Mississippi “Milish”:  Militiamen in the Civil War
by Tracy L. Barnett

This article explores the numerous Southern men who served in state militias during the American Civil War. In contrast to youthful, unmarried Confederate soldiers, militiamen tended to be married men in their thirties and forties. Given their family situations and generational status, these middle-aged men had household duties and careers attaching them their local communities. Civilians rarely accused them—having already proved themselves as worthy citizens, honorable patriarchs, and essential community members—of cowardliness or disloyalty. Rather, these men’s local and household roles determined their wartime function. Based on age, fitness, family situation, and community obligation, Mississippians held variable conceptions of duty, honor, and loyalty. In turn, middle-aged militiamen eschewed Confederate service and instead held localized concepts of their wartime roles.

Locating Patriotism in Civil War Songs
by James A. Davis

Patriotism requires a locus of identity, something toward which a community’s loyalty can be directed with some measure of confidence and sustainability. This was a particular challenge during the American Civil War. A shared cultural heritage and ill-defined borders made it difficult to delineate between the Union and the Confederacy in many ways, while stubborn regional loyalties and competing internal agendas made political and emotional unity a challenge for both countries. Despite these impediments, certain Civil War songs succeeded as patriotic anthems to such a degree that they remain icons today. A close look at songs such as “The Bonnie Blue Flag,” “Maryland, My Maryland,” “Dixie’s Land,” “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and “Yankee Doodle” reveals that during the American Civil War patriotic music constructed multivalent nationalistic spaces instead of referencing determinate geopolitical places. Combining locationally suggestive yet indistinct lyrics with likeable melodies, certain notable pieces generated ambiguous although substantive emotional and conceptual focal points. To be effective, these spaces had to be locatable and definable, even as they occupied a gray area around the tangible places and explicit ideas encountered in daily life. The songs discussed in this article succeeded by avoiding specificity in favor of abstractions that allowed them to serve diverse populations with common cause. They might provide a metaphoric substitute for a failed cause, describe an endearing fantasy realm, or realign past places to suit present needs. Each of these examples illustrates how strong regional loyalty and an adolescent national identity necessitated patriotic music fluid enough to adapt to ever-changing notions of nation, state and country during the American Civil War.