The Bonnie Blue Flag

"The Bonnie Blue Flag", also known as "We Are a Band of Brothers", is an 1861 marching song associated with the Confederate States. The words were written by the Ulster-Scots entertainer Harry McCarthy, with the melody taken from the song The Irish Jaunting Car". The song's title refers to the unofficial first flag of the Confederacy, the Bonnie Blue Flag.

The song was premiered by lyricist Harry McCarthy during a concert in Jackson, Mississippi, in the spring of 1861 and performed again in September of that same year at the New Orleans Academy of Music for the First Texas Volunteer Infantry regiment mustering in celebration.

The New Orleans music publishing house of A.E. Blackmar issued six editions of "The Bonnie Blue Flag" between 1861 and 1864 along with three additional arrangements.

The "band of brothers" mentioned in the first line of the song recalls the well known St. Crispin's Day Speech in William Shakespeare's play Henry V (Act IV, scene ii).

The first verse of the song goes:

Although the second line is sometimes given as "fighting for our liberty with treasure, blood, and toil", University of San Diego professor Steve Schoenherr and the library of Duke University record the "property" version. According to Schoenherr, the song sheet was first published in 1861 by A. E. Blackmar and Brother in New Orleans. When Major General Benjamin Butler captured New Orleans, he allegedly arrested Blackmar, fined Blackmar $500, destroyed all copies of the music, and ordered that anyone caught whistling or singing "The Bonnie Blue Flag" would be fined $25 (roughly $500 in the 1860s). Eleven other editions of the song were published with different lyrics.

Annie Chambers Ketchum, a Confederate widow who risked her liberty to publish new verses to be sung, published a new version of the song under the title "The Gathering Song." The following verses were published in a eulogy by Gilberta S. Whittle in the 1904 Richmond Times Dispatch:

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