[There is nothing in this sentimental song that enables
one to read the riddle of its remarkable popularity during
the Civil War. It has no poetic merit; its rhythm is
commonplace, and the tune to which it was sung was of the
flimsiest musical structure, without even a trick of melody
to commend it. Yet the song was more frequently sung, on
both sides, than any other, the Southern soldiers inserting
“gray” for “blue” in the sixth line of the first stanza,
with cheerful recklessness of the effect upon the rhyme.
The thing was heard in every camp every day and many times
every day. Men chanted it on the march, and women sang
it to piano accompaniment in all houses. A song which so
strongly appealed to two great armies and to an entire
people is worthy of a place in all collections of war
poetry, even though criticism is baffled in the attempt to
discover the reason of its popularity.--EDITOR.]
[Illustration]