Armand Blackmar was, with his brother Henry, the founder of a music publishing company in 1860, originally based out of New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

, and later Augusta, Georgia

Augusta, Georgia

Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...

. This would become the most successful such company of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, issuing about half the songs released during that era.

Armand and Henry were music teachers before entering the publishing business. When Northern troops took over the city of New Orleans, Henry Blackmar moved the business to Augusta, while Armand - due to his Northern accent - managed to continue working out of New Orleans for a time, but a Union raid on his business forced him to cease working. He continued to live in Louisiana and published songs of his own, under a pseudonym, through his brother.

Armand's published work included the "Dixie War Song", "Southern Marseillaise" and the "Beauregard Manassas".

Henry Blackmar continued to operate the company out of Augusta, extending his distribution chain throughout the South. Songwriter John Hill Hewitt

John Hill Hewitt

John Hill Hewitt was an American songwriter, playwright, and poet. He is best known for his songs about the American South, including "A Minstrel's Return from the War", "The Soldier's Farewell", "The Stonewall Quickstep", and "Somebody's Darling"...

 took over the business after Henry was sent to jail for beating his wife.

In 1881 and 1882, Blackmar analyzed Blackmar's Gambit, a chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 opening

Chess opening

A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...

, and published his work in the July 1882 issue of Brentano’s Chess.