John Hill Hewitt - Bard of The Confederacy

Bard of The Confederacy

In 1825, Hewitt wrote "The Minstrels Return from the War" and published it through his brother in Boston. The song eventually became a success internationally, making him the first American-born composer whose fame reached both sides of the Atlantic. He married Estelle Mangin in 1827. Not until 1840 would Hewitt pursue writing as a profession. That year he moved to Washington, D.C., to start and edit a newspaper. Over the next few years, he moved again and again, eventually ending up in Hampton, Virginia. There he took a position at the Chesapeake Female College and remained for nine years. His wife died during this tenure.

By the start of the American Civil War, Hewitt had moved to Richmond, Virginia. He attempted to join the Confederate States Army, giving his background at West Point for credentials. He was already 60 years old, however, and the army would only offer him a drillmaster position. Hewitt turned it down. Instead, he took a job in November 1861 as the manager of the Richmond Theatre. During his stint there, he staged many of his own works, but in less than two years, the theatre owners grew tired of his authoritarian management practices. Hewitt was replaced by R. D'Orsey Ogden.

He moved back to Augusta, where he joined Alfred Waldron to write pieces for the theatre and for the Queen Sisters, including the ballad operas King Linkum the First and The Vivandiere. He also began tutoring in private again, and he married an 18-year-old pupil named Mary Smith in 1863. With her he would father four more children, for a total of 11.

In 1863 and 1864, Hewitt traveled with the Queen Sisters as a songwriter. They popularized his song "All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight", which became such a hit that his publisher went through five printings of the sheet music. His poetry, music, and drama grew increasingly pro-Southern and pro-Confederate. He published through John Schreiner beginning in 1864, but sent pieces secretly to the Blackmars under the pen name "Eugene Raymond". His Jephtha in 1846 may have been the first oratorio written by an American. Hewitt's output earned him the epithets "Bard of the Stars and Bars" and "Father of the American Ballad".

Hewitt eventually bought the Augusta-based Blackmar publishers, but the business failed after the war. Hewitt returned to Virginia to teach at the Wesleyan Female Institute in Staunton and at the Dunbar Female Institute in Winchester. He bounced back and forth between Maryland and Georgia for the next few years, eventually ending up in Baltimore. He remained there until his death on 7 October 1890.