Popular Music and Society

ISSN: 0300-7766 (Print) 1740-1712 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rpms20

Civil War Naval Songs: Period Ballads from the

Union and Confederate Navies, and the Home
Front

Thomas M. Kitts

To cite this article: Thomas M. Kitts (2015) Civil War Naval Songs: Period Ballads from the Union
and Confederate Navies, and the Home Front, Popular Music and Society, 38:5, 678-680, DOI:
10.1080/03007766.2015.1018086

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2015.1018086

Published online: 27 Feb 2015.

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Popular Music and Society, 2015
Vol. 38, No. 5, 678–680, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2015.1018086

Audio Review

Civil War Naval Songs: Period Ballads from the Union and Confederate Navies,
and the Home Front
DAN MILNER, DAVID COFFIN and JEFF DAVIS
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
CD, SFW 40189

Conceived by Dan Milner and released to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the
American Civil War (1861–65), Civil War Naval Songs offers us a glimpse into the war
and its culture. It is a fascinating and very listenable collection, one enhanced by its
packaging, which includes an informative 32- page booklet complete with an essay
(“The American Civil War Afloat” by James Bradford), an introduction by Milner,
context for each song, photographs, a brief bibliography, and credits. The 13 maritime
songs remain loyal to their historical context by using only instruments from the Civil
War era, yet Milner’s production, sparse and clean, and his other veteran vocalists,
folkies David Coffin and Jeff Davis, convey the richness and poetry of the songs with
energy and authority. The songs breathe with new life.
The selections reflect both Union and Confederate perspectives—eight sympathize
with the North, five with the South. Topics include naval victories (“The Fight of the
Hatteras and Alabama,” “Farragut’s Ball,” “The Brooklyn, Sloop-of-War,” “The
Alabama,” “The Fate of the Pirate Alabama”); the northern blockade of southern ports
(“The Florida’s Cruise,” “The Blockade Runner”); the Merrimack and Monitor (“The
Old Virginia Lowlands, Low,” “The Monitor & Merrimac” [alternative spelling]); the
separation of lovers (“The Bold Privateer,” “A Yankee Man of War”); sailing home
(“The Jamestown Homeward Bound”); and death at sea (“The Sailor’s Grave”).
Originally sung on ship, in drawing rooms, in theaters, or in taverns, the songs—used
to honor, motivate, and recruit sailors as well as to energize support on the home
front—celebrate and lament.
For consistency and drama, Milner assigns a Confederate voice and a Union voice.
Jeff Davis sings only Confederate songs, four, and David Coffin, only Northern songs,
four. On the remaining five tracks, Milner sings with his obvious accent, which could
suggest Irish immigrants, who fought on both sides during the war. While most Irish
fought for the industrial North—perhaps reflected in Milner’s preponderance of
Union songs—the Confederacy did boast of six Irish-born generals. (Of course, many
if not most Irish immigrants did not embrace the war effort, as draft riots erupted in
New York and elsewhere.) All three voices contrast, heightening the drama. Davis’s
voice is husky and folksy, Coffin’s is a lively baritone, almost operatic at times, and
 Popular Music and Society 679

Milner’s is a reedy tenor. All are expressive, capable of emotional range and depth, and
on most tracks are accompanied by only one or two instruments, with Coffin often
accompanying himself on concertina and Davis on banjo, dulcimer, and/or fiddle.
The most elaborate arrangement comes on the closing track, “The Monitor &
Merrimac,” sung by Milner, who is supported by background vocalists, a piano, an
almost Dixieland clarinet, piccolo, and trombone. The joyous romp celebrates the
Northern defeat of the ironclad Merrimack with a sing-along chorus appropriate for
ship, drawing room, or tavern:

Dooden do, Jeff Davis, how are you?

Our Monitor beat your Merrimac quite handy, oh!
Ericsson1 he’s around, in the world there can’t be found
A people like the Yankees’ Doodle Dandy, Oh!
1
John Ericsson, designer of Monitor

Frequently, as is the case here, lyrics were published without musical notation or
reference to a folk tune. Milner, therefore, set these Charles A. Clark lyrics to music,
but remains consistent with the simple folk settings in which the lyrics would have
been placed and, thankfully, avoids any distracting stylistic flourishes.
Civil War Naval Songs features some neat pairings, which complement or
counterpoint one another. In the southern “The Bold Privateer” and in the northern
“A Yankee Man-of-War,” sailors depart from their girlfriends. In the former the lovers
exchange rings; in the latter, sung a cappella by Milner, Deidre Murtha, and Bonnie
Milner, the lovers take halves of a torn handkerchief. Together, the songs imply the
similarity of struggle for both sides. Near the close of the CD, in “The Alabama,” Davis
sings “a toast” to the “glorious cause” of the “saucy craft” that interrupted Union
trade and which, in the song, serves as an emblem of Confederate nationhood and
pride. However, with its quiet piano and Davis’s almost taciturn vocals, the song is
more ominous and more melancholy than anthemic. In the final verse, the song warns
of the Alabama’s possible destruction in a “storm of battle.” However, as long as a
plank remains, the singer says, “to death we will defend her” and “still cry no
surrender.” “The Alabama” is followed by “The Fate of the Pirate Alabama,” sung by
Coffin who tells of the Alabama’s sinking and the crew’s lamentable rescue by a
passing English ship.
There are no weak tracks or performances on the album. However, highlights
emerge for each vocalist. For Milner, in addition to “The Monitor & Merrimac,” it is
the rebel anthem “Blockade Runner,” another song for which he created the melody.
The song celebrates a southern breaking of the blockade, a regular feat until 1862 by
which time the US Navy had expanded. It’s a proud song exulting in southern
ingenuity and adventure, capturing well, in Milner’s spirited delivery and the
accompanying banjo and concertinas, the “hearts of mirth” aboard the runners that
enabled the cotton trade to continue and supplies to enter ports. Along with the
powerfully evocative “Sailor’s Grave,” Coffin’s high point comes with “The Old
Virginia Lowlands, Low,” which salutes the mechanical expertise of John Ericsson and
680 Audio Review
tells of the Monitor’s driving back a damaged Merrimack, “a rebel monster,” to port.
Coffin speeds the tempo effectively when he reports the battle. Especially noteworthy
among Davis’s contributions is “The Florida’s Cruise,” sung from the perspective of a
proud foretopman. Davis and his fiddle tell of the Florida, a southern raider, which,
under the command of John N. Moffitt, sped out past the Union blockade and
wreaked havoc on the Union fleet, humiliating Yankee captains. Davis’s fiddle saws
through the song as the foretopman sings of the “little flash packet.”
Civil War Naval Songs tells stories of adventure, victory, defeat, love, loss, wonder,
and possibility. The vocalists sing with a lively but reserved and convincing passion,
never resorting to what Jerry Wexler called “oversouling” (misplaced vocal
pyrotechnics intended to reflect passion). Similarly, Milner’s production, devoid of
any excess or melodramatic techniques, sparkles with freshness. The result is a
pleasurable and rewarding listening experience.

THOMAS M. KITTS
St. John’s University, NY
q 2015 Thomas M. Kitts