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George F. Root’s Autograph Sheet Music for “The Battle-Cry of Freedom!” |
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“Yes, we’ll rally round the flag boys! we’ll rally once again, Shouting the Battle-cry of Freedom!… The Union forever! Hurrah boys, Hurrah! Down with the traitor, up with the star! While we Rally round the flag boys, rally once again, Shouting the Battle-cry of Freedom!”
GEORGE F. ROOT.
Autograph Manuscript Signed twice, handwritten music and lyrics for “The Battle-Cry of Freedom.” Root penned this fair copy later, mistakenly dating it 1861, though he composed “Battle Cry” in July 1862. 2 pp., 10¼ x 13⅜ in.
Inventory #27458
Price: $39,000
Historical Background
In July 1862, Root heard of President Lincoln’s second call for troops, and “immediately a song started in my mind, words and music together.” He “thought it out that afternoon, and wrote it the next morning at the store.” Before “the ink was hardly dry,” Jules G. and Frank Lumbard were looking for something to sing at a Chicago war meeting. They found it at Root & Cady’s store, practiced it once, and sang it at the rally, from where it spread to the armies.(George F. Root, The Story of a Musical Life, 132-33.)
“The Battle-Cry of Freedom” became one of the most popular patriotic songs of the War, in part because it bridged the dual aims of maintaining the Union and fighting slavery, though without being overtly abolitionist. More northerners, especially at the beginning of the war, favored limiting the spread of slavery rather than its complete abolition.
As many as 700,000 copies of this song were published during the war, including a modified version used in 1864 for the Lincoln and Johnson presidential ticket. It was so well-known that it was even adapted for the Confederacy by a composer and lyricist who clearly defined “freedom” differently.
Excerpt
“1 Yes, we'll rally round the flag boys! we’ll rally once again,
Shouting the Battle-cry of Freedom!
We will rally from the hill side, we’ll gather from the plain,
Shouting the Battle-cry of Freedom!
“2 We are springing to the call of our brothers gone before,
Shouting the Battle-cry of Freedom!
And we’ll fill the vacant ranks with a million freemen more,
Shouting the Battle-cry of Freedom!
“Chorus.
The Union forever! Hurrah! boys, Hurrah!
Down with the traitor, up with the star!
While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again,
Shouting the Battle-cry of Freedom!” (p1-2)
