Barbara Frietchie

The speaker makes it abundantly clear that Frederick is a town where patriotic Union sentiment runs strong. Early in the morning, forty U.S. flags are waving in the breeze, but by noon, when the Confederate troops start to arrive, the men of the town have taken down every single one of them. This shows that they do not have the courage of their convictions; they do not want to take a risk or invite trouble. They are willing to appease the invader by disguising their true sentiments and opt for safety and security rather than standing up for their principles. The speaker thus contrasts the timidity of the men of the town with the courage of one old woman. Those men who rush to take down the flags before the enemy arrives perhaps embody the ordinariness of most people; they do not want to have their daily routines upset if they can avoid it; they are more than ready to compromise or concede a point if that will allow them to continue to live undisturbed. Not a single man from the town is shown individually in the poem. In the midst of a crisis, they all make themselves invisible. Thus, the average man, the speaker implies, is no hero. The majority, who allow themselves to all think alike, will put their own safety first. It is a rare person who stands up for what he or she believes without thought for the consequences—and when they do, they may inspire the same humility and honor in even their supposed enemy, as occurs between Barbara Frietchie and Stonewall Jackson in the poem.

Barbara Frietchie is the one person in Frederick that day who is prepared to make a stand, to allow her words and actions to conform to her deeply held patriotic beliefs. In that, she puts to shame the male citizens of the town, who have likely retreated to their living rooms or studies in the face of danger. Here, in the form of an old woman, is courage, pure and simple. Barbara Frietchie knows no fear, and she has no intention of allowing her age and physical frailty (or her gender) to prevent her from doing and saying what she believes to be right. In flying the U.S. flag from her attic window, she is filled with a desire “To show that one heart was loyal yet” (Line 22). Even when Stonewall Jackson orders his men to fire on the flag, and it is shredded, she remains unintimidated; she stands up to an entire army that is ranged against her without thought for her physical safety. She reaches out and shakes the shredded flag “with a royal will” (Line 34) which suggests that at that moment Barbara has about her the majesty and unbending determination of a queen. Her defiant words ring out with an eloquent simplicity: “‘Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, / But spare your country’s flag’” (Lines 35-36). Perhaps the men of the town as they cower in their homes hear her words and are ashamed of themselves. Perhaps they are inspired. Certainly, Barbara Frietchie has got the better of Stonewall Jackson, the tough Confederate general, who momentarily reflects on his actions. The speaker, too, is moved by Barbara’s courage, so much so that he expresses a desire for the Union flag to wave over her grave, to honor how stoutly she defended the Union when the challenge came.