Battle Hymns

“Much more than a treat for lovers of good history writing and a fresh look at well-trodden fields, it is also a painful reminder of just how divided a nation we were at birth, and how those divisions live with us still.”—Huffington Post

“An extremely valuable addition to the canon of Civil War history.”—Southern Historian

“Exceptionally well researched and engagingly written . . . A welcome addition to a growing scholarship on popular culture in the Civil War era. . . . [It] will profit scholars who work on popular culture in nineteenth-century America, Union and Confederate nationalism, the history of music, and Civil War memory.”—H-CivWar

“McWhirter excels at tracing the history and popularity of a variety of songs from the 1860s.”—Journal of Southern History

“A wealth of practical information on who composed what, when, and under what circumstances. [McWhirter’s] discovery of minute details concerning the origins of popular Civil War songs constitutes a real contribution to this area of specialization.”—Civil War Book Review

“Through meticulous research, McWhiter has paid tribute to a forgotten aspect of the Civil War: its music.”—Journal of African American History

“A detailed and thorough account invaluable to students of the Civil War and American cultural history.”—North Carolina Historical Review

“A fascinating examination of how popular songs defined and unified ideologies during the Civil War.”—Southern Register

“An extensive, descriptive account of music during the American Civil War.”—Journal of American History

“Contains fascinating, humorous, and little-known stories from the period.”—Kansas History