Union in Whitman's "Beat! Beat! Drum!"

In comparing the war poems of contemporary poets Walt Whitman, George Moses Horton, and Henry Timrod there is a clear line separating Whitman from the other two poets. War covered America with an unavoidable aura in the 1860’s yet these poets saw its effects in two distinctly different ways. Whitman saw one country torn apart by a vague yet violent force. Timrod and Horton saw two countries, joined in overt bloody combat.
Throughout his poem “Beat! Beat! Drum!” Whitman maintains a unified view of the country. He sees war as a force within a solid America. It is not something that has split the country into the USA and the CSA but a state that is pervasive within one country. This attitude separates Whitman, a self proclaimed "American," from Timrod, sometimes called the "poet laurite of the confederacy." Timrod and Whitman's poems "Cotton Boll" and "Beat! Beat! Drum!" are formatted very similarly but differ in way that the two poets see their country. Both poems take the readers on a tour of war torn America. Through a spiritual experience with a piece of cotton, the narrator of "Cotton Boll" is able to see "the landscape" broaden before his eyes as if a "veil" was "lifted." Likewise, in "Beat! Beat! Drums!" Whitman follows the drums and bugle on a tour which covers the entirety of the country. The difference between these two poems is in the distinctively different ways that each poet sees their country. In his poem "Cotton Boll," Timrod focuses on the unique aspects of the CSA, emphasizing the exclusive qualities of the southern states and romanticizing the idea of the new fledgling country. Whitman's perspective is much broader. While Timrod prays for victory over the North using phrases like "Upon the Northern winds, the voice of woe" and "Northward, strike with us!" Whitman's war has no definitive direction or boundaries. Whitman sees war as universal destruction in ambiguous "cities." He makes no distinction between North and South.
The way Whitman describes the path of war is intentionally ambiguous. The examples cited throughout could be at any location; they illicit emotional reactions regardless of whether or not they are located in the North or the South. The first concrete location that Whitman describes being disrupted by war is the church. The church is a powerful symbol in America. Often in colonial times the church was one of the first buildings established within a town. Many communities are laid out with the church at the center, as the focus of community life. Furthermore, the church is a symbol that knows no political bounds. The image of a church disrupted has just as much striking power to readers of Whitman in the USA as well as in the CSA. Throughout "Beat! Beat! Drum!" Whitman continues to show the reader universal examples of the disruption of war as the sound of the drums filters "into the school," across a farm, and into the presence of a man with his wife. The poem climaxes when the drums of war disturb the two most universal images of all: that of a mother and child and that of someone lying, dead. Everyone has a mother and everyone dies. By introducing these universal characters and then neglecting them, Whitman is showing that everyone within the country is neglected and hurt by war. Unlike Timrod, Whitman does not take a side in the Civil War. He uses vague language because the distinction between North and South does not exist to the destruction of war. War unites everyone in desolation and chaos.
Another way that Whitman is able to unite all people in "Beat! Beat! Drums!" is through his depiction of the war itself. There is no clear enemy. In fact, throughout the entire poem, the word "war" does not appear once. Despite this hole, the idea of war is clear because conflict is pervasive. Whitman creates conflict by setting up an event to occur and then refusing the fulfillment of that event. He uses this technique especially in the second stanza. Whitman depicts "beds prepared for sleepers," and then destroys this opportunity saying that "no sleepers shall sleep in those beds." Though the conflict is clear, the instigator of the conflict is not. He uses ethereal language and images to describe the idea of war rather than describing specific battles. Timrod and Horton both uses specific, vivid descriptions of violent battles. In “The Spectator of the Battle of Belmont,” Horton first narrows the area for interpretation by titling the poem in reference to a specific battle. He continues by using bloody, archetypal images to describe the battle as having the "war-beaming aspect, the sword and the shield." War as presented by Horton fits into a clear and defined role. In Timrod’s “Cotton Boll” the battle lines are clear and unambiguous with the North engaged against the South. Timrod asks god to help “us…roll the crimson flood” of war.” Not only does Timrod define the combatants but he takes a side in the war. Whitman’s War moves everywhere. It is seen as a “ruthless force” not as group of people engaged against one another. To Whitman, War is not a tangible force. It doesn’t march around like a soldier but floats like smoke “through the windows” and “through doors.” The refrain of “Beat! Beat! Drum!” conjures up constant auditory stimulation which is again, not unique to the North or South but a uniting sense. The drums and bugles could belong to either side and regardless of who the instruments belong to, they are still “terrible drums.” Also defining War as a factor which is not controlled by either side, Whitman shows it literally on another literal level than the rest of life as it moves “over the traffic of cities – over the…streets.” To Whitman, War is not created by two separate human armies. It is a loftier amorphous force. The North and the South are unified pawns; manipulate by the beat of the war drums.
George Horton and Henry Timrod view the American Civil War as a division between two peoples on opposing sides. Whitman sees one people united in combat against a nebulous “ruthless force” which threatens everyone from mothers to children with destruction.