BROWNELL, brounlel or brou-01', HENRY HOWARD ( 1820-72). An American poet and his torian, born in Providence, R. 1., February 6, 1820. He was graduated from Trinity College, Hartford, in 1841, studied law, and was admitted to the bar, but settled as a teacher in Hartford. He published in 1847 a volume of Poems, and in 1851 the People's Book of Ancient and Modern History, and followed this in 1863 with The Dis coverers, Pioneers, and Settlers of North and South lmerica. But Brownell first attracted gen eral attention by poems written during the Civil \Var. The earliest of these was a stirring version of the "General Orders" given by Admiral 1"arra gut at the attack on the defenses of New Orleans. This led to his becoming attached to Admiral Farrafmt as private secretary. He was present at the naval battle in Mobile Bay, and after the war accompanied the Admiral on his European cruise. His best poems, "The River Fight"
and "The Bay Fight." deal with the naval ac tions at New Orleans and :Nlobile. "They are to all the drawing-room battle poems as the torn flags of our victorious armadas to the stately ensigns that dressed their ships in the harbor" (O. W. Holmes). He collected his war poems in Lyrics of a Day; or, Newspaper Poetry by a. Volunteer in the United States Service (1864). A selection of his Poems, revised by himself, ap peared in 1866. His was the most popular battle poetry produced in the North during the Civil \Var; but his work is unfinished, uneven, often undignified, and sometimes grotesque. At its best, however. it sounds the lyric cry of a great. national emotion. There is an appreciative essay on _Brownell. by O. W. Holmes, entitled "Our Battle Laureate."