# Hold the Fort!

​Cover: Signal Corpsman sends message from Kennesaw Mountain, 5 October 1864, as General Sherman points to beleaguered Allatoona in the distance. (Library of Congress photo of color illustration by H. A. Ogden in Benson J. Lossing, History of the Civil War, 1912.)
SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY • NUMBER 9
THE STORY OF A SONG FROM THE SAWDUST TRAIL TO THE PICKET LINE
by Paul J. Scheips
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS City of Washington 1971
THE STORY OF A SONG FROM THE SAWDUST TRAIL TO THE PICKET LINE
   For a hundred years hearts have quickened to the martial strains and words of "Hold the Fort." As a gospel song it has sent sinners down the sawdust trail to redemption in many a revival meeting, and in other guises it has stirred Republican voters, Populists, Prohibitionists, Suffragettes, workers, and Ghanaian nationalists. It is as a labor union song, however, that its popularity has rivaled that of its gospel beginnings, for it has inspired countless workers to face down boss and deputy sheriff alike with courage and religious fervor.
   The Author: Paul J. Scheips is a historian in the Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, where he has been devoting much of his time to the history of the United States Army's role in civil disturbances. From 1952 to 1962 he was a historian in the United States Army Signal Corps Historical Division, and it was there he became interested in "Hold the Fort."
* Preface
* The Talking Flag of Kennesaw
* The Sawdust Trail: Beginnings in Winnebago County
* Six Acres of Irishmen
* In the Athens of America
* Hold the Fort Until November
* Grog, Sex, and the People's Party
* Look My People, Folk of Ghana
* Union Hall and Picket Line
* Notes
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UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1971
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price $1.25 cents (paper cover)
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
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