Though he started out practicing law, Henry Howard Brownell gave it up to write both poetry and prose. Brownell was appointed as an acting ensign on board The Hartford, at the beginning of the Civil War, after his poems had come to the attention of Admiral Farragut. He participated in the battle of Mobile Bay, writing his two longest poems, "The River Fight" and "The Bay Fight," describing the naval actions at New Orleans and Mobile Bay. At the end of the war, he accompanied Admiral Faragut on his European cruise.

At the onset of the Civil War, he became a volunteer and rose through the ranks to become Admiral FarragutÕs secretary


A classic collection of poems on Civil War combat themes (and others). In 1864, Brownell anonymously published some of these poems under the title "Lyrics of the Day." In 1866, he reprinted those earlier poems with many additions under his own name and this title, "War Lyrics." General Farragut, to whom this volume is dedicated, was so impressed with the poems that he offered Brownell a position as his personal secretary