Irish American Civil War Songs: Identity, Loyalty, and Nationhood

Catherine Bateson, an associate lecturer at the University of Kent, analyzed 150 songs from the Civil War to investigate the identity of the Irish American soldier and his place in the history of the Irish diaspora. At the heart of her work are questions about when the Irish became American and how Irish culture influenced the broader American context during the nineteenth century. Although song lyrics and melodies are central to her analysis, she also sheds light on the Irish role in Civil War, moving beyond well-told tales about Thomas Francis Meagher and the Irish Brigade, by contrasting the song lyrics with other sources from the battlefield to expand the history of the Irish military contributions. Furthermore, she studies the production and dissemination of music to reveal the process in which lyrics and music represent blended cultural influences, which not only reveal point of view at the time, but also influence popular memory.First Bateson looks at the music—the melodies that “had a ‘major impact on popular song’ for much of the nineteenth century” (23). She points out that most Civil War songs can be traced to existing tunes which already had meaning to their audience, and this served to “strengthen the lyrical message of American loyalty and identity while revealing the simultaneous Americanization of traditional Irish tunes” (23). In some cases, a single tune was repurposed for multiple ballads, both Union and Confederate. Since traditional Irish tunes were common in antebellum America, their influence and popularity “shows the impact of Irish singing, songwriting, and printing culture in the United States” (29).The lyrics of Civil War ballads also present powerful imagery of the role of Irish American soldiers, not only celebrating their bravery and commitment, but also preserving military history for the community and “reinforcing transnational heritage transmission to immigrant populations” (119). Songs about the Irish maintained their commitment to America while retaining traditional symbols of Ireland like harps and shamrocks, but “above all other sentiments in Irish American Civil War song lyrics, wartime ballads were infused with messages of inherent loyalty and entrenched nascent patriotism” (190).Discussion of the Irish role in the Civil War brings to mind the draft riots, Thomas Meagher, the Irish Brigade, and Fenianism. These are well-known aspects of Irish American history, and all are discussed. The majority of songs with Irish content focused on the Irish Brigade, but Meagher “played second fiddle to [Michael] Corcoran in wartime song culture” (94). As the most frequently mentioned person in Irish war ballads, Corcoran became familiar to wider American audiences from 1861 until his death in 1863. The two most written about Irish regiments were the 69th New York and the 69th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment. The 69th Pennsylvania had the first song dedicated to them in August 1861 (99).Fenianism was not mentioned much in ballads, which were also disseminated to a wider American audience, but some anti-British views were expressed, including specific references to the Fenians and more general sympathies for Irish independence. For example, one song from 1862 urges, “Oh steer your barks to Erin’s Isle, whose proud soul is kept under/ To rise her Green flag to the breeze and burst her claims asunder” (139). Bateson observes that most nationalist references are set in the future—that ballads were written as if “Irish independence would come after Union restoration” (139). When they did appear, nationalist sentiment was most often paired with other wartime concerns and therefore presented as secondary to the American crisis. Thus, Bateson argues that these songs raise concerns about the “very nature of Irish nationalism sympathy, support, and Fenian attitudes toward independence” (135).Ultimately, Bateson argues that the Irish had already become American before the Civil War—that soldiers were fighting to protect their home, and that the Civil War experience was not part of what made the Irish identify as American because that process started earlier. In her interpretation, the Irish diaspora community identified as American by the 1860s and the Civil War “gave them cause and opportunities to demonstrate this through song, fighting service” and support for the nation’s future (218). Although 200,000 Irish-born soldiers served in the war, and many more second-generation immigrants, Bateson uses music to challenge historians’ interpretations of the role of the Civil War in forging Irish American identity, arguing that the Irish “viewed the war through American lenses” (212). She concludes, “Although the diaspora retained Irish cultural heritage aspects during the conflict, the songs discussed here were sung with an American spirit. What pervades throughout is an established sense of Irish American identity whereby the focus was placed on the American side first and foremost” (20).She is able to make these claims because most of the songs were written by anonymous authors—soldiers, performers, journalists, and civilians—and not just a few professional writers. Furthermore, the songs were widely reproduced and disseminated, although she also concedes that not all writers were Irish, and that songs were printed by American publishers. The larger questions that her work raises are: to what extent can song lyrics help us understand the identity of the rank-and-file soldiers who sang them and how typical is this Civil War generation? Irish immigration continued to be heavy in the late nineteenth century, and much larger waves of Irish nationalism developed in the United States after the decline of Fenianism. Therefore, questions about identity formation and commitment to Irish nationalism (along with American patriotism) will continue to evolve throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.