The Bonnie Blue Flag - from "Gods and Generals"

The Bonnie Blue Flag - from the film “Gods and Generals.” In the summer of 2001, I received a call from David Franco, this film’s music producer, inquiring about Irish songs from the American Civil War, along with an invitation to get involved with both consulting and performing some of the music. I was happy to oblige, and although it didn’t pay much, the experience was well worth it. While there were some who argued that this early-war Confederate anthem wasn’t an Irish tune, I was quick to point out that the melody was in fact an old Irish tune known as "The Irish Jaunting Car" or the "The Dublin Jaunting Car,” that an Irish immigrant music hall performer, one Harry McCarthy - known as the “Arkansas Comedian” - had taken and written this new lyric for. In the early part of the war Harry toured the South performing a sort of a USO show for the Confederate soldiers along with his lady friend. The song initially soared in popularity in the South, being published by Confederate firebrand music publisher A. E.