In England songs about military and naval subjects were a major part of the output of
ballad writers from the 16th century onwards. Most of these fell into two groups, those that lamented the cost of war for the participants, and which can therefore be seen as early
protest songs and those that were generally patriotic in nature and often veered into propaganda. Narrative descriptions, which had an important function in distributing news before the development of modern newspapers, have not into both camps, occasionally at the same time. One of the earliest British ballads is "
The Ballad of Chevy Chase", which exists in several versions and deals, somewhat inaccurately, with the events of the Scottish victory of the
Battle of Otterburn in 1388 and may have been written in the early 14th century, but the earliest surviving version is from the mid-16th century. Stress is put on bravery, honour, revenge and the costs of war. This last factor is even more evident in an early 17th-century version that notes that 'the next day did many widows come/Their husbands to bewail.' The conflicts between England and Spain in the later 16th and early 17th centuries produced a number of ballads describing events, particularly naval conflicts like those of the
Spanish Armada. The
English Civil War (1642–1653) produced a subgenre of "
Cavalier ballads", including "When the King Home in Peace Again", while their parliamentarian opponents were generally happier singing
metrical psalms. Many of these were adapted and reused by
Jacobites in England and Scotland after the '
Glorious Revolution' of 1688, a tradition built on by
Robert Burns and
Sir Walter Scott. The Anglo-French Wars of the 17th and 18th centuries saw more descriptive works, usually couched in patriotic terms, but some, like 'Captain Death' (1757) dealt with loss and defeat. As regimental identities emerged songs were adopted for marching, like '
The British Grenadiers', based on a dance tune and with enthusiastic lyrics from at least the mid-18th century. Both sides make extensive use of ballads as propaganda in the
American Revolutionary War (1775–83), but they became a flood during the
French Revolutionary and
Napoleonic Wars (1797–1815). The same period saw numerous patriotic war songs, like '
Heart of Oak' and the emergence of a stereotype of the English seaman as 'Jolly
Jack Tar', who appeared in many ballads. The
American Civil War saw huge numbers of ballads produced as recruitment propaganda and morale boosting songs on both sides, including 'We are coming father Abraham', rapidly written in response to
Abraham Lincoln's call to arms in 1862. Most successful on the Union side was '
The Battle Hymn of the Republic', written by
Julia Ward Howe in 1862, using the existing tune that had already been used as a hymn and soldier's song, with its rousing chorus of 'Glory, glory hallelujah'. Some songs like '
Weeping Sad and Lonely, or When This Cruel War is Over' (1863), were sung on both sides, much to the consternation of the commanders. As for the Confederacy, their most successful song was "
I Wish I Was in Dixie". During
South Carolina's secession convention, the song "I Wish I Was in Dixie" was played each time a delegate voted to secede. It was also played at the inauguration ceremony of President
Jefferson Davis in
Montgomery, Alabama. Another extremely popular song of the Confederacy was "
The Bonnie Blue Flag". While these songs are popular Confederate recruiting songs and popular marching songs, some songs are written for soldiers to sing while marching, to help boost morale. One great example is "
Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel", making fun of the Union failures to take Richmond from the
Battle of First Manassas to the
Battle of Fredericksburg. The name had probably been around in the 18th century, but it would not be until the late 19th century that British land forces received an equivalent to Jack Tar in '
Tommy Atkins', in
Rudyard Kipling's poems and in many
music hall songs. The
Boer War saw a large number of songs, often aimed at praising the bravery of particular groups (such as Irish troops) or soldiers in general. From this period we know that some songs were widely sung by the troops themselves, including particularly
leave taking songs, of which probably the most famous is 'Goodbye, Dolly Grey'. == World War I songs ==