Uploaded December 2020 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Day 265 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: “A tragic little ballad of the Civil War which we children cried over many times. I recall it only in fragments, the story of a cat that joined a regiment of soldiers marching south. She perished in the snow on the grave of the one to whom she had become most attached. ”
"Thus the history of this verse from Neeta Marquis who as a girl grew up in Tennessee."
ADDITIONAL INFO: Poor Kitty Popcorn, one of the many songs written by American composer Henry Clay Work (1832-1884), spins a grand tale of the loyal bond formed between a Union soldier and his pet cat, Popcorn, during the Civil War.
The song Poor Kitty Popcorn, in spite of its overly dramatic rendering in song and in the vivid before and after scene engraved on the cover of the sheet music, might have some true elements to the story. The life of a soldier can be lonely, alternating tedium with terror, and the affection of a pet can offer much solace and amusement, creating a bond that can continue long after deployment is over. . . . The notion of a pet cat accustomed to riding along perched on a soldier’s knapsack hardly seems so fanciful.
Henry ClayWork was a prolific writer of words and music, whose songs Grandfather’s Clock and Marching Through Georgia (inspired by Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s 1864 campaign)[ed. note: as well as The Ship That Never Returned, also in Sandburg's Songbag]are still familiar today. An ardent abolitionist who nonetheless wrote a number of songs for blackface minstrel groups, Work used his talents to celebrate American patriotism and the achievements of the Union Army.... (from Diane Shaw, Smithsonian Libraries Unbound)
Day 265 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: “A tragic little ballad of the Civil War which we children cried over many times. I recall it only in fragments, the story of a cat that joined a regiment of soldiers marching south. She perished in the snow on the grave of the one to whom she had become most attached. ”
"Thus the history of this verse from Neeta Marquis who as a girl grew up in Tennessee."
ADDITIONAL INFO: Poor Kitty Popcorn, one of the many songs written by American composer Henry Clay Work (1832-1884), spins a grand tale of the loyal bond formed between a Union soldier and his pet cat, Popcorn, during the Civil War.
The song Poor Kitty Popcorn, in spite of its overly dramatic rendering in song and in the vivid before and after scene engraved on the cover of the sheet music, might have some true elements to the story. The life of a soldier can be lonely, alternating tedium with terror, and the affection of a pet can offer much solace and amusement, creating a bond that can continue long after deployment is over. . . . The notion of a pet cat accustomed to riding along perched on a soldier’s knapsack hardly seems so fanciful.
Henry ClayWork was a prolific writer of words and music, whose songs Grandfather’s Clock and Marching Through Georgia (inspired by Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s 1864 campaign)[ed. note: as well as The Ship That Never Returned, also in Sandburg's Songbag]are still familiar today. An ardent abolitionist who nonetheless wrote a number of songs for blackface minstrel groups, Work used his talents to celebrate American patriotism and the achievements of the Union Army.... (from Diane Shaw, Smithsonian Libraries Unbound)
