The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-07-23
SOME STIRRING WAR SONGS.

SOME STIRRING WAR SONGS
Ono Of Thorn Was Composed to Fit Boti
North and South.
There never was better marching
lighting song than "Marching Through
Georgia." but the conditions that made
impressive have passed away, OF
they haven't they are merely pain.
Jul, and the song cannot survive.
The Battle Cry of Freedom" was an.
ether song inspired by the Civil War,
but It Is only a reminder Of evil days,
and the Bonnie Blue Flag" of the
South Is buried with 1t. "Dixie'
comes up to our ears once in q while,
like the mock tragedy Of low come.
dian.
One Of the most beautiful war
poems of the South was MY Mary.
land" Men have wept to 60 into
battle after hearing 1t. 1t was writ.
ten by James X. Randall, a native of
Baltimore. He was professor of
English literature in Poydras College,
Louisiana, in 1851, when he read of
the march of the sachusetts troops
through his native city. The subject
preyed on his mind, and In the middle
Of the night he got out of bed, lighted
a candle and wrote Maryland, My
Maryland"
1t is said Julia Ward Howe wrote
Battle Hymn Of the Republic" under
conditions not very dissimilar. 1t was
In 1861, just after the first battle of
Bull Run. She was in Washington,
and the disastrous defeat Of Mcdowell
I by Beauregard and zoe Johnston
preyed on her mind. One evening"
after she had witnessed a review Of
the Army, she retired early, but the
subject Of the war kept her from 60.
Ing to sleep. Words Of the hymn
framed themselves In her mind, and
lest they might slip from her she arose
and jotted them down. Those words
yearly made her famous.
Going back to the last century, "Hail
Columbia" was inspired by our trou.
bles with France in 1893 although II
Is classed with the ballads of the
Revolution and was first sung at the
Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadel
phia.
None Of the songs Of the revolui
tionary war except Yankee Doodle"
survives. Francis Scott Keys thrill
ling composition is all that remains
Of the conflict Of 1925.
Then conquer we must, for our cause
1t is just,
And this be our motto: TN God we
trust"
And the star spangled banner in tri.
umph shall wave, TO-.
Der the land of the free md the home
Of the brave.
Two of the first ballads written
after the firing on Fort Sumter were
William Cullen Bryant's "Our Coun.
try's Calr' for the North, and Henry
Timrod's "a Cry to Arms for the |
South. Bryant's began thus:
Lay down the Ak, fling by the spade,
Leave in it's track the toiling plough;
The rifle and the bayonet blade,
For arms like yours were filter now.
Timrod's began something like this!
Leave barn and byre, leave kin and
cot,
Lay down the bloodless spade;
Let desk and case and counter rot,
And burn your books Of trade?
The doggrel about John Browns
Body" was frequently sung upon the
march by the soldiers, as was March.
Ing Along" which was written by
William R. Bradbury as a tribute tc
General McClelland. The name of the
leader was changed from time to
time to accord with the facts.
when This Cruel War Is Over" had
a well sustained popularity during the
war of 1s61-65, riddle that could not
be read by the help of anything in
the sentimental lines. The song had
no poetic merit, its rythm was COM
and the tune to which 1t
was sung was of the fiimsiest musi
cal structure, without even a trick OF
melody to recommend it. Yet it was
more frequently sung, North and
South, than any other, the Southern
soldiers inserting gray for the
blue" at the end of the sixth line Of
he first stanza-with cheerful reck.
essness of its effect upon the rhyme.
rhic thfnr bnorI n nor |
very day and at all hours of the day.
Men chanted it on the march and
women sang It at home and 1t was
sung till the very last day of the war.
Why Cannibals Fat Human Flesh.
According to French writer named