Unit 5 18551865 Division, War

1
Unit 5 - 1855-1865Division, War Reconciliation

• Herman Melville wrote a volume of sensitive
  poetry that dealt with war (and other incidents)
  in a quiet, mournful tone (requiem)
• April 1862 - Battle of Shiloh, bloodiest of Civil
  War, 10,000 casualties on each side
• The Civil War absorbed the creative energies of
  the nation

2
History Overview (contd.)

• Notable speeches, songs, letter, memoirs,
  journals, (little memorable fiction), wartime
  literature emerged (Walt Whitman)
• slavery disappeared in the north, not very
  profitable in the south, slavery became the basis
  for the plantation system
• In the North commerce ruled, not cotton as in the
  South

3
History Overview (contd.)

• In the North commerce was profitable thanks to
  the Industrial Revolution and cheap
  transportation
• In the slower paced region of the South,
  plantations and farms were the main source for
  producing cotton, sugar, rice and tobacco. Farms
  defined the South rather than cities as in the
  North

4
History Overview (contd.)

• Irish German immigrants on the rise (landed at
  seaports and settled in the North)
• William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist and editor
  weekly paper, The Liberator
• 1860 Abraham Lincoln elected president, main
  issues slavery/anti-slavery came to a head --
  Lincoln once said, If slavery is not wrong,
  nothing is wrong.

5
History Overview (contd.)

• 1861 Southern states met to form the Confederate
  States of America - President Lincoln would not
  accept secession. April 12, 1861 Civil War
  started (lasted 4 years-1865)
• Union North ConfederacySouth
• Civil War was the 1st American war where black
  troops fought in large numbers - by end of war
  180,000 black soldiers (confederate side, both
  slave free blacks, accompanied army cooks,
  teamsters laborers)

6
History Overview (contd.)

• Few Native American regiments served the Union
• Womens efforts helped both North South (Clara
  BartonRed Cross)
• Lincoln was assassinated on the eve of the final
  victory

7
History Overview (contd.)

• 1862 Emancipation Proclamation, declared as of
  Jan. 1, 1863 slaves would be free (Union had to
  win the war)
• Other struggles going on at this time
• U.S. Army vs. Native Americans
• Open range ranchers vs. settlers
• Wage earners vs. powerful new corporations
• reformers vs. evils

8
Literature of Time

• The Civil War was the basis for literature
• slaves on plantations developed a unique style of
  music - the black spiritual, Spirituals fused
  traditional African music with other familiar
  materials - the Bible, Protestant hymns and
  popular music of the day.
• Lucy McKim, 1867 Slave Songs of the U.S.

9
Literature of Time (contd.)

• Great African American abolitionist of time,
  Frederick Douglass
• persuasive orator
• North Star, a weekly anti-slavery newspaper
• Biography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick
  Douglass

10
Literature of Time (contd.)

• Lincoln, 2 inaugural addresses, letters,
  Gettysburg speech
• Grant and Sherman memoirs
• Soldier and civilian diaries (Mary Boykin
  Chestnut, A Diary From Dixie)
• NOVELS of Time not long lasting, great novels
  about the war, published decades later
• August Jane Wilson Macaria, Altars of Sacrifice,
  Richmond 1864
• John W. DeForest, Miss Ravenels Conversion From
  Secession to Loyalty, 1867

11
Literature of Time (contd.)

• SONGS
• The Battle Cry of Freedom
• Tenting Tonight on the Old Campground
• Taps, General Daniel Butterfield, July 1862
• Tattle Hymn of the Republic, Julia Ward Howe
• Southern Songs
• The Bonny Blue Flag
• The Yellow Rose of Texas
• Dixie

12
Literature of Time (contd.)

• Still Writing After The War
• William Cullen Bryant
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• John Greenleaf Whittier
• Emily Dickinson
• Herman Melville (wrote about war itself)
• Henry Timrod (southern writer) some called him
  the laureate of the confederacy

13
Literature of Time (contd.)

• Walt Whitman, journalist, editor (Brooklyn Eagle)
• valued freedom and individuality
• wrote free verse poems
• in youth he was known as a dandy
• Leaves of Grass first collection of poems, 1855
• masterful poems about war while he was a
  volunteer in D.C. hospitals and tending to his
  injured brother

14
Literature of Time (contd.)

• Poems by Whitman
• Calvary Crossing a Ford
• By the Bivouacs Fitful Flame
• Beat, Beat, Beat Drums!
• O Captain, My Captain (poem about President
  Lincolns assassination
• When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomd (elegy)

15
Literature of Time (contd.)

• More of Whitman
• his poetry unusual in content and style, exalted
  democracy and the common man
• Leaves of Grass hailed as the most influential
  volume of poetry in American Literature

16
VOCABULARY

• Refrain word, phrase, line or group of lines
  repeated at regular intervals in a poem or song
• Autobiography a persons account of his or her
  own life (a continuous narrative)
• Journals journal/diary - personal record of
  events, conversations, thoughts, feelings and/or
  observations
• Tone writers attitude toward his or her
  subject, characters or audience

17
VOCABULARY

• Diction a writers choice of words. An
  important aspect of style, diction must be
  appropriate to the subject, audience, occasion
  and literary form
• Style manner in which writer puts his or her
  thoughts into words

18
VOCABULARY

• Free Verse verse that has irregular meter and
  line length (does not lack rhythm), structured to
  recreate the rising and falling cadences of
  natural speech, with the length of lines being
  varied according to intended emphasis. (appeared
  previously in Bible, Whitman is the first
  American poet to use)

Notes gathered from textbook, The American
Experience, Prentice Hall