§23. The West; The Mississippi. III. Poets of the Civil War II. Vol. 16. Early National Literature, Part II; Later National Literature, Part I. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
VOLUME XVI. Early National Literature, Part II; Later National Literature, Part I.

III. Poets of the Civil War II.

§ 23. The West; The Mississippi.

One phase of the struggle ends with Lee’s whole army crossing the Potomac into Maryland—an event celebrated by Hayne in his Beyond the Potomac. Then the fighting changed to the West, and we have Thompson’s poem on Joseph E. Johnston in which he exhorts the West to emulate Virginia in its struggle for freedom. Requier’s Clouds in the West is followed by Flash’s tribute to Zollicoffer, Ticknor’s poem on Albert Sidney Johnston, Hayne’s The Swamp Fox—a spirited characterization of Morgan, who seems to the poet a re-incarnation of the South Carolina Revolutionary patriot Marion. Connected also with the battles of the West were Ticknor’s Loyal and Little Giffen of Tennessee—the latter based on a story of real life and a striking illustration of the heroism with which the sons of the masses threw themselves into the Southern struggle. This poem, so dramatic in its quality, so concise in its expression, so vital in its phrasing, is destined to outlive all the tributes to the great leaders of the Confederacy. Mrs. Preston’s Only a Private and Mrs. Townsend’s The Georgia Volunteer and the anonymous Barefooted Boys are poems of the same general tenor, but they lack the freshness and the vigour of Ticknor’s poem.