In the Federal Army, officers eventually forbade their bands to play “Home, Sweet Home” for fear it would make men so homesick they would desert or become too demoralized to fight. But they had nothing to worry about on that score. The song had just the opposite effect. In reminding them of their loved ones, “Home, Sweet Home” reinforced the basic and personal stake each soldier had in fighting for his side. In that sense, the song had a deeper meaning than more overtly patriotic songs, since patriotic songs appealed to general, rather than personal, feelings. The urge to protect one’s home and family is more primitive and therefore more immediate. When Johnny Reb or Billy Yank sang “Home, Sweet Home,” or listened to his regimental band play it, he automatically thought of home and family, and his responsibility to protect them both.

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On the eve of the Battle of Stones River (December 31, 1862), Federal and Confederate soldiers were enjoying their regular nighttime concerts when, as usual, one of the bands closed with “Home, Sweet Home.” Again, both sides joined in, until the night air was filled with the emotional strains of the beloved song.

Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary, were likewise comforted by the heartfelt song when the Italian songstress Adelina Patti sang it to them at the White House in 1862. The Lincoln’s 12-year-old son, Willie, had recently died of typhoid fever, and both parents were in deep mourning. The songstress had been invited to the White House for a private appearance in the hope that she might give them some respite from their grief. Miss Patti went through a repertoire of her best showpieces, ending with one of the saddest songs of the day, “The Last Rose of Summer.” When she was finished, she saw Mrs. Lincoln in tears and the president covering his face with his hands. The songstress instantly sensed that the song had reminded them of their recent loss. Perhaps if she sang a happy song, she thought, she might change their mood. But as she started in, President Lincoln, in a choking voice, asked her to sing “Home, Sweet Home,” the only song that could give them any solace from their grief.

Both the words and music of the song came from an opera, Clari, or The Maid of Milan, which had its debut in London, England, on May 8, 1823. The tune was composed by Henry Bishop (1786-1855), the most famous English composer of the day, but it was the poignant lyrics written by expatriate American author John Howard Payne that made the song an international hit.

Payne was born to William and Sarah Isaacs Payne in New York City on June 9, 1791, the sixth in a family of nine children. One of his cousins was Dolley Payne Madison, wife of President James Madison; another cousin was Robert Treat Paine, one of the signatories to the Declaration of Independence.

Although he became one of the best-known personages in America, Payne was often destitute and lived much of his life away from his native land. Many music critics have found the inspiration for Payne’s immortal song in his longing for his early years, which he spent with his family in East Hampton, on Long Island. His father had moved the family to East Hampton when Payne was very young, and that is where Payne spent his earliest and happiest years. Many believe that this is the home he so fondly wrote about many years later.

Payne was a precocious student and began writing poems and stories and acting at an early age. His father, a teacher, did not approve of his writing or acting and got him a job in New York as a clerk, hoping that he would be so busy working that he would not have time for such frivolous activities. But Payne kept writing. And when he was just 14, he began publishing a little weekly periodical, the Thespian Mirror, in which he reviewed plays and wrote theater gossip. His magazine attracted the attention of the editor of the New York Evening Post, who was so surprised to learn it was written and published by a young boy that he arranged
for Payne to attend Union College, in Schenectady, N.Y., all expenses paid. Payne gratefully accepted, but left before graduating to support his family, which had fallen on hard times.

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