Original 1865 sheet music cover of "Marching Through Georgia" by S. Brainard Sons

"Marching Through Georgia"^[a] is an American Civil War-era marching song written and composed by Henry Clay Work 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.

Work made a name for himself in the Civil War for penning heartfelt, rousing tunes that reflected the Union's struggle and progress. The popular publishing house Root & Cady employed him in 1861—a post he maintained throughout the war. Following the March to the Sea, the Union's pivotal triumph that left Confederate resources in tatters and civilians in anguish, Work was inspired to write a commemorative song that would become the campaign's unofficial theme tune, "Marching Through Georgia".

The song was released in January 1865 to widespread success. One of the few Civil War compositions that withstood the war's end, it cemented a place in veteran reunions and marching parades. Today, "Marching Through Georgia" is ingrained into Georgia's identity, even though some residents look upon it with contempt for glorifying Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's annihilative campaign. 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" lent the tune to numerous partisan hymns such as "Billy Boys" and "The Land". Beyond the United States, troops from all over the world have adopted it as a marching 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.

Unionist composer Henry Clay Work who wrote "Marching Through Georgia" and many other patriotic songs

Henry Clay Work (1832–1884) was a Chicagoan printer by trade. However, his true passion rested in songwriting, which he had cultivated a deep penchant for as a child.^[1] He published a complete song for the first time in 1853.^[2] Eight years later, the American Civil War broke out,^[3] launching his songwriting ventures into a "fecund" career.^[4] Work soon signed up for a post at the then-most popular publishing firm, Root & Cady.^[5] George F. Root, its director, was soundly impressed by his song submission "Kingdom Coming" and promptly assigned him the post.^[6]

Music was of utmost importance in the Civil War;^[7] journalist Irwin Silber comments: "soldiers and civilians of the Union states were inspired and propagandized by a host of patriotic songs."^[8] Work, a Northerner, delivered, penning 25 pro-Union songs from 1861 to 1865.^[9] Their "intense partisanship" is owed to Work's devout allegiance to the Union cause, itself rooted in his abolitionist background.^[10] As a child, he passed much time among freed slaves in the Underground Railroad, on which the family home was situated. The young Work soon came to despise slavery.^[11] His wartime compositions impart this sentiment.^[10]

Work is commended for communicating the feelings of Union civilians through music.^[12] 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 [...]."^[4] For instance, the minstrel tune "Kingdom Coming" accompanied African American troops marching down South^[13] and "The Song of a Thousand Years" consoled civilians during the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania.^[14] This sense of empathy along with his mastery of melody^[15] fueled one of the most successful songwriting careers in the war.^[16]

"Marching Through Georgia" marked the apex of Work's career up to that point.^[17] Released on January 9, 1865,^[18] 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 mastermind, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman.^[19] While other contemporary songs honored the march, such as H. M. Higgins's "General Sherman and His Boys in Blue" and S. T. Gordon's "Sherman's March to the Sea", Work's composition remains the best known.^[20] The term "March to Sea" itself originated from another musical composition, "Sherman's March to the Sea", by S. H. M. Byers.^[21]

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

By September 1864 the Union looked set to win the war. Following three years of a bloody stalemate, Sherman's capture of Atlanta, a pivotal Southern city, proved a deliverance for the Northern cause.^[22] Sherman then eyed the coastal city of Savannah which, if captured, would split the Confederacy in half. In late September the plan was finalized and Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant eventually gave his assent.^[23]

On November 15, 62,000 Union troops left Atlanta and commenced the March to the Sea.^[24] The South was caught off guard and never managed to muster effective resistance. As such, progress was smooth and nigh undisturbed.^[25] Sherman recalls in his memoirs: "[Maj. Gen. Hardee, his main rival, had] not forced us to use anything but a skirmish-line, though at several points he had erected fortifications and tried to alarm us by bombastic threats."^[26] After a series of minor skirmishes and just two notable engagements, at Griswoldville and Fort McAllister, the Union army moved into Savannah on December 21. This ended the March to the Sea.^[27] Five months later, the war's Western theater closed.^[28]

The march bore two immediate impacts on the South. Firstly, troops left destruction and paucity in their tracks as they scavenged the land for food and resources and laid waste to public buildings and infrastructure.^[29] This fit Sherman's strategy—to persuade Southerners that the war was not worth supporting anymore.^[30] Secondly, it inspirited Southern slaves to flee to freedom. Over 14,000 joined Sherman's troops in Georgia with brisk enthusiasm once they passed near their native plantation, cementing the campaign as a milestone of emancipation.^[31]

Author David J. Eicher writes of the March to the Sea: "Sherman had accomplished an amazing task. He had defied military principles by operating deep within enemy territory and without lines of supply or communication. He had destroyed the South's potential and psychology to wage war."^[32] A pioneering use of psychological warfare and total war, the destruction wrought by Sherman's troops terrorized the South. Civilians whose territory and resources was being ravaged before their eyes grew so appalled at the conflict that their will to fight on dissipated, as Sherman had intended.^[33] The march further crippled the Southern economy, incurring losses of approximately $100 million.^[34][b] In historian Herman Hattaway's words, it "[knocked] the Confederate war effort to pieces."^[35]

"Marching Through Georgia" is chanted from a Union soldier's point of view. He had taken part in the March to the Sea and now recounts the campaign's triumphs and their ruinous repercussions on the Confederacy.^[37] The song comprises five stanzas and a refrain^[38]—the verse–chorus structure Work helped pioneer.^[39] A soloist is intended to sing the individual stanzas, and a joint choir of soprano, alto, tenor and bass accompanies the solo voice for the chorus. The original sheet music arranges a piano accompaniment to be performed during the song.^[38]

The first stanza commences with a rallying cry for Sherman's troops.^[38] Curiously, it underrepresents their number as 50,000; in fact, over 60,000 took part in the march.^[40] The chorus alludes to the Jubilee in biblical antiquity, a semicentennial rite freeing certain servants from bondage after 49 years of toil.^[41] In the Civil War context, the allusion symbolizes the end of African-American servitude and the advent of a new life of freedom;^[42] this metaphor recurs in Work's 1862 piece "Kingdom Coming".^[41] The second stanza extends the theme of emancipation: "How the darkeys shouted when they heard the joyful sound!"^[43]

A retelling of Southern Unionists' celebration of the Northern troops defines the third stanza;^[42] they "[weep] with joyful tears / When they [see] the honor'd flag they had not seen for years."^[44] Work's mastery of the comic genre, also reflected in "Kingdom Coming",^[45] is imbued in the fourth stanza, where the Confederates who had scoffed at Sherman's campaign now see their worst wishes come to light.^[38] The final stanza celebrates the success of the march, after which "treason fled before [the Union troops] for resistance was in vain".^[46]

Historian Christian McWhirter evaluates the song's lyrical and thematic framework:

On the surface, it celebrated Sherman's campaign from Atlanta to Savannah; but it also told listeners how to interpret Union victory. Speaking as a white soldier, Work turned the targeting of Confederate civilian property into a celebration of unionism and emancipation. Instead of destroyers, Union soldiers became deliverers for slaves and southern unionists. Georgia was not left in ruins but was converted into 'a thoroughfare for freedom.'^[47]

Like much of Work's wartime catalog,^[12] "Marching Through Georgia" captures contemporary attitudes among Northern civilians—in this case, jubilation over Sherman's fruitful campaign. It fulfilled their demand for a celebratory patriotic hymn.^[42] Accordingly, the song imparts passionate patriotism and American pride,^[48] such that it "rubbed Yankee salt into one of the sorest wounds of the Civil War," in musicologist Sigmund Spaeth's words.^[49] Numerous writers correlate this patriotism with Work's background in an abolitionist family.^[50]

"Marching Through Georgia" was one of the few wartime compositions to outlast the conflict.^[51] Civilians had grown tired of war, mirrored by the short-lasting fame of "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!", an anthem known to the entire Union that nonetheless left the spotlight after 1865.^[52] In his autobiography published 26 years after Work drafted the song, George F. Root explains its unique postbellum popularity:

It is more played and sung at the present time than any other song of the war. This is not only on account of the intrinsic merit of its words and music, but because it is retrospective. Other war songs, "The Battle Cry of Freedom" for example, were for exciting the patriotic feeling on going in to the war or the battle; "Marching Through Georgia" is a glorious remembrance on coming triumphantly out, and so has been more appropriate to soldiers' and other gatherings ever since.^[53]

To soldiers, Work's piece was the "only [one] which [...] thoroughly expressed their triumphant enthusiasm."^[54]

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

"Marching Through Georgia" quickly cemented itself as a Civil War icon. 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.^[55] Music biographer David Ewen regards it as "the greatest of his war songs,"^[56] and Carl S. Lowden deems it his very best work, in part owing to its "soul-stirring" production and longevity.^[57]

Writer Edwin Tribble opines that Work's postbellum fame, the little he had, rested solely on the success of "Marching Through Georgia",^[58] citing a letter he wrote to his long-time correspondent Susie Mitchell: "It is really surprising that I have excited so much curiosity and interest here [at an annual encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)], not only among romantic young women but among all classes. My connection with 'Marching Through Georgia' seems to be the cause."^[59] In fact, starting from the 1880s, the song predominated Northern veteran gatherings.^[60]

Sherman himself came to loathe "Marching Through Georgia" because of its ubiquity in the North, being performed at every public function he attended. When he reviewed the national encampment of the GAR in 1890, the hundreds of bands present played the tune every time they passed him for an unbroken seven hours.^[61] 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."^[62] He lived up to his promise. The song pursued Sherman even after his death, as it was played at his funeral.^[63]

"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 it evoking a devastated Georgia at the hands of Sherman's frantic army.^[64] Accordingly, Sigmund Spaeth explicitly advises readers not to sing or play Work's composition to a Southerner.^[14] 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;^[65] the band insultingly played "Marching Through Georgia" to express the convention's disapproval.^[66] 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."^[67]

"Marching Through Georgia" is a staple of marching bands. While quintessentially American,^[48] it has been performed by armed forces across the world.^[68] Japanese troops sang it as they entered Port Arthur at the Russo–Japanese War's onset.^[69] British troops stationed in India periodically chanted it.^[69] The song's melody has been adapted into numerous regional military and nationalist anthems. The Princeton football fight song "Nassau! Nassau!" also borrowed the melody of Work's composition.^[70] A more notable adaptation is the controversial pro-Ulster hymn "Billy Boys",^[71] 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.^[72]

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.^[73] The melody of "Paint 'Er Red", a commonplace pro-labor tune of the Industrial Workers of the World, is based on the song.^[74] Above all, the piece is of Liberal significance in the United Kingdom, lending the tune of future prime minister David Lloyd George's campaign song "George and Gladstone",^[75] as well as the Liberal Democrats' de facto anthem, "The Land".^[76] The latter is a Georgist protest song calling for the equal distribution of land among the British public,^[76] with the refrain:

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!"^[77]

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.^[78] The western Shane (1953) features Wilson briefly performing the song on a harmonica.^[79] "Marching Through Georgia" was additionally incorporated in Ken Burns' documentary The Civil War (1990) and in Charles Ives' orchestral suite Three Places in New England.^[38]

• Commentary on "Marching Through Georgia" by Kelley L. Ross.
• Sheet music of "Marching Through Georgia" by Sheet Music Singer.
• Additional information on Sherman's March to the Sea on the American Battlefield Trust.

• Recording by Tennessee Ernie Ford on his 1961 album Songs of the Civil War.
• Recording by the 97th Regimental String Band on their 1990 album Battlefields and Campfires: Civil War Era Songs, Vol. I.
• Recording by Jon English on his 2002 album Over There: Songs From America's Wars.
• Instrumental by the U.S. Marine Band on their 2011 album The Heritage of John Philip Sousa: Volume 7.
• Piano instrumental by Forte Republic as part of their series of piano renditions of Civil War songs.