Marching Through Georgia

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

Cover of the 1865 sheet music to Marching Through Georgia

"Marching Through Georgia" (sometimes spelled Marching Thru' Georgia or Marching Thro Georgia) is a marching song written by Henry Clay Work at the end of the American Civil War in 1865. It refers to U.S. Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea late in the previous year.

Because of its lively melody, the song became widely popular with Union Army veterans after the war. Ironically, General Sherman himself came to despise "Marching Through Georgia", in part because it was played at almost every public appearance that he attended.^[1] Outside of the Southern United States, it had a universal appeal: Japanese troops sang it as they entered Port Arthur, the British Army sang it in India, and an English town thought the tune was appropriate to welcome southern American troops in World War II.^[2]

Works inspired by the song

The song remains popular with brass bands, and its tune has been adapted to other popular songs, including "Billy Boys" and "Come In, Come In". It was also sung by a carpetbagger in Gone with the Wind, and Ann Sheridan in 'Dodge City'.

In the United Kingdom, the tune is used for the Georgist protest song "The Land", the de facto party song of the Liberal Democrats and of the former Liberal Party.

George M. Cohan referenced the "Hurrah! Hurrah!" line in one of the verses of "You're a Grand Old Flag", juxtaposed with a line from "Dixie".

During Japanese occupation of Korea, Korean resistants used this song's melody as one of their marching songs.

The Finnish protest song "Laiva Toivo, Oulu" (English: "The Ship Hope, Oulu") is set to the melody of "Marching Through Georgia", but with Finnish-language lyrics criticizing the actions of the captain of the titular frigate Toivo.^[3]

The song is referenced in the title of two counterfactual novels, S. M. Stirling's Marching Through Georgia references the title, whilst that of Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee references the chorus.

In the 1966 Howard Hawks western El Dorado, the character Bull, in response to being shot at from a bell-laden church tower, proclaims, "Well, just give me another gun and I'll play "Marching Through Georgia."

The Stockton, California band Pavement emphatically reference Sherman's March to the Sea and song "Marching Through Georgia" in their song "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" from their 1994 album reissue "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins."

Lyrics

postcard early 20th century

Verse 1
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, 50,000 strong^[4]
While we were marching through Georgia.

Chorus
Hurrah! Hurrah! we bring the jubilee!^[5]
Hurrah! Hurrah! the flag that makes you free!
So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea
While we were marching through Georgia.

Verse 2
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.

Verse 3
Yes and there were Union men who wept with joyful tears,
When they saw the honored flag they had not seen for years;
Hardly could they be restrained from breaking forth in cheers,
While we were marching through Georgia.

Verse 4
"Sherman's dashing Yankee boys will never reach the coast!"
So the saucy rebels said and 'twas a handsome boast
Had they not forgot, alas! to reckon with the Host
While we were marching through Georgia.

Verse 5
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.

Adaptations

"Come In"

One version of the chorus for Come In is as follows:

Come in, come in, I'll do the best I can

Come in, come in, bring the whole bloody clan

Take it slow and easy, and I'll shake you by the hand

Set you down, I'll treat you decent, I'm an Ulsterman'

The Land

The first verse and chorus from "The Land" is as follows:

Sound the call for freedom boys, and sound it far and wide,

March along to victory, for God is on our side,

While the voice of nature thunders o'er the rising tide:

"God gave the land to the people."

The land, the land,'twas God who made the land,

The land, the land, The ground on which we stand,

Why should we be beggars with a ballot in our hand?

God gave the land to the people!

The song was interpolated into The United States of America's "The American Metaphysical Circus".

The tune was used as the basis for a Boer war song "Marching on Pretoria", circa 1900.

Notes

1. ^ Erbsen, p. 51; Eicher, p. 763.
2. ^ http://www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/rednecks/rednecks.html
3. ^ Kaukiainen, Yrjö (1998) (in Finnish). Laiva Toivo, Oulu. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. pp. 10–13. ISBN 951-749-026-0. 
4. ^ Eicher, p. 762: Sherman's armies in Georgia actually had 62,000 men.
5. ^ A biblical allusion to the freeing of the slaves. See Leviticus 25.

References

• Eicher, David J., The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War, Simon & Schuster, 2001, ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
• Erbsen, Wayne, Rousing Songs and True Tales of the Civil War, Native Ground Books & Music, 2008, ISBN 978-1-883206-33-8.

External links

• "Marching Through Georgia", Harlan & Stanley (Edison Gold Moulded, 1904)—Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project.
• Marching Through Georgia sheet music.
• Marching Through Georgia MIDI.
• "I am a Union Man" - Marching Through Georgia.

• Marching Through Pretoria recording at Flatinternational.org [1]