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COOKE, MARY LEE, D.M.A. Southern Women, Southern Voices: Civil War Songs by Southern Women. (2007) Directed by Dr. Nancy Walker. 221 pp. This document considers the lives and works of thirty women living in the Confederate States during the American Civil War. The works they produced are songs published as sheet music in the South during and shortly after that conflict. Some wrote lyrics, some music, some both, and one arranged the lyrics and music of her husband for the piano. These works reflect the women’s feelings regarding the conflict, their perceptions of women’s roles in relation to it, their definitions of the South as their country, and their identities as Southerners. The material is organized in six chapters and arranged topically and in more or less chronological order. After the introductory Foreword of Chapter One, Chapter Two deals with the initial burst of patriotism expressed in the songs produced early in the war. These songs define the South as a country and invoke the blessings of Deity. The songs discussed in Chapter Three, also produced early in the war, extol the new flag and early victories. The songs in Chapter Four reflect the onset of war’s harsh realities that plagued Southerners by the middle of the war: separation anxiety, loneliness, death, and deprivations. The songs of Chapter Five are calls for peace and post-war tributes to the dead. An Afterword concludes the document in Chapter Six. One concludes from the study of these women’s lives and works that they harbored strong feelings about the war and that the writing and publishing of poetry and music was seen as an acceptable means of expressing those feelings. The literacy and/or musical training demonstrated in these songs reflect a level of education typical of middle and upper-class Southern women of the period. Additional biographical study reveals the perseverance with which these women faced not only the war and its outcome, but also the professional limitations and the social restrictions with which they had to contend. SOUTHERN WOMEN, SOUTHERN VOICES: CIVIL WAR SONGS BY SOUTHERN WOMEN by Mary Lee Cooke A Dissertation Submitted to The Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Musical Arts Greensboro 2007 Approved by ________________________________ Committee Chair © 2007 by Mary Lee Cooke To the memory of my great-grandparents, Acenith Ervin Cook and Moses Sydney Cook, Private, Company C, 48th Regiment, NC Infantry, CSA ii APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro Committee Chair Committee Members Date of Acceptance by Committee Date of Final Oral Examination iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is necessary to acknowledge the help and assistance of several people in the production of this dissertation. First, I want to thank my committee: Dr. Nancy Walker, Committee Chair and Advisor, Dr. Eleanor McCrickard, Mr. David Holley, Dr. Robert Wells, Committee Members, and Dr. William Carroll, former Committee Member. Special thanks must be extended to Dr. Eleanor McCrickard, without whose encouragement and advice, the writing of this document would have been impossible. Secondly, many thanks must go to Dr. Brian Thacker, without whose computer skills and expertise this document could not have been completed. Thirdly, I want to express thanks to my good friend, Ms. Eileen Miller, for her help and assistance. Lastly, during the course of this work I have visited many libraries and been helped by many librarians. Special mention must be made of Julia Bradford and Vicki Johnson at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library on the campus of Wake Forest University. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. FOREWORD . 1 II. GRAND AND GLORIOUS HOPES . 11 The Land We Love . 12 The Land of Cotton . 18 A Call to Arms: Formex vos Bataillons ! . 22 God Is on Our Side . 29 Forever Defiant . 37 III. OUR FATHERS BROUGHT FORTH A NEW NATION. .. 46 You’re a Brand New Flag . 47 Follow the Flag! . 59 The Thrill of Victory . 69 Hero Worship . 76 Homage to the Common Man . 80 IV. TIME FOR A REALITY CHECK . 88 Sweet Sorrow . 89 Ersatz at Home . 98 The Anonymity of Death . 105 Keeping the Faith . 111 Give Peace a Chance . 113 V. IN THE WAKE OF WAR . 121 The Final Meeting . 122 Remaining Noble in Defeat . 125 Remembering the Dead . 128 Carrying On . 146 VI. AFTERWORD . 154 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 160 v APPENDIX A: SOUTHERN WOMEN AND THEIR SONGS: PART I: LISTED ALPHABETICALLY BY SONG TITLE . 173 PART II: LISTED ALPHABETICALLY BY THE WOMEN’S LAST NAMES . 177 PART III: LISTED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER . 181 PART IV: OTHER WORKS CREATED BY THE WOMEN IN THIS STUDY . 185 APPENDIX B: ILLUSTRAIONS AND MUSICAL EXAMPLES . 188 vi CHAPTER I FOREWORD The great cataclysmic conflagration that rent this country asunder in the middle of the nineteenth century unquestionably impacted the lives of generations of Americans. Whether one calls it the War Between the States, the War of Northern Aggression, the War for Southern Independence, or simply the Recent Unpleasantness, the American Civil War1 remains the watershed event of our nation’s history, defining forever the term “union.” Indeed, as the late Mississippi writer and Civil War historian Shelby Foote noted in Ken Burns’ landmark documentary,2 the Civil War changed us from a plural, the United States “are,” to a singular, the United States “is,” nation. Ever since the ante-bellum days of fire-eaters and abolitionists, the conflict has deeply affected the lives of millions of people. Many people directly involved in the war found in poetry and music an ideal means of expressing their feelings about the events unfolding around them. In their poems and song lyrics, combatants and those who waited at home expressed strong patriotism and love of country. Soldiers vented their frustration with the routine of camp life and military regulations, and both men and women lamented the pain of separation. Some writers presented idealized scenes of battlefield heroics and death. As death became a more tangible reality, lyrics reflected grief over the fallen, admiration for the nobility of sacrifice, and sometimes, an irrevocable and everlasting 1 The conflict will hereafter and throughout this paper be referred to as the “Civil War.” 2 The Civil War, produced and directed by Ken Burns and Ric Burns, 11 hrs. 21 min., Florentine Films, 1989, PBS Television Documentary. 1 resentment, even hatred, toward a victorious enemy. At war’s end, while Northerners produced songs celebrating the victorious return of their men, Southerners wrote songs in memory of their dead. During the war years, many women were left at home working farms or managing plantations in the absence of their husbands, brothers, fathers, and sons. Many sought ways to involve themselves in the conflict and support the South. Some actually disguised themselves as men and went to the battlefront. Most found more traditional outlets such as working in hospitals, making bandages, making and presenting flags, sending what we would call “care packages,” and organizing fundraising events. Many women found in the writing of poetry or in the composition of music a readily accessible and acceptable means of supporting the cause and the soldiers. In their creative endeavors they were able to demonstrate their belief in the rightness of their cause, the invincibility of the South, and the aggressive “tyranny” of the North. Some expressed in their lyrics the belief that the necessity of sacrifice on the home front was a vital part of their contribution. Others wrote about the separation from loved ones and the accompanying loneliness. At least one called for peace and an end to the pain, deprivation, and bloodshed. Finally, songs memorializing the dead accompanied the decoration of their graves and honored their sacrifice. The purpose of this document is to investigate the role of Southern women in the creation of songs relating to the American Civil War. I say “relating to” instead of “during” because some of these songs were published in the years immediately following the cessation of hostilities, and some published during the war were not relevant to the 2 concurrent conflict. The latter are not included in this study. All of the songs considered here were published as sheet music; song sheets, broadsides, and songsters are excluded. Instrumental music is not included, and neither are songs by Northern women. I have not found any songs by African-American women among published works, but many may well have existed in the oral tradition, which is outside the scope of this study. Among the most popular Civil War songs are many about women, but written by men. These will also be excluded. I have also chosen not to include the Carys or Annie Chambers Ketchum.3 This paper will consider thirty-five songs that involved the creative output of thirty women. Eighteen of these women produced words that were set to music by others, while six set the words of others to music. Two wrote both the words and music, and one arranged the words and melodies of her husband. Three women chose to have their work published anonymously. These women, well-educated and articulate, represent the middle and upper classes of ante-bellum Southern society. To my knowledge, none belonged to the yeoman, or poorer Southern working class, nor were any African- American. Every state of the Confederacy, except Arkansas, is represented here, as well as Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri. It is true that four, and perhaps five, of these women were foreign-born, and one was born in the North, but their poems and music were written and published in the South during the war years.

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