Episode 100 · 1859–1865; first published as episode 100 in 2014 · United States and Confederate States; army camps, battlefields, homes, churches, rallies, and music halls
MUSIC SPECIAL: Songs of the Civil War
A guide to more than twenty songs heard during the Civil War. The episode explains how patriotic, sentimental, religious, minstrel, emancipation, marching, and camp songs shaped wartime politics and morale. It also identifies the composers and the events that changed how several songs were understoodEpisode at a glance
Step by step
Episode flow
Follow the discussion in order. Reference maps show the setting; they do not plot positions for each step.
Step 1 of 21
The episode surveys Civil War music
The hosts present more than twenty wartime songs, explain their origins and uses, and play portions of modern performances.
Maps
People and command
Other people
- DDUnited States
Daniel Decatur Emmett
Wrote “Dixie” for a New York minstrel show in 1859
- HMConfederacy
Harry McCarthy
Wrote and promoted “The Bonnie Blue Flag” across the Confederacy
- GFUnited States
George Frederick Root
Chicago songwriter and publisher behind “The Battle Cry of Freedom,” “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp,” and other wartime songs
- HCUnited States
Henry Clay Work
Wrote “Kingdom Coming” and “Marching Through Georgia”
- JWUnited States
Julia Ward Howe
Wrote the lyrics to “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
- PSUnited States
Patrick S. Gilmore
Published “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” under the name Louis Lambert
- JRConfederacy
James Ryder Randall
Wrote the poem used for “Maryland, My Maryland”
- JEConfederacy
J. E. B. Stuart
Confederate cavalry commander closely associated in the episode with “Join the Cavalry”