• Source: All Quiet Along the Potomac

"All Quiet Along the Potomac," originally titled "The Picket Guard," is an 1861 poem by American writer Ethel Lynn Beers.




Overview


The poem was first published as "The Picket Guard" in the Harper's Weekly issue dated November 30, 1861. It attributed only to "E.B." It was reprinted broadly both with that attribution and without, leading to many spurious claims of authorship. Among those claiming authorship was Lamar Fontaine, then a private in the CSA. On July 4, 1863, Harper's Weekly told its readers that the poem had been written for the paper by a lady contributor whom it later identified as Beers.
The poem was based on newspaper reports of "all is quiet tonight", which was based on official telegrams sent to the Secretary of War by Major-General George B. McClellan following the First Battle of Bull Run. In September 1861, Beers noticed that one report was followed by a small item telling of a picket being killed. She wrote the poem that same morning.
In 1863, the poem was set to music by John Hill Hewitt, himself a poet, newspaperman, and musician. This song may have inspired the title of the English translation of Erich Maria Remarque's World War I novel All Quiet on the Western Front.




"The Picket-Guard"



"The Picket-Guard", Harper's Weekly, 1861:




Illustrations






See also


List of anti-war songs




References






Bibliography


Beers, Ethel Lynn. All Quiet Along the Potomac, and Other Poems. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates (1879).
Davidson, James Wood. The Living Writers of the South . New York: Carleton, Publisher (1869).
Fontaine, Lamar; J.H. Hewitt (m.). "All Quiet Along the Potomac To-night" (Sheet Music). Columbia, S.C.: Julian A. Selby (1863).
Graham, C.R. (ed.). Under Both Flags: A Panorama of the Great Civil War. Veteran Publishing Company (1896).
LaBree, Ben. Camp Fires of the Confederacy. Louisville, KY: Courier-Journal Job Printing Company (1898).
Matthews, Bander (ed.); N.C. Wyeth (illus.) Poems of American Patriotism. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1922).
Sargent, Epes (ed.). Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry. New York: Harper & Brothers (1882).




External links


All Quiet Along the Potomac, and Other Poems (1879) at archive.org

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• All Quiet Along the Potomac
• Ethel Lynn Beers
• 1879 in literature
• 1863 in music
• Lamar Fontaine
• 1879 in poetry
• List of anti-war songs
• John Hill Hewitt
• List of Private Passions episodes (1995–1999)
• Music of the American Civil War