ABSTRACT
Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Walt Whitman produced invaluable records of their experiences during the Civil War; their relationship was marked by fierce animosity. Despite Higginson's and Whitman's mutual disgust, however, the authors' Civil War writings reveal a significant resemblance. Both Drum-Taps and Army Life in a Black Regiment invoke music as essential to the uniting of communities amid a war of national dissolution. The title Drum-Taps indicates that Whitman wants to draw attention to the musical structure of his collection and to the ways in which martial music can represent the contrary states of war. The Civil War writings Drum-Taps and Army Life contain a prominent and perpetually relevant intermingling of music and text. Although Whitman and Higginson diverge in their musical and textual goals, then, they share the sense that music has a profound significance both for them and for the war.
