#Battle cry of freedom iraq war code

“ The Charge of the Light Brigade” by English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) bounces with the unforgettable chant, “Half a league, half a league, / Half a league onward.”Īmerican poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) wrote ' Concord Hymn' for an Independence Day celebration. With decisive meter and stirring refrains, patriotic war poems are designed to celebrate and inspire. When soldiers head to war or return home victorious, they march to a rousing beat.

#Battle cry of freedom iraq war code

Writing in Old English, an unknown Anglo Saxon poet described warriors brandishing swords and clashing shields in the ' Battle of Maldon,' which chronicled a war fought 991 AD. The poem articulated a code of heroism and nationalist spirit that dominated war literature in the Western world for a thousand years.Įven during the enormous global wars of the 20th century, many poets echoed medieval ideals, celebrating military triumphs and glorifying fallen soldiers.ġ814 broadside printing of 'Defense of Fort McHenry,' a poem that later became the lyrics of 'The Star-Spangled Banner'. Men are scattered and smeared over the desert grass, And the generals have accomplished nothing. The celebrated Chinese poet Li Po (also known as Rihaku, Li Bai, Li Pai, Li T’ai-po, and Li T’ai-pai) raged against battles he viewed as brutal and absurd. ' Nefarious War,' written in 750 AD, reads like a modern-day protest poem: You are blood rushing down a mountain, Spirit of hate, greed and anger, dominator of heaven and earth!Īt least a millennium later, the Greek poet (or group of poets) known as Homer composed The Illiad, an epic poem about a war that destroyed 'great fighters' souls' and 'made their bodies carrion, / feasts for the dogs and birds.' In about 2300 BCE, she riled against war, writing: The earliest recorded war poetry is thought to be by Enheduanna, a priestess from Sumer, the ancient land that is now Iraq. CM Dixon / Print Collector / Getty Images

(Cropped detail.).īritish Museum Collection. Inlay of shell, red limestone, and lapis lazuli in Bitumen. This authoritative volume makes sense of that vast and confusing 'second American Revolution' we call the Civil War, a war that transformed a nation and expanded our heritage of liberty.Image of a Sumerian army on the Standard of Ur, a small hollow box from a royal tomb at Ur, southern Iraq, about 2600-2400 BC. This 'new birth of freedom,' as Lincoln called it, constitutes the proudest legacy of America's bloodiest conflict. Eventually, the North had to grapple with the underlying cause of the war-slavery-and adopt a policy of emancipation as a second war aim. The book's title refers to the sentiments that informed both the Northern and Southern views of the conflict: the South seceded in the name of that freedom of self-determination and self-government for which their fathers had fought in 1776, while the North stood fast in defense of the Union founded by those fathers as the bulwark of American liberty. Particularly notable are McPherson's new views on such matters as the slavery expansion issue in the 1850s, the origins of the Republican Party, the causes of secession, internal dissent and anti-war opposition in the North and the South, and the reasons for the Union's victory. Packed with drama and analytical insight, the book vividly recounts the momentous episodes that preceded the Civil War-the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry-and then moves into a masterful chronicle of the war itself-the battles, the strategic maneuvering on both sides, the politics, and the personalities. James McPherson's fast-paced narrative fully integrates the political, social, and military events that crowded the two decades from the outbreak of one war in Mexico to the ending of another at Appomattox.

Filled with fresh interpretations and information, puncturing old myths and challenging new ones, Battle Cry of Freedom will unquestionably become the standard one-volume history of the Civil War.