Sentiments could find them, but these elements were not so pronounced as to offend those who were solely unionists. The song’s definition of the Northern cause is purposely open-ended. The ability of “The Battle Cry of Freedom” to bridge divisions over emancipation is not surprising.
Battle cry of freedom sheet music series#
Even Confederates could not resist the tune, and published a version with secessionist lyrics.Įxplore multimedia from the series and navigate through past posts, as well as photos and articles from the Times archive. Printed and revised the song for their 1864 presidential campaign. The famed pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk incorporated it into his wartime performances and considered it a viable contender as the official national anthem. Sheet music for “The Battle Cry of Freedom” sold thousands of copies in 1862, and estimatesįor the entire war range as high as 750,000. The song quickly joined “John Brown’s Body” as an unofficial anthem of the Northern war effort.
Verse, the audience took up the tune and sang along with the chorus. While we rally round the flag boys, rally once again,Īccording to The Chicago Tribune, the first verse was immediately “received with the utmost enthusiasm and applause,” and the crowd’s excitement only built as the song went along.
Then his brother Frank joined him for the booming chorus: We will rally from the hillside, we’ll gather from the plain, Yes, we’ll rally ’round the flag boys, we’ll rally once again Lumbard did most of the singing as he made his way through the first verse: The brothers took the stage following a strongly abolitionist speech from the Republican Representative Isaac N. Written in response to Abraham Lincoln’s July 2 call for 300,000 volunteers, the song perfectly balanced a likable and rousing melody with simple, Root and the Lumbards knew they had a likely hit on their hands. The Lumbards had performed it at a rally soon thereafter, and now, preparing for a similar show, they turned to Root again. Three days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter. Root had released his opening salvo, “The First Gun Is Fired!” a mere Root had not yet earned his place alongside other giants of the music industry when the Lumbards came calling in the summer of 1862. Of the Root & Cady music store and embarked on one of the most successful song writing careers of the war era. Root shared Mason’s perspective, and he took these values with him when he moved to Chicago just before the Civil War. Paragon of artistic skill – and often generated more cash. He believed a song that reached a large audience with a strong message was more beneficial to society than a critically lauded Wrote and published hymns with simple, catchy melodies and easily understandable lyrics. As one of Boston’s music teachers, he was drawn into the circle of the trailblazing hymnodist and publisher Lowell Mason. Lumbards, Root was equally rooted in the reform movements of the day and the Northern cause, churning out songs on an almost daily basis to accompany the latest news.īorn in Massachusetts, Root spent most of his life studying and teaching music. When the Lumbard brothers, a popular Midwest singing group, needed a song for a rally in Chicago on July 26, 1862, they turned to George Frederick Root, a prolific, if not exactly famous, local songwriter. Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded.
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