Frederick Nicholls Crouch (1808-1896) was the musically gifted son of a musical London family and trained at the Royal Academy of Music as a cellist, singer, and composer. He was also an expert on the songs and legends of Ireland and frequently lectured on them. He combined his two areas of expertise in his song Kathleen Mavourneen (Mavourneen means my darling in Irish). Adapting the words of poems by Louisa Matilda Jane Crawford, Crouch wrote one of the most beloved of all Irish ballades. When he moved to the United States in the late 1840s to avoid his creditors (and, according to some reports, insinuations of bigamy), he settled in Richmond. When the Civil War broke out in 1860, Crouch volunteered for the Confederate Army and served for the duration of the war. Kathleen Mavourneen, with its heartbreaking melody of unappeasable yearning for a girl back home, became a favorite of the Confederate forces.

© James Leonard, Rovi