“All Quiet Along the Potomac,” originally titled “The Picket Guard,” is an 1861 poem by American writer Ethel Lynn Beers. The poem was first published as “The Picket Guard” in the Harper’s Weekly issue dated November 30, 1861. It attributed only to “E.B.” It was reprinted broadly both with that attribution and without, leading to many spurious claims of authorship. Among those claiming authorship was Lamar Fontaine, then a private in the CSA. On July 4, 1863, Harper’s Weekly told its readers that the poem had been written for the paper by a lady contributor whom it later identified as Beers. The poem was based on newspaper reports of “all is quiet tonight”, which was based on official telegrams sent to the Secretary of War by Major-General George B. McClellan following the First Battle of Bull Run. In September 1861, Beers noticed that one report was followed by a small item telling of a picket being killed. She wrote the poem that same morning. In 1863, the poem was set to music by John Hill Hewitt, himself a poet, newspaperman, and musician. This song may have inspired the title of the English translation of Erich Maria Remarque’s World War I novel All Quiet on the Western Front.
Songs with Banjo from Harold Hagler
