-side. It was natural that “Dixie” should be the most popular
of airs, and while it admitted of endless variations and sentiments,
the words that were generally sung to it were those by Albert Pike.
The Marseillaise was another widely popular air, to which were sung
any number of poems. One of these “The Southern Marseillaise” by A.
E. Blackmar, written early in 1861, was sung by the troops as they
marched to their assembling points, and may very properly be called the
Rallying Song of the South.

CHAPTER II

“Here’s to Jackson brave and true,
Whom the base invaders slew,”--

_To the Parents of the Youthful Patriot, Melzar G. Fiske_,
who fell mortally wounded at the battle of Malvern Hill, near
Richmond, July 1, 1862. By their friend and Pastor, Rev. I. W.
K. Handy, D. D. (S. L. M., Ed. Table, March, ’63.)

“Father! Mother! dry your tears;
Cease your noble boy to mourn,”--

CHAPTER II

_An Unknown Hero_: By Wm. Gordon McCabe, Camp near Richmond,
1862. (Amaranth, from the _Southern Illustrated News_.)

“Sweet Malvern Hill is wreathed in flame,
From serried ranks the steel is gleaming”--

_The Unreturning_: (S. S.)