Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v4.djvu/93

Ballads from American Wars 505 Some of the most popular pieces of the Revolutionary period, mostly satirical verses by known authors, have been treated in an earlier chapter. ' From the War of 18 12 remain James Bird, a ballad of a hero shot for desertion, texts of which have drifted as far inland as the Central states, and a camp song in ridicule of General Packingham. Some verses beginning Then you sent out your Boxer to beat us all about; We had an enterprising Brig to beat the Boxer out, and some stanzas preserved as a marching song for children — We're marching down to old Quebec While the drums are loudly beating — may also date back this far. The Texas Rangers, widely cur- rent through the South and the West, and modelled on the British Nancy of Yarmouth, sounds like an echo of the fight with the Mexicans at the Alamo in 1835. Songs surviving from the Civil War are frequently senti- mental in character, like When this Cruel War is Over and The Blue and the Gray.^ These are of traceable origin, yet they have passed widely into oral tradition. There were numerous camp songs on sieges or battles, but these have not shown vitality. Best remembered in popular literature from the time of the Civil War are many negro, or rather pseudo- negro songs, given diffusion by the old-time itinerant negro minstrels. Many are the work of composers like Stephen C Foster^ or Henry C. Work. " These persist in popular memory side by side with songs like Juanita or Lorena, or the later After the Ball. Every collector of folk-song comes upon pieces of this type far oftener than upon songs commemorating battles or political events. In similar manner, the popular song given currency by the Cuban War, A Hot Time in the Old Town To- night, modelled on a Creole song, does not reflect directly the war that "floated" it. Nor do the songs universalized for England and America by the war of 1914 — Tipperary, Keep the Home Fires Burning, Over There, The Long, Long Trail — commemorate its leading events. • See Book I, Chap. ix. ' See Book III, Chaps, ii. and m. 3 See Book III, Chap. v. ■> See Book III, Chap. ii.