Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War

Abstract

Music in nineteenth-century America was social and ephemeral. As a result, its power and popularity remained largely situational. Such a musical climate is the setting for Christian McWhirter's Battle Hymns—an extensive, descriptive account of music during the American Civil War. The author's approach is that of a Civil War historian more than a cultural or music scholar. In thematic chapters, written in clear prose drawn from detailed archival research, the author handles such topics as the Northern and Southern quests for national anthems, popular music on the home front, music in the armies, music of and about freedpeople, and the politicization of music. Although the book does not follow a chronology, it still describes how and why popular music transformed over the course of the war as peoples' experiences with and attitudes toward the war changed. Stories on the creation of “John Brown's Body,” “Battle Cry of Freedom,” and “Dixie” revisit common subjects in American music history. McWhirter's chapter on how whites musically expressed their changing opinions of blacks and how they musically conveyed their newfound status as freedpeople situates Civil War music within its racial context. His description of how veterans used Civil War–era music to promote their legacy begins an interesting chapter that progresses through later attempts to bolster the Lost Cause using Civil War music and ends in 2009 with the University of Mississippi football controversy over using “Dixie” as the team's unofficial fight song—nicely emphasizing this history's relevance to the present.