The Conquered Banner
Encyclopedia
The Conquered Banner was the most popular of the post-Civil War
Confederate
poems. It was written by Roman Catholic priest and Confederate Army chaplain, Father Abram Joseph Ryan
, who is sometimes called the "poet laureate of the postwar south" and "poet-priest of the Confederacy."
The poem was first published on June 24, 1865, in the pro-Confederate Roman Catholic newspaper the New York Freeman
under the pen-name "Moina". It made Father Ryan famous and became one of the best known post-war South, memorized and recited by generations of Southern schoolchildren.
Ryan told an interviewer that he wrote the Conquered Banner in Knoxville, Tennessee
shortly after General Lee's surrender at Appomattox, "When my mind was engrossed with the thought of our dead soldiers and our dead Cause."
David O'Connell has described Conquered Banner as echoing Emerson
's extremely popular Concord Hymn
. According to O'Connell readers would have unconsciously have thought of Emerson's poem Concord when Ryan used the word "conquered", and by echoing Emerson's reference to a furled flag, Ryan would have enhanced the patriotic resonance his poem had among Southern readers brought up reciting Emerson's Concord Hymn. The final verse reads:
This is taken to be Ryan's statement that however noble he and others thought the Confederate cause had been, the defeat was final, and the Confederate idea should be put away forever, along with the Confederate flag.
Attorney and Southerner Hannis Taylor wrote of the impact of Father Ryan's poem on readers sympathetic to the Confederacy, "Only those who lived in the South in that day, and passed under the spell of that mighty song, can properly estimate its power as it fell upon the victims of a fallen cause." The poem reached the height of its popularity between 1890 and 1920.
In 1941 Carl Van Doren included the poem in The Patriotic Anthology, writing that to omit Southern "expressions of patriotism" would be to "falsify the record and also impoverish it."
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...
Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
poems. It was written by Roman Catholic priest and Confederate Army chaplain, Father Abram Joseph Ryan
Abram Joseph Ryan
Abram Joseph Ryan , OSFS, was an American poet, an active proponent of the Confederate States of America, and a Roman Catholic priest...
, who is sometimes called the "poet laureate of the postwar south" and "poet-priest of the Confederacy."
The poem was first published on June 24, 1865, in the pro-Confederate Roman Catholic newspaper the New York Freeman
New York Freeman
The New York Freeman formally the New-York freeman's journal and Catholic register, was an American Catholic newspaper. It was owned at its inception by Bishop John Hughes....
under the pen-name "Moina". It made Father Ryan famous and became one of the best known post-war South, memorized and recited by generations of Southern schoolchildren.
Ryan told an interviewer that he wrote the Conquered Banner in Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
shortly after General Lee's surrender at Appomattox, "When my mind was engrossed with the thought of our dead soldiers and our dead Cause."
David O'Connell has described Conquered Banner as echoing Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
's extremely popular Concord Hymn
Concord Hymn
"Concord Hymn" is an 1837 poem by American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was written for a memorial to the Battles of Lexington and Concord.-Background:...
. According to O'Connell readers would have unconsciously have thought of Emerson's poem Concord when Ryan used the word "conquered", and by echoing Emerson's reference to a furled flag, Ryan would have enhanced the patriotic resonance his poem had among Southern readers brought up reciting Emerson's Concord Hymn. The final verse reads:
Furl that banner, softly, slowly!
Treat it gently—it is holy--
For it droops above the dead.
Touch it not—unfold it never,
Let it droop there, furled forever,
For its people's hopes are dead!
—The Conquered Banner.
This is taken to be Ryan's statement that however noble he and others thought the Confederate cause had been, the defeat was final, and the Confederate idea should be put away forever, along with the Confederate flag.
Attorney and Southerner Hannis Taylor wrote of the impact of Father Ryan's poem on readers sympathetic to the Confederacy, "Only those who lived in the South in that day, and passed under the spell of that mighty song, can properly estimate its power as it fell upon the victims of a fallen cause." The poem reached the height of its popularity between 1890 and 1920.
In 1941 Carl Van Doren included the poem in The Patriotic Anthology, writing that to omit Southern "expressions of patriotism" would be to "falsify the record and also impoverish it."