> the Union government actually employed songwriters who went around the camps singing songs (mostly sentimental) and passing out the lyrics

Isn't this kind of implausible? Why would the U.S. government pay songwriters to hawk their own creations?

Moreover, the modern concept of propaganda as a government function hardly existed. It was hardly necessary, since newspapers and sermons were rife with it on both sides. Extreme partisanship was the norm.

Which isn't to say that *music publishers* couldn't have sent salesmen to army camps to tout their songs.

But if they did, surely it would have made more sense to sell the sheet music directly to the soldiers, with the suggestion that loved ones at home might like copies as well?