Walbrook D. Swank

This is a book that would be a lot better for the right title.

If it were Poems of the Civil War, or Verses from the Civil War, it would be a perfectly respectable book, although the complete lack of annotation would probably reduce its effectiveness for most people.

But the author calls the contents "Ballads."

They are not. It doesn't matter what definition of "Ballad" you use, the original one of "traditional song" or the modern one of just, frankly, "something that came out of my navel," they have music. And most of these don't and never did. A few did become songs -- "All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight," for instance (filed here as "The Picket Guard," and with no author attribution even though it is known to have been written by Ethel Lynn Beers). But they are the minority. Many of the pieces don't even appear to have been published in any widely-read publication. This is simply a collection of Civil War poetry. It is not a collection of ballads.

Also, there is no index of first lines, just of titles. Since the titles may not be the common ones (I again cite the case of "All Quiet Along the Potomac"), this is a distinct weakness.

The simple summary: This book was a real disappointment, both in its title and its contents.… (altro)