Scholarly volumes have been written about the causes of the war, presenting plausible reasons for the bloodbath of the 1860s. The arguments are endless and fascinating. Every generation finds new insight into the times. What has largely been ignored is the role of songs in America’s Civil War. This book chronicles the war’s social history in terms of its seldom discussed musical side, and is told from the perspective of the South. Outmanned and outgunned during the War, the South was certainly not musically bested.

An expansion of a check list begun by the Historical Records Survey for the American imprints inventory and continued under the State-Wide Library Project in Texas.