Civil War Contemporaries

• Many well-known authors who are still widely read today were alive and practicing their craft while the Civil War was happening. Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne were both writing at this time. Poets like Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emily Dickinson were also alive during the Civil War, and composing verses that continue to be read to this day. Whitman gained a personal perspective on the war while serving as a nurse in a hospital for wounded soldiers.
  
  

Romantics

• Romantic writing became the fashion in the Southern states immediately following the Civil War. Novels such as "The Cavalier," published in 1901, and "Kincaid's Battery," published in 1908, are good examples of these romantic writings. An earlier novel that read as sympathetic toward the antislavery movement, "Dr. Sevier," was not well-received by the South. The author, George Washington Cable, was so widely criticized by Southerners for the work that he moved out of the region.
  
  

Confederate Poetry

• Many Southern poets composed rousing works during the Civil War. Henry Timrod wrote poems meant to inspire others to the Confederate cause, pieces including "Carolina," "A Cru to Arms" and "The Cotton Bowl." Immediately following the war, Confederate poems became a bit more maudlin and nostalgic, with pieces like "The Conquered Banner" and "The Sword of Robert Lee," by Father Abram Joseph Ryan.
  
  

Literary Legacy

• The Civil War's effect on literature continues to be felt. Writers who never experienced the war continue to write about it, and literature has a long history. Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage," published in 1895, focuses on a single solider fighting in the Civil War, though Crane had never seen battle firsthand when he wrote the book. "The Wave," published in 1929 and written by Evelyn Scott, was a unique novel in its day. Southern-born and female, Scott's book attempted to explore the Civil War in entirety. The novel never gained as much fame as a tome written by a different, Southern-born writer: Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind." Published in 1936, the book is often regarded as the quintessential Civil War novel. William Faulkner also wrote about the Civil War in "The Unvanquished." His novel depicted a family and community that helped reflect the larger conflict of the war, a style that was also evident in books like "The Force" and "None Shall Look Back."