Marching Through Georgia

For the S. M. Stirling novel, see Marching Through Georgia (novel).

The 1865 sheet music cover by S. Brainard Sons.

The composer Henry Clay Work in a W. S. B. Matthews engraving.

"Marching Through Georgia" is an American Civil War-era marching song written and composed by Henry Clay Work (1832–1884) in 1865. It is sung from the perspective of a Union soldier who had participated in Sherman's March to the Sea; he looks back on the momentous triumph after which Georgia became a "thoroughfare for freedom" and the Confederacy was left on its last legs.

The popular music firm Root & Cady published the song in January 1865 to widespread success. One of few Civil War songs that withstood the war's end, "Marching Through Georgia" cemented a place in veteran reunions and marching parades. Today, it is nigh synonymous with the state of Georgia, even though residents look upon it with contempt for evoking memories of Sherman's annihilative campaign. Gen. William T. Sherman himself, to whom the song is dedicated, famously grew to despise it after being subjected to its strains in every public gathering he attended.

"Marching Through Georgia" also lent the tune to a slew of partisan hymns such as "The Land" and "Billy Boys". Beyond the United States, troops from all over the world have adopted it as a wartime standard, from the Japanese in the Russo–Japanese War to the British in World War Two. Many musicologists consider the song the most fruitful of Work's career and among the most iconic of the Civil War.

Background

Work as a songwriter

Henry Clay Work was a printer by trade, operating in Chicago ever since 1855. However, his true passion rested in songwriting, which he had cultivated a deep penchant for as a child. After years of submitting poems to local newspapers, he published a complete song in 1853, "We Are Coming, Sister Mary". Eight years later, the American Civil War broke out, launching his songwriting ventures into a "fecund" career. That year, Work signed up for a post at Root & Cady, the then-most popular publishing firm. George F. Root, its director, was soundly impressed by his song submission "Kingdom Coming" and promptly assigned him the post.

Music was of utmost importance in the Civil War; Journalist Irwin Silber comments: "soldiers and civilians of the Union states were inspired and propagandized by a host of patriotic songs." Work delivered, penning 25 Unionist songs from 1861 to 1865, chief among them: "Kingdom Coming" (1862), "Grafted into the Army" (1862), "Song of a Thousand Years" (1863), "Babylon is Fallen" (1863), "Wake Nicodemus" (1864) and "Marching Through Georgia" (1865). Their "intense partisanship" is owed to Work's devout allegiance to the Union cause, itself rooted in his abolitionist background. As a child, he passed much time among freed slaves in the Underground Railroad, on which the family home was situated. A bitter hatred of slavery soon consumed him. His wartime compositions imparted this sentiment, no less than his minstrel songs conveying the hardships of plantation life.

In general, Work is commended for genuinely communicating the feelings of Union civilians through music. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians notes: "More than perhaps any other songwriter Work captured the deeply felt emotions of the Civil War [...]" For instance, the minstrel tune "Kingdom Coming" accompanied African American troops marching down South, and "The Song of a Thousand Years" consoled civilians at the height of Confederate progress in the Battle of Gettysburg. This sense of empathy, along with his mastery of melody, fueled one of the most successful songwriting careers in the war.

By 1865, Work had composed several Civil War staples. Root & Cady was prospering, reveling in the success of its latest hit "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!", which earned the firm over $10,000 in revenue. At the war's eve, he penned three final pieces, the latter two being "Ring the Bell, Watchman", invoking Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard's evacuation of Charleston in February, and "'Tis Finished!, or Sing Hallelujah", glorifying Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox in April closing the conflict. "Marching Through Georgia", the first of the final three, marked the apex of Work's career up to that point. Released on January 9, 1865, it commemorates the March to the Sea, a defining Union triumph that had taken place a few weeks prior. The song is dedicated to the campaign's forefather, Gen. William T. Sherman.

The March to the Sea

Map of the March to the Sea, lasting from November 15 to December 21, 1864.

1868 engraving depicting the march's impact on Georgian civilians and territory by Alexander Hay Ritchie.

Toward the end of 1864, the fourth year of the American Civil War, few confrontations on the battlefield arose owing to the presidential election between President Abraham Lincoln and Gen. George B. McClellan. A Union victory still seemed distant but as the campaign progressed, it grew likelier—Atlanta had been captured and Gen. Philip Sheridan had triumphed in the Shenandoah Valley. At the fall of Atlanta, the mood of Southerners became characterized by "unrealistic optimism" and, to an extent, defeatism, such that President Jefferson Davis claimed: "There are no vital points on which the continued existence of the Confederacy depends […]"

The March to the Sea commenced on November 15 with 62,000 troops dubbed "bummers" split into two flanks, the right commanded by Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard comprising the 15^th and 17^th Corps and the left under Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum comprising the 14^th and 20^th Corps; 5,000 of the troops belonged to an attached cavalry division led by Gen. Hugh J. Kilpatrick. They bore twenty days' worth of rations and had to partially live off foodstuffs from Georgian plantations. Before departing Atlanta (which had been in ruins), as well as during the march, they destroyed all communication lines, inadvertently including those with the Union government. After Gen. John Bell Hood left for Tennessee, Sherman's army would only face a meager Confederate resistance of 13,000 troops at any given point during the advance. Author David J. Eicher likens Sherman's strategy to Grant's Vicksburg campaign in its "radical nature," more so than the latter. His troops would, to some limit, "forage liberally on the country."

Composition

Original lyrics

Bring the good old bugle boys! we'll sing another song,
Sing it with a spirit that will start the world along;
Sing it as we used to sing it fifty thousand strong,
While we were marching through Georgia.

CHORUS
"Hurrah! Hurrah! we bring the Jubilee!
Hurrah! Hurrah! the flag that makes you free!"
So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea,
While we were marching through Georgia.

 
How the darkeys shouted when they heard the joyful sound!
How the turkeys gobbled which our commissary found!
How the sweet potatoes even started from the ground,
While we were marching through Georgia.

(CHORUS)

Yes, and there were Union men who wept with joyful tears,
When they saw the honor'd flag they had not seen for years;
Hardly could they be restrained from breaking forth in cheers,
While we were marching through Georgia.

(CHORUS)

"Sherman's dashing Yankee boys will never reach the coast!"
So the saucy rebels said, and 'twas a handsome boast,
Had they not forgotten, alas! to reckon with the host,
While we were marching through Georgia.

(CHORUS)

So we made a thoroughfare for Freedom and her train,
Sixty miles in latitude—three hundred to the main;
Treason fled before us for resistance was in vain,
While we were marching through Georgia.

(CHORUS)

Henry Clay Work

The song became widely popular with Union Army veterans after the American Civil War. The song, sung from the point of view of a Union soldier, tells of marching through Georgian territory, freeing slaves, meeting Southern Unionist men glad to once again see the U.S. flag, and punishing the Confederacy for their starting the war.

"Marching Through Georgia" sung by Harlan & Stanley in 1904.

Root & Cady published the song in January 1865, roughly a month after the March to the Sea ended.

Legacy

Postbellum

Gen. William T. Sherman, to whom "Marching Through Georgia" is dedicated.

"Marching Through Georgia" quickly cemented itself as a hallmark of the Civil War. Selling 500,000 copies of sheet music within 12 years, it became one of the most successful wartime tunes and Work's most profitable hit up to that point. Music biographer David Ewen regards it as "the greatest of his war songs," and Carl S. Lowden deems it his very best work, in part owing to its "soul-stirring" production and longevity. It became synonymous with the state of Georgia.

Sherman himself came to loathe "Marching Through Georgia" in part because of its ubiquity, being performed at every public function he attended. When he reviewed the national encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1890, the hundreds of bands and fife and drum corps present played the tune every time they passed him for an unbroken seven hours. Eyewitnesses claim that "his patience collapsed and he declared that he would never again attend another encampment until every band in the United States had signed an agreement not to play 'Marching Though Georgia' in his presence." He lived up to his promise. The song pursued Sherman even beyond his death, as it was played at his funeral.

"Marching Through Georgia" does not share the same popularity in the nation's other half. Irwin Silber deems it the most despised Unionist song in the South owing to its evocations of a devastated Georgia at the hands of Sherman's frantic army. Accordingly, Tom Dolan writes in The Jeffersonian: "Georgia will not forget [the march], nor will her Southern sisters be unmindful of the anguish of that relentless pillage." Two incidents—both at a Democratic National Convention—exemplify Georgia's contempt for the song. In the 1908 convention, Georgia was one of the few states not to send its delegates to the eventual victor William Jennings Bryan; the band insultingly played "Marching Through Georgia" to express the convention's disapproval. A similar incident sparked in 1924. When tasked to play a fitting song for the Georgia delegation, the convention's band broke into Work's piece; music historian John Tasker Howard remarks: "[...] when the misguided leader, stronger on geography than history, swung into Marching Through Georgia, he was greeted by a silence that turned into hisses and boos noisier than the applause he had heard before."

Military/Nationalist uses

"Marching Through Georgia" is a staple of marching bands. While quintessentially American, it has been performed by armed forces across the world. Japanese troops sang it as they entered Port Arthur at the Russo–Japanese War's onset; it had previously been used by the local Salvation Army in the late 1880s. In World War Two British troops stationed in India periodically chanted it.

The song's melody was adapted into numerous regional military and nationalist anthems. Shortly after the Advance on Pretoria of the Second Boer War, British soldiers commemorated their victory with "Marching on Pretoria". Finnish civilians distraught at the conduct of the frigate Toivo's captain adopted it into a protest song, "Laiva Toivo, Oulu". Charlie Oaks set the tune to "Marching Through Flanders", detailing the American intervention in Belgium during World War One. The Irish nationalist song "Come In" also borrowed the melody of Work's composition. Its most notable adaptation is the controversial pro-Ulster hymn "Billy Boys", with the chorus:

Hello, hello, we are the Billy boys,
Hello, hello, you'll know us by our noise,
We're up to our knees in Fenian blood,
Surrender or you'll die,
For we are the Brigton Derry boys.

Political uses

Both major candidates in the 1896 U.S. presidential election, William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan, featured songs sung to the tune of "Marching Through Georgia" in their campaign. The piece is of Liberal significance in the United Kingdom, lending the melody of future prime minister David Lloyd George's song, "George and Gladstone", for his first parliamentary campaign, as well as the Liberal Democrats' de facto anthem, "The Land". It is a Georgist protest song calling for the equal distribution of land among the British public; the chorus goes:

The land! the land! 'twas God who gave the land!
The land! the land! the ground on which we stand,
Why should we be beggars, with the ballot in our hand?
"God gave the land to the people!"

It additionally forms the basis of "Paint 'Er Red", a commonplace unionist tune of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Other uses

Several films have employed Work's piece. A carpetbagger, in the epic Gone with the Wind (1939), chants its chorus while trying to steal Tara from Scarlett O'Hara. The western Shane (1953) features Wilson briefly performing the song on a harmonica, and in the western El Dorado (1966), Bull proclaims in response to being shot and asked to provide cover: "Well, just give me another gun and I'll play 'Marching Through Georgia'." The alternate history novels Marching Through Georgia (1988) and Bring the Jubilee reference the lyrics in their titles.

Bibliography

Books

• Carder, P. H. (2008). George F. Root, Civil War Songwriter: A Biography. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3374-2.
• Creiger, Wayne (1976). Bounder from Wales:. Columbia, Missouri; London, England: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-8262-0203-9.
• Eicher, David J. (2001). The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. New York City, New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
• Erbsen, Wayne (2000). Rousing Songs and True Tales of the Civil War. Pacific, Missouri: Mel Bay Publications. ISBN 978-1-883206-33-8.
• Ewen, David (1962). Popular American Composers from Revolutionary Times to the Present: A Biographical and Critical Guide. New York City, New York: H. W. Wilson Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0824200404.
• Foner, Philip S. (1975). American Labor Songs of the Nineteenth Century. Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-00187-7.
• Green, Archie; Roediger, David; Rosemont, Franklin; Salerno, Salvatore, eds. (2016). Big Red Songbook. Chicago, Illinois: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-62963-129-5.
• Howard, John T. (1946). Our American Music: Three Hundred Years of It (3rd ed.). New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company.
• Kaukiainen, Yrjö (1998). Laiva Toivo, Oulu (in Finnish). Helsinki, Finland: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. ISBN 951-746-026-0.
• Kelley, Bruce C.; Snell, Mark A. (2004). Bugle Resounding: Music and Musicians of the Civil War Era. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-8262-1538-6.
• Kimura, Seiya (1987). Soeda Azenbō, Tomomichi: Enka nidai fūkyōden (Shirīzu minkan Nihon gakusha) (in Japanese). Tokyo, Japan: Riburo Pōto. ISBN 978-4845702718.
• McWhirter, Christian (2012). Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-3550-0.
• Moore, Ward (2009). Bring the Jubilee. Wildside Press. ISBN 978-1434478535.
• Root, George F. (1891). The Story of a Musical Life: An Autobiography by Geo F. Root. Cincinnati, Ohio: The John Church Co. ISBN 978-1-4047-8329-4.
• Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John, eds. (2001). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 27 (2 ed.). New York City, New York: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 1-56159-239-0.
• Sherman, William T. (1875). Memoirs of General William T. Sherman. Vol. 2. New York City, New York: D. Appleton and Company.
• Silber, Irwin (1995). Songs of the Civil War. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-28438-7.
• Simms, James M. (1888). The First Colored Baptist Church in Northern America. Philadelpha, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippincott Company.
• Spaeth, Sigmund (1948). A History of Popular Music in America. New York: Random House.
• Stirling, Stephen M. (1988). Marching Through Georgia. Baen Books. ISBN 978-0671654078.
• Work, Henry C. (1884). Work, Bertram G. (ed.). Songs of Henry Clay Work. New York City, New York: Little & Ives.

Studies and journals

• Birdseye, George (1879). "America's Song Composers: IV. Henry Clay Work". Potter's American Monthly. 12 (88): 284–288 – via Internet Archive.
• Drago, Edmund L. (1973). "How Sherman's March Through Georgia Affected the Slaves". The Georgia Historical Quarterly. 57 (3): 361–375. JSTOR 40579903 – via JSTOR.
• Epstein, Dena J. (1944). "Music Publishing in Chicago before 1871: The Firm of Root & Cady, 1858-1871". Notes. 1 (4): 43–59. doi:10.2307/891291. JSTOR 891291 – via JSTOR.
• Harpine, William D. (2004). "'We Want Yer, McKinley': Epideictic Rhetoric in Songs from the 1896 Presidential Campaign". Rhetoric Society Quarterly. 34 (1): 73–88. JSTOR 40232421 – via JSTOR.
• Hill, Richard S. (1953). "The Mysterious Chord of Henry Clay Work". Notes. 10 (2): 211–225. JSTOR 892874 – via JSTOR.
• Osborn, George C. (1950). "The Atlanta Campaign, 1864". The Georgia Historical Quarterly. 34 (4): 361–375. JSTOR 40577246 – via JSTOR.
• Rhodes, James Ford (1901). "Sherman's March to the Sea". The American Historical Review. 6 (3): 466–474. JSTOR 1833511 – via JSTOR.
• Sellers, James L. (1927). "The Economic Incidence of the Civil War in the South". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 14 (2): 179–191. JSTOR 1895946 – via JSTOR.
• Steinle, John (2008). "'Shall the People Rule?': Denver Hosts the Democrats, 1908". Colorado Heritage Magazine. 28 (3) – via Colorado Encyclopedia.
• Tribble, Edwin (1967). "'Marching Through Georgia'". The Georgia Review. 21 (4): 423–429. JSTOR 41396391 – via JSTOR.

News articles

• Dolan, Tom (July 16, 1908). "News and Views of Things: 'Marching Through Georgia!'". The Jeffersonian. p. 13. Retrieved September 6, 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
• Ivey, David. "War is Marching Our Way: The General Hated His Theme Song". The Fayetteville Observer. Retrieved September 6, 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
• Lowden, Carl S. (August 7, 1920). "Stories of Old Home Songs: Marching Through Georgia". Dearborn Independent. p. 9. Retrieved September 6, 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
• McCray, Florine Thayer (January 19, 1898). "About Henry Clay Work". New Haven Morning Journal and Courier. p. 10. Retrieved June 29, 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
• Watson, J. D. (October 29, 1908). "Editorial Notes". The Jeffersonian. p. 12. Retrieved September 6, 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
• "Famous Songs and their History: No. 5—Marching Through Georgia—By Henry C. Work". Salt Lake Herald Republican. August 15, 1909. p. 21. Retrieved June 30, 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
• "Irish FA bans 'Billy Boys' song for Linfield fans". BBC Sport. April 16, 2014. Retrieved September 6, 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
• "The bitter divide". BBC News. June 2, 1999. Retrieved September 6, 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

Miscellaneous

Film segments

• El Dorado (Motion picture). IMDB. 1966. Quotes by Bull Harris.
• Gone with the Wind Marching through Georgia (Video). Efay Chen. April 9, 2012.
• Shane (Motion picture). IMDB. 1953. Quotes by Stonewall Torrey.

Songs

• Colquhoun, Ian (1903). Marching on Pretoria (Record). Zonophone – via flatinternational.
• Oaks, Charlie (1925). The Kaiser And Uncle Sam / Marching Through Flanders (Record). Vocalion – via Discogs.
• The Irish Rovers (2014). Come In (Video) – via YouTube.

Websites

• Bailey, Anne J. (2020). "Sherman's March to the Sea". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 6, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
• Myers, Barton (2020). "Sherman's Field Order No. 15". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 6, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
• Tome, Vanessa P. (2021). "'Marching through Georgia'". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 6, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
• Whitehead, Andrew (May 1, 2011). "God Gave the Land to the People: the Liberal 'Land Song'". History Workshop. Retrieved September 6, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links

• Ross, Kelley L. (2004). "Marching Through Georgia". I am a Union Man. Archived from the original on August 26, 2014. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
• Marching Through Georgia sheet music
• Marching Through Georgia MIDI