SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY • NUMBER 9 

HOLD THE FI1T! 

THE STORY OF A SONG FROM THE SAWDUST TRAIL 

TO THE PICKET LINE 

by 

Paul J. Scheips 

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS 

City of Washington 

1971 
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UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

WASHINGTON : 1971 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office 

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Preface 

This is a history of a gospel song, which I first learned about a 

decade and a half ago while a historian in the Department of the Army's 

old Signal Corps Historical Division. I have been occupied with the 

song's history off and on ever since. Even as I concluded this accountto illustrate how the history of the song marches on—I heard from my 

friend John I. White of Brielle, New Jersey, that cowboys used to sing 

not only lullabies and ribald range songs to their herds but also "Hold 

the Fort" and other gospel songs. He said he had learned this interesting 

piece of information from the book Cattle by Will Croft Barnes (an old 

Signal Corpsman, by the way) and William McLeod Raines. About the 

time that White wrote to me, The New Yorker published a Weber cartoon in which a middle-aged man tells his stolid wife, who is seated before 

the family television set: "I'm going out to get a paper. Hold the fort." 

As my friends will attest, I have been saying much the same thing for as 

long as they can remember. 

Numerous thanks for assistance rendered me in this undertaking are 

scattered through the footnotes, but I would like to give special thanks 

to the following persons for their specialized and generous help and encouragement: Fred E. Brown of Houston, Texas; Joe Glazer of the 

United States Information Agency; Walter Rundell, Jr., chairman of 

the history faculty at Iowa State University; Alice Cole Scheips of the 

Industrial Union Department, AFL-CIO; Annie L. Seely of the United 

States Army Photographic Agency; Irwin Silber of New York City; 

Vincent H. Demma and Loretto C. Stevens of the Office of the Chief of 

Military History, Department of the Army; and the members of the staff, 

past and present, of the Music Division, Library of Congress. 

PAUL J. SCHEIPS 

Washington, D.C. 

January 1971 

ii i 
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.) 
HILI THE FORT! 

T H E STOR Y O F A SONG FRO M TH E SAWDUST TRAI L 

T O TH E PICKE T LIN E 

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. 

T H E 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." 

The Talking Flag of Kennesaw 

"HOLD THE FORT" grew out of the Civil War Battle of Allatoona on 5 

October 1864, the last action in the vicinity of Atlanta.1 More particularly, it grew out of a report of one or more messages wigwagged from 

Kennesaw Mountain, north of Atlanta, as Confederate forces of Lieutenant General John J3. Hood moved to cut the communications of Major 

General William T. Sherman along the line of the Western & Atlantic Railroad at Allatoona Pass, a fortified railroad cut.2

 (See cover 

illustration.) 

Actually, there were at least three Signal Corps wigwag messages 

to the Allatoona garrison that separately or together could have inspired 

"Hold the Fort." Brigadier General William Vandever, Sherman's subordinate, signed and dispatched two of these messages on 4 October. One 

of them read: "Sherman is moving in force. Hold out." The second one 

read: "General Sherman says hold fast. We are coming."

 3 The third 

message, unsigned in the official published version, bore the initial of 

the signal officer on Kennesaw Mountain, according to the recollection 

of John Q. Adams, who as a second lieutenant had been in charge of 

the signal station where it was received on 5 October "before it became 

too hot for signaling." As published, this third message read: "Tell Allatoona hold on. General Sherman says he is working hard for you."

 4 

l 
2 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

Later, Allen D. Frankenberry, who had been on Kennesaw in October 1864 as a second-class private of the Signal Corps, claimed that "Hold 

the Fort" was inspired by the message that Sherman sent to Brigadier 

General John N. Corse at Rome, Georgia, ordering him to reinforce Allatoona. According to Frankenberry, this message, which he may have 

flagged, read: "Move your command to Allatoona. Hold the place. I 

will help you. Sherman."

 5 Actually, however, Sherman's message to 

Corse to reinforce Allatoona, which Vandever sent on 4 October, was 

quite different: "Sherman directs you to move forward and join Smith's 

division with your entire command, using cars, if to be had, and burn 

provisions rather than lose them."

 6 Another message on the same date, 

signed by Sherman, advised Corse and other commanding officers that 

the enemy was "moving on Allatoona" and "thence to Rome." Corse evidently received this message in due time, although its transmission was 

delayed by fog. In any case, because of related instructions and his knowledge of troop dispositions, the Vandever message was perfectly clear 

to Corse.7 

Major General William Tecumseh Sherman. (Photo 

from United States Army 

Signal Corps negative in National Archives.) 
NUMBER 9 6 

In 1895 Frankenberry returned to Kennesaw Mountain with other 

old signalmen to send once again, for old time's sake, the historic message 

to hold the fort. With him he had what he believed was the same signal 

flag that had been used to send the original message, the recollections of 

which were perhaps the most singular of his life.8 

Still later, on 13 September 1913, George Carr Round, who had 

been a signal officer during the Civil War and was then president of the 

Allatoona Pass on the Western & Atlantic Railroad, looking north, as it was in the old 

days. Most of the fighting on 5 October 1864 took place around the high ground to 

the left. (National Archives photo from United States Wa r Department General Staff 

negative in National Archives.) 
4 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

George Carr Round (second from right) with friends on Kennesaw Mountain, 1913. 

The large signal flag on the left may have been the one used here in 1864. (Photo by 

United States Army Photographic Agency from print in the George Carr Round 

papers. Courtesy of Emily R. Lewis, Manassas, Virginia.) 

United States Veteran Signal Corps Association, visited Kennesaw 

Mountain while on a Civil War jubilee campaign in Georgia and Tennessee. There, on the site of the old signal station, from whence went 

out, as he put it, "the most important signal message ever sent in the 

history of war," he evidently repeated the message and had one of his 

companions sound "the trumpet of the Jubilee." He used what may have 

been Frankenberry's old signal flag (after borrowing it from the Adjutant 

General of Pennsylvania), perhaps the very one that got Corse on the road 

to Allatoona or that encouraged the garrison to hang on. Round also had 

with him a small flag that he had used while standing on the dome of 

the state capitol at Raleigh, North Carolina, and sending what he believed 

was the last message of the Civil War: "Peace on earth, good will to 

men." When he transmitted some of the old messages with the Allatoona 
NUMBER 9 5 

flag during the jubilee campaign in Chattanooga his audience rose and, 

led by a choir, "sang 'Hold the Fort' with great spirit."

 9 

The Battle of Allatoona was a brief but desperate struggle. With the 

retreat of the Confederates on the afternoon of 5 October it was 

accounted a Union victory, and Corse, summoning what humility he 

could, signaled Sherman: "I am short a cheek bone and one ear, but am 

able to whip all hell yet."

 10

 It is said, however, that in after years "no one 

dared twit" Corse "because his famous cheekbone and one ear were not 

missing, as his immortal signals had indicated in more strenuous times." " 

Major General Samuel G. French, Corse's opposite number at Allatoona, 

gave vent in his memoirs to an abiding frustration by denouncing both 

General Hood, who was his superior, and his Union opponent with fine 

impartiality. He was so bitter, in fact, that his publishers made him tone 

down his manuscript before publication because they were "ashamed of 

the language used" and fearful of seventeen possibly libelous passages.12 

Sherman held Allatoona up to his armies as a model defense of a 

fortified place,13 and the signaling between Kennesaw Mountain and 

Allatoona went into Signal Corps annals as perhaps the most famous of 

all Civil War signaling. Subsequently, Albert James Myer, the Army's 

first signal officer, was made a brigadier general by brevet "for distinguished service in organizing, instructing and commanding the Signal 

Corps . . . and for its especial service on October 5, 1864," that is, for 

its service at Allatoona, even though by the time of the battle Myer's 

appointment as colonel and chief signal officer had been revoked because 

of a dispute with the Secretary of War.14 Frank A. West, a signalman 

at Allatoona, was so impressed with what happened there that he is said 

to have named a son Allatoona Pass West. 

"Hold the Fort" was not the first artistic by-product of the Battle of 

Allatoona, but it was the only one that was to attain anything approximating folk status. It was preceded in 1866 by Caroline Stickney's long 

narrative poem, "The Flag that Talks," of which the following are representative verses: 

O Talking Flag, thy worth if ever proving, 

We hailed the distant glass; 

Atlanta heard: "The foe at Acworth, moving 

On Allatoona Pass." 

Quick came the answer—"Signal for assistance 

To General Corse at Rome; 

Let the Pass garrison show firm resistance 

Till reinforcements come—"

 15 
6 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

"In the railroad cut there's a lonely grave," runs the first line of 

another poem, "The Soldier's Grave," by Joseph M. Brown, an official 

of the Western & Atlantic Railroad.16 Paul Dresser—presumably the 

famous songsmith who was Theodore Dreiser's brother and who wrote, 

among other songs, "On the Banks of the Wabash Far Away" and "My 

Gal Sal"—wrote a poem or song about "The Lone Grave." Its words 

bear an interesting comparison with "The Blue and the Gray," a popular 

Dresser song written during the Spanish-American War.17 

Inevitably, Allatoona was the subject of at least two "dramas." One 

of these, Allatoona, an Historical and Military Drama in Five Acts (the 

omission of the first act of which would in "no way interfere with the 

plot"), was written by Brevet Major General Judson Kilpatrick, who 

had commanded one of Sherman's cavalry divisions at the time of the 

Battle of Allatoona, and J. Owen Moore. Samuel French & Company, 

better known for its Ten Nights in a Bar Room, published the play in 

1875. As the battle is about to begin—three pages before the final curtain—Corse (to whom the work is dedicated) asks Miss Helen Dunbar, 

the heroine, to retire at once. She does so and the battle is on. When Corse 

is wounded, the hero asks if the general is dead, to which Corse responds: 

"No. I am worth a hundred dead men yet, and I'll defend this post." At 

this juncture, Corse's signal officer reads a signal on Kennesaw Mountain 

by which Sherman tells Allatoona to "hold on" and "not give up, [for] 

we are coming to your aid." To this Corse replies: "We have repulsed 

them twice. Half my head is gone, but we will hold this place or die."

 18 

In 1930 Christopher Morley "revised and edified" an adaptation of Allatoona under the title The Blue and the Gray, or, War Is Hell. 

In Allatoona, a Play in Four Acts, by Samuel H. M. Byers, the 

heroine, Miss Laura Gillford, who has learned signaling with her "berry 

girls," substitutes for Sherman's signal officer, who is "dead at his post." 

Calling Allatoona for Sherman, Laura receives the message that 

"Corse—is—here!" The battle rages fiercely with the enemy's 5,000 men 

(there were actually only somewhat more than three-fifths of this number) pressing Corse from all sides. The situation being critical, Sherman 

commands Laura to send a message to Allatoona that the fort must be 

held, that reinforcements—"ten thousand under Howard"—are coming. 

As a consequence of this message Corse holds out, and the first half of the 

play comes to an end. In its last half, Laura's dear love, Private Eldred 

Marshall, performs such great feats of bravery that just before the curtain falls (to the tune of "Marching through Georgia") Sherman kisses 
NUMBER 9 

Laura, joins her hands with those of Eldred, and tells the happy twain: 

"Two gold medals are being made—one for the soldier who spiked the 

guns at Gordon Pass, and one for the girl who saved Allatoona."

 19 

The Sawdust Trail: Beginnings in 

Winnebago County 

The scene now shifts from the footboards to real life, and from Georgia 

in the fall of 1864 to Illinois in April 1870. There, at the Winnebago 

County Sunday School Convention, in Rockford, on Thursday and Friday, 28-29 April, Major Daniel Webster Whittle, an official of the Elgin 

Watch Company and a guest speaker at the convention, related a version 

of the fateful events at Allatoona in October 1864. To Whittle, who recalled that Sherman had signaled "Hold the Fort; I am coming," the 

events at Allatoona were "an illustration of the inspiration derived by 

the Christian from the thoughts of Christ as our commander and of His 

coming to our relief."

 20 

Daniel Webster Whittle. 

(Library of Congress photo.) 
8 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

In the audience was 32-year-old Philip Paul Bliss,21 who had just 

met Whittle and traveled to Rockford to sing at the latter's request.22 

The Rockford Register carried a report of the convention in its edition 

of Saturday, 30 April 1870, but it did not, alas, report Whittle's remarks 

on Allatoona, although it stated that he spoke several times. The Register 

did report, however, that both Bliss and his wife attended the convention. 

This was the beginning of a close relationship between Bliss and Whittle 

that was to last until Bliss's sudden death not quite seven years later. 

Whittle was a Civil War veteran who had been cited "in terms of 

high commendation" in the Vicksburg campaign, in which he received a 

wound in the right forearm. Later, in the Atlanta campaign, he was 

on Major General Oliver O. Howard's staff in the Army of the Tennessee 

and won his majority by brevet promotion at the close of the war.23 

Although Howard recalled in 1899 that Whittle "stood beside General Sherman as my representative on the top of Kennesaw" during the 

Philip Paul Bliss. (Library 

of Congress photo.) 
NUMBER 9 9 

signaling to Corse at Allatoona,24 he could have been mistaken, for Whittle 

did not claim in his published life of Bliss that he himself was there.25 He 

was probably in the vicinity of Kennesaw on 5 October at Howard's 

headquarters near Marietta (hard by the mountain), where he was the 

assistant provost marshal.26 In his account of the engagement, Whittle was 

wrong not only about the message signaled, which is not surprising, but, 

as any old soldier might have done, he understated the Union strength at 

Allatoona, putting it at "about 1,500 men" as against the 1,944 claimed 

by Corse (who was comparatively accurate), and overstated the Confederate strength, giving the Rebels 6,000 men rather than the 3,276 

that they claimed.27 Historical truth, however, was of little moment in 

an epic tale with a point about The Eternal Verity. 

Whatever its imperfections, Whittle's account so inspired Bliss that 

he wrote "Hold the Fort" and dedicated it to the major. According to 

Whittle, Bliss wrote the song in Whittle's Chicago home at 43 South May 

Street, where Bliss and his wife moved in order to be near the First Congregational Church, of which Bliss became the choirmaster in July 1870.28 

Ira D. Sankey, another of Bliss's friends, said that the day following the 

convention Bliss and Whittle conducted a meeting in the Chicago 

Y.M.C.A., where Bliss wrote the words of the chorus on a blackboard 

and sang the song for the first time, with the audience joining him in the 

chorus.29 

"Hold the Fort" was first published in 1870 as sheet music

 30

 by the 

famous Chicago firm of Root & Cady.31 Both at home and abroad people 

soon were singing: 

Ho! my comrades, see the signal 

Waving in the sky! 

Reinforcements now appearing, 

Victory is nigh! 

"Hold the fort, for I am coming," 

Jesus signals still 

Wave the answer back to heaven, 

"By thy grace, we will." 

See the mighty host advancing, 

Satan leading on; 

Mighty men around us falling, 

Courage almost gone: 
10 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

See the glorious banner waving, 

Hear the bugle blow; 

In our Leader's name we'll triumph 

Over every foe. 

Fierce and long the battle rages, 

But our Help is near; 

Onward comes our Great Commander, 

Cheer, my comrades, cheer!

 32 

Bliss's inspiration for some of his other songs also came from events 

he heard about or experienced. The title and sense of "Let the Lower 

Lights Be Burning," for example, came from Dwight L. Moody's moralizing upon a shipwreck said to have occurred near Cleveland, while "Roll 

on, O Billow of Fire!" was a product of the great Chicago conflagration 

in which Moody lost his home and two churches with which he was 

associated.33 

When he wrote "Hold the Fort" in 1870 Bliss was engaged in holding song conventions and in composing and teaching music. The same 

year he contributed to a music book for Sunday schools, one of several 

such books he contributed to or edited in the next few years. He was professionally and financially successful, earning as much as $100' for a fourday convention engagement. After only two weeks in the army at the end 

of the Civil War, he went to Chicago as a member of a quartet called 

the Yankee Boys to sing for the music publishers Root & Cady at patriotic 

meetings. The Yankee Boys failed, but the firm kept Bliss on. For four 

years he engaged in convention work under an arrangement with his 

employers, and then he struck out on his own.34 As suggested by the 

Yankee Boys interlude, Bliss's first interest was secular music. His first 

composition was the sad tale of poor departed "Lora Vale," a song which 

George F. Root arranged and Root & Cady published in 1864: 

Calmly fell the silver moonlight 

Over hill and over dale, 

As with mournful hearts we lingered 

By the couch of Lora Vale. 

Lora, Lora still we love thee, 

Though we see thy form no more, 

And we know thou'lt come to meet us, 

When we reach the mystic shore.35 
NUMBER 9 11 

In the last years of his life Bliss put secular music aside for his allabsorbing gospel music.36 

In 1869 Bliss met Dwight L. Moody,37 who would soon become the 

center and driving force of evangelism in the United States. Indeed, in 

the 1930s Herbert W. Schneider described him as "the greatest of all the 

evangelists," whose "campaigns in the United States, Great Britain, and 

Ireland between 1857 and 1899 not only influenced millions but also 

raised revivalistic methods to a somewhat higher plane."

 38

 In 1870 Bliss 

met Whittle, with whom he developed a lasting friendship. At first there 

was simply a period of close association, but after appeals from Moody 

and encouraging meetings in Waukegan, Illinois, in March 1874 they 

decided to devote themselves completely to the gospel, Whittle preaching 

it and Bliss singing it.39 For both men this decision meant a financial 

sacrifice. Bliss relinquished a financially rewarding career and in the next 

year or so gave over to benevolences his share of the considerable royalties 

he earned in collaboration with Ira D. Sankey. The royalties on Gospel 

Hymns and Sacred Songs, which Bliss and Sankey issued in 1875, ran to 

$60,000 almost immediately, but neither author took a cent for himself.40 

Whittle gave up his position as treasurer of the Elgin Watch Company, 

in which he was earning the substantial salary of $5,000 a year.41 A Chicago Tribune writer who liked Whittle's preaching better than that of 

the learned ministers of the day declared that the evangelist "has a clear 

ringing voice, and, like all . . . evangelists of the school to which he 

belongs, he knows how to handle a Bible. . . ."

 42 

From Illinois, Bliss and Whittle carried their evangelism to other 

states in the Middle West, with a penetration of Pennsylvania in 1874, 

and then of the South. In 1876 they were in Georgia, where they were 

at special pains to visit Kennesaw Mountain, to which they journeyed 

"on a beautiful April morning." On top of the mountain they found 

"part of the framework of the signal station" from which Allatoona had 

been signaled in 1864. It was a Confederate platform which Union signalmen had first used in July 1864, abandoned, reoccupied, and put to use 

in October. From the mountain, Bliss and Whittle could see Allatoona and 

were much inspired. After kneeling in prayer they "sang 'Hold the Fort,' 

looking out upon the distant . . . [Allatoona], looking up to the clear 

blue sky, and hoping and almost expecting that Jesus might then appear, 

so near He seemed to us that April day." Bliss, his friend said, "reckoned 

it, while he lived, as one of his blessed days, and the memory of it to 

me . . . will continue to be while life lasts, a transfiguration scene."

 43 
12 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

^^n 

Cover of original sheet music edition (1870) of "Hold the Fort!" Other sheets are 

reproduced on the following three pages. (Library of Congress photos of the copyright 

deposit.) 
NUMBER 9 13 

Oft?, 

^0tj0 and WhoxM. 

WORDS AND MUSIC BY P. P. BLISS. 

MAJOR WHITTLE RELATES THE FOLLOWING INCIDENT, UPON "WHICH 

THE SONG- IS FOUNDED: 

Daring October, 1864, Ja»t before General Sherman commenced his famous march to the sea, while his army lay camped In the neighborhood 

of Atlanta, the army of Hood, In a carefully prepared movement, passed the right flank of Sherman's armv, and gaining his rear, commenced tbs 

deslrnctlon of the railroad leading north, burning block houses and capturing the small garrisons along the line. Sbermau's army was put In rapid 

motion, following Hood, to save the supplies and larger posts, the principal of which was located at Altoona Pass, a defile In the Altootia range of 

mountains, through which ran the railroad. General Corse, of Illinois, was stationed here with a Brigade ol troops, composed of Minnesota and 

Illinois regiments, in all about 1,500 men; Col. Tourtelotte being Second In Commaud. A million and a hairof rations were stored here, and it w u 

highly Important that the earthworks commanding the Pass and protecting the supplies should l^e held. Six thousand men, under command of 

Gen. French, were detailed by Hood to take the position. The works were completely surrounded and summoned to surrender. Cor.c refused, 

and sharp fighting commenced. The defenders were slowly driven into a small fort upon the crest of Ihe hill. Many hud fallen, and the result 

aceined to render a prolongation of the fight hopeless. At this luoiuent an officer eougln shht of a white signol tl;ig, far oway across the valley, 

fifteen miles distant, upon the top '.I K-ncsaw Mountain. The signal was answered, and soou the message iva> waved across from mouoluiu 

to mountain •• Hold the fort; I am euiniug. W. T. SHERMAN." Cheers went up ; every man was nerved to the tun appeelotion of the position ; 

•nd, under a murderous Are, which killed or wounded more than half the men In the fort—Corse himself being shot three times through the head, 

CoL Tourtelotte taking command, though himself badly wounded, they held the fort for three hours, until the advance guard of Sherman's army 

enmc up, and French was obliged to retreat. 

No incident of the war Illustrates more thrlllingly the Inspiration imparted by the knowledge of the presence of the Commander ; and that he la 

cognizant of our position ; and that, doiug our utmost, ho will supplant our weakness by speedy reinforcements. So, the message of Sherman 

to the soldiers of Altoona becomes the message of the Great Commander, who signals ever to all who fight life's battle, " Hold the Fort." 

S 4 2 ^^m 

&^=^ = 3E 

zM=3=£ 

zmm gjj. •!_—- H ' T~ 

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Before the year was out, on 29 December, Bliss and his wife, both 

still under 40, met sudden death on a wild and snowy winter night when 

the iron bridge at Ashtabula, Ohio, on the Lake Shore & Michigan 

Southern Railroad, collapsed and dropped the "Pacific Express" into 

Ashtabula Creek where it caught fire from its stoves and kerosene lamps. 

Horror was added to horror by bungled rescue operations and by the 

robbing of helpless survivors. Absolutely nothing that could be identified 

415-418 O - 71 - 2 
14 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

y-tf—m—-—* 9- j 9-

^=J n 

1. Ho! my com - radea, Me the sig nul War - ing in tha sky I 

2. See the might y host ad - vano - ing, Sa - tan lead ing on; 

—f—m 9 ~ :*=P tt=i=F 

-*— + J^ F 

:=ffc= :£=£ ±= 

IMrF 

x 

8. 

See the glorious banner waving, 

Hear the bugle blow; 

In our Leader's name we'll triumph 

Over every foe. 

Fierce and long the battle ragea, 

But our Help is near; 

Onward comes our Great Commander, 

Cheer, my comrades, cheer ! 

as Bliss and his wife, or as belonging to them, was ever discovered. As 

George Root put it, they disappeared "from the earth as completely as 

did Elijah in his flaming chariot." They were survived by two sons, 

Phillip Paul and George Goodwin.44 

George F. Root, who was in a position to make a professional estimate of Bliss, observed in 1891 that Bliss's "musical training and experience were too limited to permit safe flight on his part beyond simple 

harmonies, although it was easily seen that he had a natural vein of true 

melody. What a wonderful use his songs have performed now for more 
NUMBER 15 

m^^. m J-^AHold the fort, for com - ing, Je BUS big nals still, 

* 

NtW1

 Hold the fort, for am com - ing, Je sig nals still, 

£ •c~~c~n ^ & ^ 

s 

^ ^ 

Wave the an swer back 

5 h ~~* 

heav en,— " By thy grace, we will.' 

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=£ —r«= P 

=E "—?— 1 

Wave the aa - swer back to heav en,— " By thy grace, we 

^ EE £zi 1. i 

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i 

than a score of years." Root added that Bliss's "unselfish devotion to his 

work made for him such friends while he lived and such mourners when 

he died as few men have ever had."

 45 

Another and later evaluation would have it that Bliss's songs, when 

"judged by the standards of art," were "decidedly inferior, but the masses 

could understand and sing them, and their melody, martial note, joyousness, and hope produced the religious exhilaration desired." An even more 
16 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

Dwight Lyman Moody in 

1900. (Library of Congress 

photo.) 

recent description calls Bliss's songs "homey" and has it that they 

sounded "very much like the ballads of the music-hall stage," which is 

to say that they had a wide appeal.46 The popularity of "Hold the Fort" 

sustains these views, for by the time of Bliss's death it was said to have 

been translated into "nearly all the European languages . . . into 

Chinese and the native languages of India," and was, in short, "popular 

beyond any other Sabbath School song of the age."

 47 

After Bliss's death, Whittle continued his evangelism, with James 

McGranahan replacing his old friend Bliss as the major's gospel singer.48 

Whittle also continued his relationship with Moody, under whose auspices 

he had begun his evangelistic work. For some years he maintained his 

home in Northfield, Massachusetts, where Moody founded the Northfield 

Seminary and the Mount Hermon School for boys and held annual religious conferences. In addition to his preaching, Whittle wrote a number 

of gospel songs, generally under the pseudonym "El Nathan." His friend 

George Stebbins thought these songs put him "well in the front rank" of 

the gospel song writers. One of them, set to music by his daughter May, 

was "Moment by Moment," which he wrote during the 1893 World's 
NUMBER 9 17 

Ira David Sankey in 1895. 

(Library of Congress photo.) 

Columbian Exposition in Chicago. For the last year or two of his life he 

lived with May, who was married to Dwight L. Moody's eldest son, William R. Moody. These years were tragic for Whittle and a measure of the 

personal sacrifice he had made for his religion. Working and living with 

troops during the Spanish-American War led to a complete breakdown of 

his health

 49

 and, finally, to the old soldier's first application for a Civil 

War pension. Although a claim based upon his wound at Vicksburg was 

approved in 1900, efforts to persuade a tightfisted and coldhearted Pension 

Bureau to approve payments at a higher rate were apparently fruitless, 

despite the efforts of such influential friends as President William McKinley, Major General Howard, and John Wanamaker, the Philadelphia 

merchant. Poor in worldly goods, the major went to his reward the next 

year.50 

Bliss, Whittle, and Moody were now dead, and Ira Sankey, who had 

made "Hold the Fort" as popular in the British Isles as in the United 

States, was in broken health and would join his friends in the heavenly 

chorus in 1908.51 
l g SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

Six Acres of Irishmen 

After Bliss published "Hold the Fort" in sheet music, he brought it out 

as one of the numbers in Gospel Songs, which he published in 1874.52 

Meanwhile, in 1873, Sankey had taken it abroad when he and Moody 

carried the gospel to the mother country with perhaps little to go on other 

than faith, hope, and charity. Edgar J. Goodspeed states that they went 

to London upon the invitation of three English sponsors, two of whom 

died before the evangelists reached their destination.53 On the other hand, 

The New York Times reports that "Moody and Sankey were sent to 

England by Mr. Barnum as a . . . speculation."

 54

 In any case, their 

revivalistic sweep through England, Scotland, and Ireland, lasting into 

the summer of 1875, is famous in the annals of evangelism. Indeed, it has 

been said that they were "the instruments in a religious awakening comparable only to that under the preaching of Wesley and Whitefield." 

In 1875, in London alone, according to one report, they held 285 meetings that were attended "by fully 2,500,000 people," but perhaps 

1,500,000 Londoners is a better estimate, for Bernard A. Weisberger says 

that "the attendance figures were not exactly marvels of statistical 

accuracy."

 56 

Wherever they went, whether to Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast, 

or London, "Hold the Fort" was immensely popular. A Glasgow commentator, seeking to explain the popularity of "Hold the Fort" and of 

other songs in Sankey's repertory, said of Sankey's music that only 

a small portion of it has any claim to originality. Much of it is so Scottish and Irish 

in its construction that to our people familiar with such music, it is sometimes difficult 

to realize that what we hear is sacred song. Usually short turns and strains remind us 

irresistibly of something we know, but cannot recall. In some of the melodies the effect 

is more marked. Who does not feel the sweetness of Irish melody in "Sweet by-andby" and the thorough Scottish ring in such songs as "Hold the Fort," "Sweet 

Hour of Prayer" . . and many others. It takes us by surprise to hear gospel truth 

wafted in the strains of our national music; but is it not possible that this may be the 

true though unexpected reason why these simple songs have found such a direct and 

wonderful entrance to the Scottish heart?

 57 

The same critic observed that Sankey used his organ or harmonium "as 

a mere accessory" and sometimes completely drowned it out with his 

voice,58 which a friend once described as "a high baritone of exceptional 

volume, purity and sympathy."

 59

 To Edgar Johnson Goodspeed, however, David's harp itself was "the prototype" of Sankey's harmonium.60 
NUMBER 9 19 

Scotland had been approached by the evangelists in 1873 with considerable misgivings, for organs and "human hymns" long had been forbidden in Scottish churches. The Presbyterians were assured, however, 

that Sankey's harmonium was quite small, and it was admitted along 

with the musician. At the first meeting in Edinburgh, Sankey had to appear alone because Moody had a severe cold. Everything considered, the 

singer was understandably fearful when he suggested at the end of the 

service that the packed house join him in the chorus of "Hold the Fort." 

What followed "sounded like the clans a'gangin' to war!"

 61

 Apparently, 

Edinburgh approved. 

Describing a meeting in Dublin in 1874, for which between four 

and five thousand persons assembled in the Free Trade Hall at eight 

o'clock one "frosty" December morning, a reporter remarked that as 

Sankey began to play "Hold the Fort," which was "a tune well known at 

these meetings," the congregation struck into it "with one mighty voice. 

. . . The words have a martial, inspiriting sound, and as the verse 

rolled forth, filling the great hall with a mighty and musical noise, one 

could see the eyes of strong men fill with tears."

 62 

The names of Moody and Sankey seemed to be on almost everyone's 

lips. Sankey recalled that a clown in a Dublin circus said to his partner: 

"I am rather Moody tonight; how do you feel?" To this the second clown 

replied: "I feel rather Sankey-monious." According to Sankey, "this 

by-play was not only met with hisses, but the whole audience arose and 

joined with tremendous effect in singing . . . 'Hold the fort, for I am 

coming.' " 63 Apparently Sankey and his admirers who repeated the story 

were not much more amused by it than the Irishmen who found in Bliss's 

song an eloquent reproof of a couple of waggish clowns who, if not of a 

Catholic persuasion, were just plain put out because the revival had 

interfered earlier with circus attendance.64 

It was also in Dublin that a body of Catholic priests heard the revivalists. Although we have not found it recorded that they sang "Hold 

the Fort," they are said to have expressed the view that if Moody and 

Sankey stayed a little longer St. Patrick surely would be displaced by a 

Yankee.65 As a matter of fact, the hierarchy finally took notice. "Cardinal 

Cullen, seeing his flock straying in such large numbers . . . published an 

interdict forbidding such conduct," which, however, "did not prevent 

the conversion of sinners of Romish proclivities."

 6G 

In Belfast, Moody "spoke to six acres of Irishmen,"

 6T

 and Sankey 

was later told that a prisoner in the local gaol heard "Hold the Fort" 
20 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

Moody and Sankey bid farewell to England from the 

deck of the Spain at Liverpool, 1875. (Library of Congress photo.) 

through an open window as Sankey sang it in another building and, probably without ever seeing the singer, reformed to become one of the most 

enthusiastic revival helpers in town.68 

Finally, in 1875, Moody and Sankey sailed from Liverpool for home 

aboard the Spain. As the ship passed down the Mersey, the people in the 

tender who had come to see them off sang "Hold the Fort" and "Work, 

for the Night is Coming" while the evangelists stood at the ship's rail, 

bowing and waving their handkerchiefs. 

Years later Sankey recollected that the famous philanthropist Lord 

Shaftesbury "said at our farewell meeting in London: 'If Mr. Sankey has 

done no more than teach the people to sing "Hold the Fort," he has conferred an inestimable blessing on the British Empire.' " fl9 As Elias Nason 

put it: 

It was a pleasure never to be forgotten, to hear ten thousand Londoners singing 

heartily "Hold the Fort," and other familiar songs. Everybody seemed to know 

them; and in the cars, the homes of the people, as well as in the churches, they were 

heard. It was almost impossible to get out of the reach of these holy, heavenly 

melodies. The hearts of the old and young were filled with them.70 
NUMBER 9 21 

In Canada, about the time that Moody and Sankey returned to 

America, Tommy Dodd, "the greatest drunkard and wife-beater in Yorkville," was persuaded to leave the saloon for the church by hearing a 

carpenter and his apprentice sing "Hold the Fort." The song may have 

reached Canada only a short time before, with the first (1875) edition 

of Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs. On a brief trip to England in 1879, 

Sankey appropriately sang "Hold the Fort" at a London meeting at which 

the famous British evangelist Charles H. Spurgeon delivered a sermon 

on a pending army bill at the behest of "a Christian gentleman, a member of . . . parliament." When the congregation joined in the chorus 

"it was heard blocks away." At that time Sankey was en route to Switzerland where, "ascending the Rigi," he "sang 'Hold the Fort,' much to 

the interest of the Swiss peasants." Presumably he did not sing this song 

when he visited Turkey in 1898, for he reported that the Sultan had 

banned both "Hold the Fort" and "Dare to Be a Daniel," another of 

Bliss's songs.71 

"Hold the Fort" thus became a part of the popular church music 

of the British Isles and was not unknown in other foreign places. Not 

surprisingly, it also came to serve the secular cause of the British tradeunion movement, as it did the cause of labor in the United States. Meanwhile, the old song continued to make gospel history in its native land. 

In the Athens of America 

Bliss no doubt sang "Hold the Fort" countless times as he went up and 

down the land in his last years, although Sankey recalled that his friend 

"hoped that he would not be known to posterity only as the author of 

'Hold the Fort,' for he believed that he had written many better songs."

 72 

As fate would have it, of course, when Bliss's commemorative monument 

was erected in 1877 in Rome, Pennsylvania—with contributions from 

thirty-six states and territories, and from England, Ireland, Scotland, 

Canada, India, and the West Indies—there was inscribed on its front, 

facing the road, these words: "Erected by the Sunday Schools of the 

United States and Great Britain in response to the invitation of D. L. 

Moody as a memorial to Philip P. Bliss, author of Hold the Fort and 

other gospel songs." When Sankey sang "Hold the Fort" at the unveiling 

ceremony, the choir and congregation joined in the chorus.73 
22 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

rr 

/L/0-T*, (Un^tf 'f-uvxa /PfCc utie^j^/h ot^ic^s6-c2) -**t /f~i~^C"-i^\ (Z?Lt 

a * • 

9£^.^rz^^^.r$#$^. 

jb^-^^^ 

Letter from Major General William T. Sherman to William E. Dodge commenting 

on "Hold the Fort." (Photo courtesy of Fred E. Brown, Houston, Texas.) 
NUMBER 9 2 3 

Ira Sankey continued to sing "Hold the Fort," although his friend 

Fanny Crosby, the famous blind singer, thought that "The Ninety and 

Nine," for which Elizabeth C. Clephane wrote the words and Sankey 

composed the music, was the most popular of the songs he sang.74 As 

the leading gospel singer of his day he undoubtedly did more than any 

of his contemporaries to popularize Bliss's songs, as well as those of other 

writers. At the same time, according to Richard Ellsworth Day, Bliss's 

music "was the very foundation of Sankey's great career."

 75

 It is not 

surprising, in any case, that the songs he sang in Moody's services should 

have become known as "the Moody and Sankey hymns,"

 76

 and so it 

was by that name that William Tecumseh Sherman knew them. 

Sherman did not hear about "Hold the Fort" until June 1875, 

when the song was already five years old. He learned about it from 

William E. Dodge, who probably was a friend of Moody's and was a 

member of a committee that administered the income from the various 

editions of Gospel Hymns, as later editions of Gospel Hymns and Sacred 

Songs were known.77 Writing Dodge, Sherman remarked that he "was 

glad to know for the first time that one of [the] hymns of Messrs Moody 

& Sankey was founded on the defence of Alatoona [sic] Ga." In signaling 

"the fact of our coming," he added, "I do not think I used the words— 

'Hold the Fort'; that however was the duty of the garrison and they did 

it nobly—Manfully." French, the Confederate commander at Allatoona, 

also came to know "Hold the Fort," observing it was sung "wherever the 

cross is seen and Christianity prevails." As Fred Brown points out, it 

evidently escaped French that he could be taken for the prototype of 

Satan in Bliss's second verse: "See the mighty host advancing, Satan 

leading on."

 78 

In 1876 Moody and Sankey held revival meetings in the Hippodrome 

in New York City.79 Early in 1877, shortly after the death of Bliss, the 

revivalists, refusing to be intimidated by Bostonian culture, carried their 

evangelism to the Athens of America. Actually, they had been invited 

by representatives of a number of Boston churches, and a brick tabernacle—said to be "much the smallest, though one of the pleasantest, 

of the series of great buildings erected for the Moody and Sankey revival 

meetings"—was built to receive them.80 Frances E. Willard, the temperance advocate, conducted women's meetings, which were a feature 

of the Moody services.81 During one tabernacle meeting at which Sankey 

sang "Hold the Fort," Phillips Brooks came over from Trinity Church 

and "pronounced the benediction."

 82 
24 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

Moody preaching at the 

Hippodrome in New York 

City, 1876. Sankey is behind 

the organ at right; Dodge is 

second from left. (Library of 

Congress photo of illustration by C. S. Reinhart in 

Harper's Weekly, vol. 20, 

11 March 1876.) 

The meetings in Boston, which went on for weeks, were a great 

success. There was, however, a somewhat profane Boston journalist— 

I. A. M. Cumming, as he styled himself—who covered the revival meetings for "the spiciest paper in New England," the Boston Sunday Times 

(circulation 60,000), and then published a collection of his revival pieces 

under the title Tabernacle Sketches, with illustrations by an equally 

irreverent artist named Haskell.83 Cumming claimed that Sankey had 

first realized his powers of song one night on the western prairies when 

he frightened off a band of Apaches, who were about to attack his party, 

by striking up "What Shall the Harvest Be?" According to Cumming, 

the braves "thought they had been surprised by at least five thousand 

Sioux warriors."

 84 

"Hold the Fort," of course, was more than Cumming and Haskell 

could resist. Early in the meetings, commenting upon the choir's rendition 

of "Hold the Fort," Cumming thought he ought not speak of Bliss's 

earthly melodies since the author was now departed, but Haskell nevertheless sketched some of the choir members in the front row, mouths open, 
NUMBER 9 25 

TABERNACLE SKETCHES. 

Tlw newspapers have Moody and Sankey 

all over them. 

The peripatetic pettier intimidates the wayfaring man with portraits of Moody and Sankey 

—five cents each. 

An inventive toy-man on Tremont street 

cries daily to sinners, "Here's yer Moody and 

Sankey spiders—two cents each-" 

The lunatic asylums arc all having Moody 

and Sankey wards put up. 

The saloons have all got the Moody and 

Sankey bitters. 

And all creation groaneth together under 

Moody and Sankey. 

Have you been to the Tabernacle yet ? 

If not go at once and see the scramble at 

the door. 

ID Dor* «rfex- a t €.$$ 

TRYING TO GET IN. 

There has been nothing like it in Boston for 

a long time. 

Perhaps yon had better make an exception 

in favor of the Graeco-Roman wrestling 

matches at Music Hall—the crush is about as 

great at one of those delightful entertainments. 

And is not unlike it in general character. 

The revival is a big thing! 

Do you ask why it is a big thing ? 

As well ask why is a barn-door a big thing. 

As Tupper, the immortal, in his piean of 

praise, written in honor of Sankey, says: 

Who at Mny timo hath heard the midnight music 

of tlio dejected dog? 

Or who hath heard the sweet and ayrnppy song of 

tho belated and cataleptic cat ? 

When I behold hlin night after night treading out a wild, weird and majestic accompaniment to that wilder, more weird and more 

majestic voice, I do not doubt any more his 

devotion to humanity. 

And when I see humanity, Boston humanity 

—most musical of all humanity—sit and be 

tortured with thia astounding discord, I do 

not doubt humanity's devotion to the gospel. 

Talk about the early Christian martyrs ! 

Wha t did they suffer, compared with the 

musical Bostonian who has to sit and listen 

while Sankey howls about "harvest sheaves." 

Speaking of the singing, Dr. Tourjee's chorus 

does welL 

They do a good deal to cover up Mr. Sankey's awkward attempts at melody. 

Your artist tried to sketch the front row of 

the choir one night, but from bis unfortunate 

position in the reporter's box he failed to get 

more than a sectional view, as above. 

I hope this sectional view will provoke no 

sectional feeling among the ladies whose faces 

are here artistically concealedUnhappy Tourjee 1 His fate is hardhr. Saufcejj ut actum,, 

1 know exactly why Sankey lifts been a success. He told me all about it hinmelf. 

He first began to sing somewhere out West. 

The first intuition he had of liib great powers 

was one night on the prairies. A band of 

Apache braves was about to attack the party 

of which Sankey was a member. Believing 

bis time had come he struck up 

"What shall the harvest be?" 

When he got to the end of the first line and 

swooped around on to the 6ccond with his usual 

magnificent effect—so sweetly, so softly, so unlike a foghorn or a locomotive whistle—the en -

tire tribe took to its heels and bolted. 

One of the band taken prisoner admitted 

that they thought they had been surprised by 

at least five thousand Sioux warriors, and mistook Sankey's shout for the war-whoop of the 

whole camp. 

Sankey recognized his mission at once, and 

today Boston, the home of Theodore Thomas, 

the place that knew Jubilee Gil more in his 

palmy days, the home of the Handel and 

Haydn Society, the Sharland Chorus, the 

Apollo Club and the Orpheus Club, bows in 

homage to his genius as a minstrel. 

While Luke Schoolcraft and Harry Blooilgood weep with envy. 

And all the newspapers are crying out 

"beautiful" in chorus. 

Verily, man never bawled as tlris man 

bawleth. 

No wonder that beads of perspiration have 

bedecked the angry brow of the bronze Beethoven in Music Hall. 

Thomas might as well disband his orchestra 

and understand that the day of high art has 

come and that we arc all going to patronize 

Sankey's music of the future 

-J7ff 

J^r. NVoodu.— TTOttvih.tSoat\v, 

Moody has made a very favorable impression 

upon m c 

As a showman I regard him as only rivalled 

by the great l'luonix T. Itanium. 

He understands his business. 

He <jame ami looked over the Tabenmele 

with the eye of an expert in stage properties. 

lie heard of Brother Webb's little envelope 

trick, and said peremptorily, "Stop it!" 

A page from Tabernacle Sketches, which satirized the Moody and Sankey revival 

meetings in Boston, 1877. (Library of Congress photo.) 
2 6 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

singing Bliss's song. He also contributed several rather unflattering drawings of Moody and Sankey themselves.55

 In one piece Cumming claimed 

that he heard "the enterprising gamins of the gutter" sing a new version 

of "Hold the Fort" around the tabernacle every night, and Haskell 

sketched a gamin so engaged. This latest version, according to Cumming, 

was: 

Hold the forks, the knives are coming, 

The plates are on the way, 

Shout the chorus to your neighbor, 

Sling the hash this way.80 

As the reporter entered the tabernacle one Sunday, according to a Haskell 

sketch, Dr. Eben Tourjee, the choirmaster,ST requested "the entire audience to sing 'Hold the Fort for I.A.M. Cumming.' " S8 

Some there were, of course, who were unamused by Cumming and 

Haskell. One writer, referring to "Hold the Forks," declared that Cumming was "a particularly vicious writer," some of whose "columns were 

as bitter as a man could write." Another referred to "the sensational and 

even impious attacks of the enemies of evangelical truth, who treat the 

revivalists and their labors as objects for caricature and derision." A 

recent writer finds that Cumming's satires "are funny," although "somewhat unfair."

 S9 

In 1877 a gift edition of Bliss's song came out as a small book under 

the title Hold the Fort and inscribed to General W. T. Sherman. On the 

cover is a gilt angel carrying in one hand a waving banner bearing the 

title and in the other a crown; the background shows a branch from the 

tree of life with a serpent intertwined. The book itself consists of the words 

and music of the song, embellished with many illustrations.90 The same 

year a Swedish version, a free translation of "Hold the Fort," came out in 

Chicago under the title "Hallen Fastet." It begins, "Upp ! kamrater, se 

banaret Fladdrande framgar!" and the chorus runs: "'Hallen fastet, 

tills jag kommer,' Jesus manar an: 'Herre, med din nad wi wilja,' 

Swarom Fralsaren."

 01 

"Hallen Fastet" should not be confused with the song "Hold Fast 

Till I Come," whose chorus runs: 

Hold fast till I come, 

Hold fast till I come; 

A bright crown awaits thee; 

Hold fast till I come.

92 
NUMBER 9 27 

Drawing by Haskell in Tabernacle Sketches depicting 

boy singing a parody of 

"Hold the Fort!" outside the 

Boston Tabernacle. (Library 

of Congress photo.) 

"XoU* He Fort! " 

Bliss wrote the music for this song, but the words were by a Chicago 

woman named Griswold, whose nom de plume, Paulina, sometimes 

caused her to be mistaken for Mrs. Bliss. Whittle thought that this song 

"probably" was the last one that Bliss sang on earth.03 It is interesting 

that one of the Kennesaw-Allatoona messages of 4 October 1864 read: 

"General Sherman says hold fast. We are coming." The language of this 

message is reminiscent of Revelations 2:25 ("But that which ye have 

already hold fast till I come"), which sometimes appears as a text for 

"Hold the Fort." 

William R. Moody, son of the great evangelist and Whittle's son-inlaw, observed in 1930 that many of the old gospel songs "were of little 

permanent value" and that "many Moody himself outgrew." Indeed, he 

recalled that his father would say: "We have been singing 'Hold the Fort' 
28 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

Chorus of "Hold the Fort" in an ornate hardcover edition of the sheet music, 1877. 

(Library of Congress photo.) 
NUMBER 9 29 

too long," for "it is not a question of keeping a stronghold, but of aggressive 

warfare."

 94

 Although the elder Moody may have tired of it, others certainly did not. When Billy Sunday, Moody's famous successor,95

 planned 

a day for old soldiers in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1908, he did not forget 

Bliss's song. It was reported that he wanted "a choir of 500 cultured 

voices to sing that revival song, 'Hold the Fort,' which was based on the 

battle of Allatoona," as well as somebody "to explain the salient points of 

that battle of all battles .. . the inspiration of that song."

 9C

 Probably 

he was told to expect some Allatoona veterans in his audience, since men 

from several Illinois regiments had fought at Allatoona Pass. 

In 1931 Homer A. Rodeheaver, a longtime colleague of Sunday's, 

published a little book containing historical notes on and suggestions for 

using gospel songs, one of which was "Hold the Fort" or, as he (and 

others) called it, "Ho! My Comrades." "Because of its appeal to the 

bravery of the human race," he said, "men love to sing this song. It is very 

effective as a challenge song, but in regular congregational singing it is 

good for men." It would make "for a bit of unusual use of this song," he 

thought, if a soloist or a choir sang the first part of the chorus and the 

congregation, while "waving their hands or their handkerchiefs," sang 

in response: "Wave the answer back to heaven. 'By Thy grace we 

will.5 " 97 

One of the most memorable events of the author's school days was a 

chapel program presented by Sunday and Rodeheaver at Central High 

School, Evansville, Indiana, sometime between the fall of 1927 and the 

spring of 1931. Billy Sunday, his natty attire accented by spats, drove 

home an evangelical point by leaping onto a table while Rodeheaver 

made the rafters ring with his sliding trombone. 

The 1940 edition of The Broadman Hymnal, widely used in Southern Baptist churches, carries "Hold the Fort."

 9S

 In a biographical sketch 

of Bliss, Charles A. Kent calls it a "deathless song," although he does not 

list it among his Fifty Great Songs of the Church.90 As recently as 1956 

one or more copies of the last edition of Gospel Hymns—this being Gospel 

Hymns 1-6—could still be purchased from the Theodore Presser Company of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, successor to the old John Church Company. By the spring of 1959, however, that grand old book had gone 

"permanently out of print" and no copy was to be had.100 

A representative of the Billy Graham Crusade remarked in 1960 

that despite The Broadman Hymnal the Southern Baptist churches no 

longer sang "Hold the Fort" very often. He thought it was not a good 

415-418 O - 71 - 1 
30 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

song to use today, anyhow, because people outside the United States 

might misunderstand the reference in the first line to "comrades."

 101

 Yet, 

the old gospel song remained alive and refused to disappear from the 

scene. The very next year, speaking on the morning radio program "Look 

to this Day," the Reverend Mr. Robert Sutty, pastor of the Temple 

Baptist Church, Washington, D.C, took as part of his text a quotation 

from the chorus.102 Indeed, as recently as 1966 the Gospel Publishing 

House of Springfield, Missouri, published Ramona Crabtree's choral arrangement of "Hold the Fort" in the "Melody Choral Series." It was not. 

a best seller, "just an old time song . . . loved by a lot of people"; even 

so, its sales were "average for choral arrangements."

 103 

Such is the history of the 100-year-old gospel song as sacred music. 

But "Hold the Fort" attained such popularity that it inevitably achieved 

a secular life as well. 

Hold the Fort Until November 

In the years 1876 to 1884 (and very possibly at other times) "Hold the 

Fort" was adapted to the secular if not downright profane uses of presidential politics. In the campaigns of those years in which Rutherford B. 

Hayes, James A. Garfield, and James G. Blaine ran on the Republican 

ticket against, respectively, Samuel J. Tilden, Winfield Scott Hancock, 

and Grover Cleveland, there were at least eight Republican campaign 

songs inspired by and sung to the tune of "Hold the Fort." These songs, 

of course, celebrated not only the presidential candidates but also their 

running mates—William A. Wheeler, Chester A. Arthur, and John A. 

Logan. Their rhyming and originality often left much to be desired and 

there was not much subtlety in them, but they had a tune that could be 

used by evangelists of the hustings as well as of the cloth. One of them, 

vintage 1876, was James Nicholson's "Our Watchword," the third verse 

and refrain of which ran: 

Rebels call for reformation, 

Thieves for honest men, 

Till the Treasury of the nation, 

They can rob again. 

Loyal men throughout the nation, 

Strike for Liberty! 

Now the names of HAYES and WHEELER 

Shall our watchword be.10i 
NUMBER 9 3 1 

Another song of the same campaign, but with something more of a lilt, 

clearly showed its musical inspiration: 

Rally round the flag again! 

T h e flag that Lincoln bore! 

Rally round the stars and stripes, 

Brothers as of yore! 

Hold the fort until November; 

Victory is sure! 

Hold the fort for Hayes and Wheeler; 

Never men were truer!

 l05 

Not showing much originality in either songs or issues, the Republican Congressional Committee used the same song, under the title "Victory Is Sure," during the Garfield campaign of 1880 by merely substituting "Garfield-Arthur" for "Hayes and Wheeler."

 106

 Similarly, it also 

used "Round Our Banner," another song to the tune of "Hold the Fort" 

from the 1876 campaign.107 Moreover, some of the same verses to the 

same tune appeared in Peter Maithre's "Boys in Blue," which the Republican National Committee used (with necessary changes) in the 

Blaine campaign of 1884.108 "Hurrah for General Garfield" was another 

Republican song of the 1880 campaign, published anonymously, to the 

tune of "Hold the Fort."

 109

 In 1884 the Republican Campaign Committee published "Hold the Helm," which was sung to the same tune, as 

anybody could have guessed from its chorus if not from its title: 

Hold the helm! The pilot's coming! 

See his white sail dip; 

Logan lights the danger signal! 

Blaine will guide the ship! 110 

Grog, Sex, and the People's Party 

At the same time that the Republicans were giving their Democratic opponents the "what-for" to the tune of "Hold the Fort," the Prohibitionists, whose roots went back to the colonial period, were trying to 

dry up the country to the same tune. In so doing they perhaps sought to 

confuse the opposition—if they were not themselves confused—by singing 

two anonymously published versions of the same song. One was entitled 

"Hold the Fort for Prohibition" and the other "Storm the Fort for Pro-
3 2 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

hibition," the latter probably inspired by a Knights of Labor version of 

Bliss's song. In the first of these the third verse and chorus urged: 

By the God who freedom gave us, 

With immortal souls! 

Crush the foe who dare enslave us— 

Forward to the polls! 

"Hold the fort for prohibition!" 

Freedom signals still; 

Answer back to her petition, 

"By our vote we will!" U 1 

In the other version the last verse and chorus exhorted: 

Face the grog-shops' bold defiance, 

Never fear or quail. 

Coward foes will soon surrender; 

Voters! do not fail. 

Storm the fort for Prohibition 

Captives signal still, 

Answer back to their petition, 

"By our votes we will." 112 

Also seeking to influence affairs as the nineteenth century advanced 

were the militant ladies of the woman's-rights movement, who particularly urged woman suffrage but who also pressed temperance and other 

radical ideas upon reluctant male politicians, some of whom professed 

to fear that the vote would unsex womanhood. Or so it was said during 

the 1890 debates over the admission of Wyoming, which had had woman 

suffrage since 1869.113 Under the circumstances, the ladies turned to song 

to keep their spirits up and to plead their case. One song, sung to the tune 

of "Hold the Fort" and variously called "Columbia's Daughters" and 

"Hark! The Sound of Myriad Voices," appears in at least three different 

collections of suffrage songs and under the title "Columbia's Daughters" 

in a record album of several years ago.114 The first verse and the chorus 

of this song, which was written for the first annual meeting of the National 

Woman Suffrage Association of Massachusetts, are enough to give its 

flavor: 

Hark! the sound of myriad voices 

Rising in their might; 

'Tis the daughters of Columbia 

Pleading for the right. 
NUMBER 9 33 

Raise the flag and plant the standard, 

Wave the signal still; 

Brother, we must share your freedom, 

Help us, and we will.115 

There are at least two other woman-suffrage songs to the tune of "Hold 

the Fort." One of these has the not very original title "Our Suffrage 

Song," while the other has the equally unoriginal title "Hold the Fort!"

 116 

Of all the reform movements in the United States in the late nineteenth century none was more remarkable than the Populist movement 

that spawned the People's Party. This grew, primarily, out of severe 

agrarian discontent that first manifested itself organizationally in alliances of farmers who united against the railroads, bankers, manufacturers, and merchants. By 1890 much of the strength of the movement 

lay in the great wheat-growing sections of Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, 

and Minnesota. The party itself disintegrated after a few years because 

it lost its leading issue of free silver to the Democrats and suffered from 

racism, xenophobia, and a largely rhetorical support of labor. 

Among the more colorful and effective Populist leaders was Mary 

Elizabeth (some called her Mary Ellen or Mary Yellin') Lease, who once 

urged an audience of Kansas farmers to "raise less corn and more hell." 

Populists marched and, crying a plague on both major parties, sang 

"Good-bye, My Party, Good-bye" to the tune of "Good-bye, My Lover, 

Good-bye." They also sang "Toilers Unite," "Where Will the Farmer 

Be?"

 117

 and, at least in Nebraska, "Man the Pumps." The last, by Mrs. 

J. T. Kellie, was a cleverly rhymed song of thirteen verses and a chorus 

set to the tune of "Hold the Fort." Consider the first and ninth verses 

and the chorus: 

At the railroad's late convention 

They observed at last 

The G.O.P. with spoils o'er laden 

Now was sinking fast. 

"Man the pumps, our ship is sinking," 

Howe in terror cries; 

"We're exhausted, hands are blistered," 

Banker crew replies. 

Pump; Oh do not mind the blisters 

Keep stiff upper lip; 

We can no more enslave labor 

If we lose the ship.118 
3 4 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

Look My People, Folk of Ghana 

Remote though Nebraska of the 1890s was from Ghana of the 1950s, 

"Hold the Fort" managed to bridge the continents and the centuries to 

give its music and some of its words to the Ghanaian song of independence. 

Missionaries, it seems, had carried the original gospel song to Africa in 

the decade of its composition.119 Teddy Schwartz learned the African 

song from Joe Lamotey, a Ghanaian social worker at the New York 

Guild for the Jewish Blind, and translated it into English: 

Look my people, folk of Ghana, 

See our banner high. 

Here they come, our loyal soldiers, 

Victory is nigh. 

Oh, my people, folk of Ghana, 

Raise your mighty voice, 

Let us greet our new-found freedom, 

Ghaneans rejoice!

 12° 

Union Hall and Picket Line 

Just as the political and other adaptations of "Hold the Fort" were a 

measure of its great popularity, so also was its adaptation to the songs of 

labor, which carried Bliss's old hymn into a period of labor history that 

saw the workingman achieve a new dignity in the land. It is not known 

when "Hold the Fort" became a labor song, but it is likely that in the 

United States a labor version appeared sometime during the troubled 

1870s, probably during the middle or latter part of the decade. These 

were years of a great depression in which an army of unemployed battled 

the New York police; railroad strikes brought out federal troops and 

subsequently set some members of the military to writing dreary articles 

about the control of mobs; and the Knights of Labor organized (in 1878) 

their first general assembly. 

The 1870s were a yeasty time in which men gave thought to bettering the earthly order of things, and followed thought by action. To some 

men, at least, it made more sense to be militant about wages and working conditions than about a religion that, in its emphasis upon another 

world, seemed to care little if at all about what happened to men in their 

own world of bitter struggle. In turning to the weapons at hand, what 
NUMBER 9 35 

could be more useful for inspiriting an organization with a mission than 

a stirring, militant song that was well known, simple enough to be easily 

adapted, and could be sung by all? It is not surprising, therefore, that 

the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor changed both the 

title and the words of Bliss's song and, leaving its origin unmistakable, 

helped raise it to at least a modest folk status. 

According to Philip S. Foner, "Storm the Fort, Ye Knights of Labor" 

became the Knights' most famous song and was widely translated and 

sung by workers of various nationalities. Foner puts it graphically and 

with eloquent sensitivity: "Out of the misery in America's coal mines 

and railroads, the oppression in the textile mills, the degradation of the 

men and women in the sweatshops rose the militant cry in English, German, Polish, Italian, French, Jewish, and other tongues": 

Toiling millions now are waking, 

See them marching on; 

All the tyrants now are shaking, 

Ere their power is gone. 

Storm the fort, Ye Knights of Labor, 

Battle for your cause; 

Equal rights for every neighbor, 

Down with tyrant laws! 121 

Perhaps, as Edith Fowke and Joe Glazer suggest, this version found its 

way to England,122 where the Knights were established by 1884. The 

Knights also had assemblies in Australia and New Zealand, and there 

was "at least one" assembly in Ireland.123 It seems most likely, however, 

that the British labor movement adapted to its own uses the original 

version of the song after picking it up from the Salvation Army. 

By 1 July 1886, at the height of their power, the Knights of Labor 

had 729,677 members, with 702,924 in good standing. The total fell to 

548,239 the next year, and thereafter the decline was rapid. By 1893 

there were only 74,635. This decline coincided with the rise of the national 

unions, which joined together in the American Federation of Labor 

(AFL). Descriptions of the mid-Victorian luxury of the Knights' new 

headquarters in an old Philadelphia brownstone mansion created hostility in the membership and helped grease the skids. " 'The General Executive Board has squandered the funds of the Order in a reckless purchase of a palace among capitalists and nabobs' was one of the mildest 

expressions of this hostile feeling." As an effective organization, the 

Knights of Labor died before the turn of the century, although the body 
3 6 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

was not buried until 1917, when John W. Hayes, the last master workman, retired what was left of the Knights' records and furnishings to a 

leaky shed in Washington, D.C.121 

Dissatisfaction with craft unionism and the conservative policies of 

the American Federation of Labor meanwhile led to the organization in 

1905 of the Industrial Workers of the World, commonly called the I WW 

or the Wobblies. While accepting the Knights' idea of organizing all 

workers, including the unskilled, the Wobblies repudiated the middle 

class ideology of the Knights and looked toward "abolition of the wage 

system" and, therefore, of capitalism. Many among them dreamed of 

the organization of One Big Union (the OBU) to which all workers 

everywhere would belong. For their efforts they suffered brutal treatment at the hands of both mobs and officials who cared for neither individual nor constitutional rights. 

Trouble, not surprisingly, led the Wobblies to song. Their most famous songwriter was a Swedish immigrant, who evidently was born Joel 

Emanuel Hagglund but who called himself Joseph Hillstrom and, later, 

just plain Joe Hill. While awaiting execution before a Utah firing squad 

in 1915 for a murder he may not have committed, he wired his friend 

Bill Haywood: "Goodbye, Bill. I die a true blue rebel. Don't waste time in 

mourning. Organize." After his death he became a legendary figure, a true 

folk hero of labor. "Casey Jones, the Union Scab," written in 1911, was 

the first of many songs that he wrote. "Joe Hill," for which Alfred Hayes 

wrote the words in 1925 and Earl Robinson later wrote the music, has 

become one of the most famous labor songs of the twentieth century. It 

was no accident that Hank Ghant of the United Auto Workers sang it in 

a last goodbye to Walter P. Reuther and his wife at the Reuther funeral 

in Detroit on 15 May 1970, and that a week later Joe Glazer sang 

it in Washington at the Reuther memorial service in the National 

Cathedral.125 

During World War I the Wobblies, although antimilitaristic, did not 

take an official stand against the war. They continued to strike, however, 

despite an opposite policy of the American Federation of Labor, and were 

accused of trying to hinder the war. This situation led to the indictment of 

166 Wobblies, of whom 101 were finally tried in 1918 in a months-long 

trial in the Chicago federal district court, principally on charges of sabotage and conspiracy to obstruct the war. There were similar trials in 

Sacramento, California, and Wichita, Kansas. The Chicago trial was presided over by the famous judge and future baseball commissioner, Kene-
NUMBER 9 37 

saw Mountain Landis, who was named after Kennesaw Mountain where 

his father, a Union surgeon, had lost a leg in June 1864 in the fighting that 

preceded the fall of Atlanta.126 Although individuals were before the bar, 

the trial was really a trial of the I WW, or, as Patrick Renshaw says, of "a 

philosophy." The 101 Wobblies tried in Chicago were all convicted and 

sentenced to prison, some for twenty years. One of them was Ralph Hosea 

Chaplin (the editor of Solidarity, the official Wobbly paper), whose sentence was commuted in 1923. Among the others were the Englishman 

George Hardy; Harrison George, another writer; and William D. (Big 

Bill) Haywood, the secretary-treasurer of the I WW. Haywood subsequently jumped bail after unsuccessful appeals of the sentences and 

headed for Moscow, where he died in 1928. In addition to the prison 

sentences, the court imposed fines totaling over $2.5 million. The great 

trial of 1918 and the unsympathetic post-World War I years brought 

about the rapid decline of the IWW, which is barely alive today. In the 

1930s, and afterward, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) 

would succeed in industrial unionism where the IWW had failed.127 

Of the Wobblies who went to prison following the trial of 1918, Ralph 

Chaplin was especially remarkable. An artist and a poet of no little 

ability, while in prison he wrote a number of poems which he published 

in 1922 as Bars and Shadows-' The Prison Poems of Ralph Chaplin.128 

Subsequently he differed with Harrison George and the Wobblies who 

pursued Communism, and afterward, in World War II, he edited the 

Labor Advocate, published by the Central Labor Council of Tacoma, 

Washington. With a grant from the Newberry Library in Chicago he 

later wrote—and in 1948 the University of Chicago Press published—his 

fascinating autobiography, Wobbly, the Rough and Tumble Story of an 

American Radical. 

These two young Wobblies, Ralph Chaplin and Harrison George, 

added a brief chapter to the history of "Hold the Fort," finding Bliss's 

militant tune useful as they broke into troubled song in the days of their 

arrest and imprisonment. In October 1917, while in the Cook County jail 

pending trial and conviction, George wrote "Remember," which was 

sung to the tune of "Hold the Fort." The first and fourth verses and the 

chorus of this song evoke memories of an old radicalism: 

We speak to you from jail today 

Two hundred union men, 

We're here because the bosses' laws 

Bring slavery again. 
3 8 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

In Chicago's darkened dungeons 

For the O.B.U. 

Remember you're outside for us 

While we're in here for you. 

We make a pledge—no tyrant might 

Can make us bend a knee, 

Come on you workers, organize 

and fight for Liberty.129 

Upton Sinclair, astonished by his arrest for attempting to read the 

United States Constitution while standing on private property with the 

permission of the owner during the IWW's Marine Transport Workers' 

strike at San Pedro in 1923, wrote a four-act play called Singing Jailbirds. 

In it he portrayed prisoners and their friends singing, among other songs, 

"Remember," adapting it to their own locale by substituting "California" 

for "Chicago." In a postcript Sinclair described his own arrest and contributed some historical notes on conditions in the country's jails and 

prisons. He also quoted a San Pedro police captain who, after the 

Wobblies were freed, was reported to have complained that "somebody 

has been making holy asses of us policemen."

 13° 

While in Leavenworth Penitentiary, Chaplin wrote "All Hell Can't 

Stop Us!" but it was not published among his prison poems. This song 

also was to the tune of "Hold the Fort," and it appeared in the 1919 

edition of "The Little Red Song Book," or, as the cover title has it, with 

typical Wobbly humor, J.W.W. Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent}^ 

The first verse and the chorus of "All Hell Can't Stop Us" indicate its 

no-nonsense character: 

Now the final battle rages; 

Tyrants quake with fear. 

Rulers of the New Dark Ages 

Know THEIR end is near. 

Scorn to take the crumbs they drop us; 

All is ours by right! 

Onward, men! All Hell can't stop us! 

Crush the Parasite! 132 

A Sunday afternoon program arranged by the IWW "class war 

prisoners" in the Cook County jail in December 1917 opened with the 

IWW chorus singing a version of "Hold the Fort" and ended with it 

singing "The Red Flag." Doubtless, the version of "Hold the Fort" sung 

then was that of the British Transport Workers. As the "English Trans-
NUMBER 9 39 

"The Little Red Song Book" 

of the Industrial Workers of 

the World as published in 

1918. (Photo by John Burwell of copy of book in AFL— 

CIO Library.) 

=•'• - JTZZ. 

LW.WV 

SONGS 

TO FAN THE 

DISCON 

We Ar e 

In Her e 

For YOU 

Y»« Are 

Out There 

For U S 

GENERAL DEFENSE EDITION 

PUBLISHE D BY 

L W. W. PUBLISHING BUREAU 

1001 W. MADISON STREET, CHICAGO, ILL. 

V. 9. A. 

port Workers' Strike Song," it appeared in the first (1909) edition and 

in the 1918, 1919, 1945, and 1964 editions of "The Little Red Song 

Book" and probably in other editions as well.133 In the 1964 edition there 

appears, following the song, the declaration that "the working class will 

never be free until it can blow the whistle for the parasites to go to 

work. . . ." The four verses and chorus of the song show a striking resemblance to the words that Bliss wrote in 1870: 

We meet today in Freedom's cause 

And raise our voices high; 

We'll join our hands in union strong, 

To battle or to die. 

Hold the fort for we are corning— 

Union men, be strong. 

Side by side we battle onward, 

Victory will come. 
4 0 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

Look my Comrades, see the union 

Banners waving high. 

Reinforcements now appearing 

Victory is nigh. 

See our numbers still increasing; 

Hear the bugles blow. 

By our union we shall triumph 

Over every foe. 

Fierce and long the battle rages, 

But we will not fear, 

Help will come whene'er it's needed, 

Cheer, my Comrades, cheer.134 

It is clear, of course, that there was a musical connection between 

revivalism and the labor movement, but it also is probably true that 

there was a more fundamental connection. In one view, at least, John 

Wesley—with whom revivalism began in England in 1743—gave to "the 

English urban proletariat a democratic religion and an effective emotional outlet." In turn, this "religious experience of mass emotion and 

collective action by working men contributed indirectly to the labor 

movement, although in its inception it had no economic program or 

application."

 133

 Ellen McCulloch, of the British Transport and General 

Workers Union, seems to affirm this in saying that religious nonconformism influenced many local and national trade union leaders in Great 

Britain in the early days.136 

Certainly American revivalism as practiced by Moody was a 

departure from the forms of the established church, although one student of the subject claims that in Great Britain and Ireland Moody's 

revivalism had "little if any effect on the labor movement" because it 

had its "chief stronghold in the middle classes."

 13T

 The record is clear, 

however, that between 1873 and 1875 Moody took his message to "the 

poorer classes" in such great industrial cities as Edinburgh, Glasgow, 

Belfast, Manchester, and London (where one of the revival centers was 

in Bow Road Hall in the poor and grimy East End) .

13S 

With Moody, of course, was Sankey, and many a workingman in the 

great cities they visited must have heard "Hold the Fort." No doubt, the 

song's continued popularity induced the Salvation Army, organized by 

General William Booth in 1878, to use it and thereby to popularize it 

still further. Arthur Deakin, who became general secretary of the British 

Transport Workers,139 recalled that "in the early days of the dockers' 

struggles Ben Tillett and James Sexton 'borrowed' the song from our Sal-
NUMBER 9 4 1 

vation Army, and sometimes used it at strike meetings or on picket 

lines."

 14° If Deakin's memory served him well, the borrowed or, rather, 

adapted song could have been used by the dockers at least by 1889, the 

year of the first and most famous of the dock strikes that Tillett led. Very 

likely, then, it was the dockers who took the song into the Transport 

Workers; but a mystery remains as to who adapted it and when and by 

whom it was carried to the United States. It may have been brought in 

through the IWW's connections in Great Britain. 

Here the story takes a curious turn. Although the modern labor 

version of "Hold the Fort" is known as a song of the British Transport 

Workers, and has been sung as such in union meetings in both the United 

States and Australia, the Transport Workers appear not to have sung it 

for a long time. Indeed, Ellen McCullough first heard it in the United 

States more than a decade ago. It was this experience that interested her 

in the song and led her, upon her return to England, to query Deakin 

about it on behalf of her friend Joe Glazer.141 As a consequence, Glazer 

observed that it "has obviously been lost in England," where the English 

sing it only "as something imported from the United States." In England, 

in fact, he once saw a song sheet curiously describing "Hold the Fort" as 

a "British Transport Workers Song (sung in the United States)." Evidently there has been no change in the music, for the union song "sounds 

the same as the old hymn."

 142 

Labor's modern version of "Hold the Fort" thus achieved a place 

among the labor songs of the United States and continued to be published 

and heard despite the mortal illness of the Wobblies. It is said that the 

song was popularized (or perhaps repopularized) during the Paterson silk 

strike in 1928.143 Its words and music appeared in the Rebel Song Book, 

which the Rand School Press published in 1935. About four years later 

several verses and the chorus came out in a songbook published by the 

Southeastern Regional Office of the Textile Workers Union of 

America.144 Parts of it also appeared in 1941 in a songbook of the United 

Auto Workers (UAW), and about the same time in various songbooks of 

the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU). All of 

the words were in the 1945 edition and, more recently, in the 1964 edition of "The Little Red Song Book" of the Wobblies, who would not give 

up.145 Sometime before Philip Murray's death in 1952, Tom Glazer 

recorded "Hold the Fort" for a CIO album of Favorite American Union 

Songs.146 The song was also recorded by the Almanac Singers in The 

Original "Talking Union"; by Gene and Francesca Raskin in We Work 
42 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

and Sing, an album of the ILGWU; and by the Union Boys in Songs 

for Victory.147 

Words from "Hold the Fort" appeared in a CIO songbook in 1954, 

in a songbook of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America about 

1958, and, recently, in a song collection of the AFL-CIO that has gone 

through at least six printings.148 Official union publications have thus 

brought the old strike song into the present era of the merger of the two 

great labor organizations under the presidency of George Meany. In 1954 

Barrie Stavis published the words and music of the chorus in his dramatic and biographical work on Joe Hill titled The Man Who Never 

Died, and in 1960 Edith Fowke and Joe Glazer published the entire song, 

words and music, together with historical notes, in their Songs of Work 

and Freedom. Here was a song, they indicated, that should be sung "with 

determination."

 149 

With the coming of respectability and even affluence to much of the 

labor force in the United States, workers do not sing as much as they used 

to. As Joe Glazer observed several years ago: "When six guys get killed 

Joe Glazer, with Cesar Chavez, singing at the 1967 Texas state convention of the 

AFL-CIO. (Photo by Bill Rich; courtesy of Joe Glazer, Washington, D.C.) 
NUMBER 9 4 3 

on the job, you may get a song. But there's no song from a signed labor 

contract." With lumberjacks, Joe says, it is much the same; they used to 

sing about the hazards of rolling logs, but they now sometimes fly to work 

and worry whether their steaks are thick enough.150 

In recent years, many if not most of the new workers' songs have 

come out of the South where the labor unions have not been strong, or 

from the migratory workers in the Southwest and West who, several years 

ago, formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, AFLCIO, under Cesar Chavez. Under the leadership of Chavez the Farm 

Workers are carrying on the tradition of the Knights of Labor, the British 

dockers, the Wobblies, and the older AFL-CIO unions, all of whom have 

told in song of their struggles and hopes for a better life. Such are the 

songs used by the grape pickers in their successful strike against the growers of Delano, California. They were heard at Howard University, Washington, D.C, in July 1967 when Luis M. Valdez of the Farm Workers led 

his troupe—between the skits of El Teatro Campesino, the Farm Workers' propaganda theater—in songs that were "strongly reminiscent" of 

the strike songs of the troubled 1930s.151 

Probably the most dramatic use of song by and on behalf of the 

underprivileged in recent years has been in connection with interracial 

sit-ins and marches. No one who was present at the great March on 

Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 can ever forget the moving 

experience of hearing the hopeful multitude sing "We Shall Overcome": 

We shall overcome, we shall overcome, 

We shall overcome some day. 

Oh, oh, deep in my heart I do believe 

That we shall overcome some day.* 

This, like the labor version of "Hold the Fort," is based upon a religious 

song whose antecedents lie far in the undocumented past. In its present 

form it owes much to several persons, including Pete Seeger who learned 

the labor version, "We Will Overcome," from Zilphia Horton who had 

learned it in 1947 at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, from members of the CIO Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied 

Workers Union. It had been adapted by these workers from an old church 

* WE SHALL OVERCOME. New words and music arrangement by Zilphia Horton, Frank 

Hamilton, Guy Carawan, and Pete Seeger. Copyright 1960 and 1963 LUDLOW MUSIC, INC., 

New York, N.Y. Used by Permission. Royalties derived from this composition are being contributed to The Freedom Movement under the trusteeship of the writers. 
4 4 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

song, "I'll Be All Right Someday," during a strike in Charleston, South 

Carolina, in late 1945 and early 1946.152 

But what about "Hold the Fort," given the changing times? Even 

though it is still found in current union songbooks, does anyone really 

sing it anymore? 

When the Rubber Workers struck the O'Sullivan Rubber Corporation in Winchester, Virginia, in 1956 in a latter-day battle of Winchester that dragged on for several years, there were at least some 

occasions when as many as a hundred strikers sang "Hold the Fort." 

In those years, as Joe Glazer wrote in 1959, it was "still current, very 

useful and a good rousing song." It was heard now and then at union 

summer schools and on picket lines, but it was not as popular as "We 

Shall Not Be Moved," "Roll the Union On," or Ralph Chaplin's great 

Wobbly song, "Solidarity Forever."

 153

 In 1961 New Yorkers heard it in 

Washington Square when a noisy crowd of about 2,500 students grabbed 

and tore up copies of The Worker that were being distributed by the 

Labor and People's Committee for May Day. As the fur began to fly, 

according to a reporter who was there, "the chorus on the platform 

moved strongly into 'Hold the fort for we are coming; Side by side we 

battle onward.' " Soon, however, a counterpoint was heard in the crowd 

below: "We are poor little lambs who have lost our way, baaa, baaa, 

baaa."

 154 

Joe Glazer probably has done more than anyone else in his time to 

popularize the modern labor version of "Hold the Fort," for he has been 

singing it, together with other labor songs, since he was with the Textile 

Workers Union of America in the years 1944-1950, when he pioneered 

in modern group singing among union workers. A talented composer as 

well as a singer of labor songs, he has written about a dozen altogether, 

including "The Mill Was Made of Marble."

 155

 He sang "Hold the Fort" 

for and with a group of Rubber Workers at the December 1967 convention of the AFL-CIO at Bal Harbour, Florida. Union members, Joe 

Glazer has observed, may not remember all the words but they always 

can and do sing the chorus.156 

"Hold the Fort" has a fixed place in the musical firmament. In the 

opinion of Edith Fowke and Joe Glazer, the surviving labor version is 

"much better" than the version of the old Knights of Labor and is one 

of only a handful of complete songs of its genre that have survived from 

the previous century.157 Its survival, perhaps the result of a kind of musical 

Darwinism, surely will please those who take satisfaction from the con-
NUMBER 9 4 5 

tinua of history, for the modern labor version of the old song is as faithful 

to Bliss's gospel original as the original was—in its defensive posture—to 

historical fact. 

Notes 

1. Th e best published account of the battle is Fred E. Brown's "Th e Battle of 

Allatoona," Civil War History, vol. 6 (September 1960), pp. 277-297; more attention to signaling is given, however, in Paul J. Scheips, "The Battle of Allatoona: A 

Preliminary Draft" (unpublished). 

2. Th e railway, still owned by the state of Georgia but leased to the Louisville & 

Nashville Railroad, had to be relocated in 1948 because of a dam and reservoir project that created Allatoona Lake on the site of the old railroad pass. Letters: A. C. 

Randall, secretary, Georgia Public Service Commission, Atlanta, to Paul J. Scheips, 

30 January 1956; and D. S. Huggins, secretary-treasurer, Nashville, Chattanooga & St. 

Louis Railway, Nashville, Tennessee [a former lessee], to Scheips, 1 February 1956. 

See also Moody's Transportation Manual (1966, 1968, 1969), pp. 251, 268, 591, 

respectively. 

3. These two messages are in United States Wa r Department, The War of the 

Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate 

Armies (1880-1901) [hereafter cited as OR, all references being to series 1], vol. 39, 

pt. 3, p. 78. 

4. OR, vol. 39, pt. 3, p. 97. O n the several messages, see John Q. Adams, "Hold 

the Fort! " in War Sketches and Incidents as Related by the Companions of the Iowa 

Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (1898), vol. 

2, pp. 167-168 [texts of two of the messages slightly different from the official published versions]; Lloyd Lewis, Sherman: Fighting Prophet (1958), pp. 426,427; J. Willard Brown, The Signal Corps, U.S.A., in the War of the Rebellion (1896), p. 547; 

and Alonzo L. Brown, History of the Fourth Regiment of Minnesota Infantry Volunteers During the Great Rebellion 1861-1865 (1892), pp. 593-594. Bartlett's Familiar 

Quotations (14th edition, 1968), p. 705a, describes "Hold the fort! I am coming!" 

(or "Hold the fort, for I am coming!" [p. 777b]) as the "popular version" of what 

Sherman signaled from Kennesaw on 5 October 1864, but asserts that he actually 

signaled: "Hold out. Relief is coming." Earlier, on 3 October, Sherman advised 

Lieutenant Colonel John E. Tourtellotte at Allatoona that if Hood "moves up toward 

Allatoona I will surely come in force" (OR, vol. 39, pt. 3, p. 53). 

5. O n Frankenberry, see Alfred M. Claybaugh, " 'Hold the Fort—I am coming,' " 

in Out West, new series, vol. 1 (April 1911), pp. 305-309; A. D. Frankenberry, "Visiting Wa r Scenes," National Tribune (Washington, D.C) , 16 January 1896, p. 2; 

Frankenberry's records of service in Company K, 15th Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, and in the Signal Corps, Record Group [RG] 94, National Archives; Mrs. 

Mary A. Frankenberry's pension file, Widow Certificate [WC] 685711, R G 15, National Archives; J. Willard Brown, The Signal Corps, p. 773 and plate opposite p. 496 

[Brown, p. 773, gives Kennesaw Mountain as Frankenberry's station in September 

415-418 O - 71 - 4 
4 6 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

and October 1864, whereas the muster rolls for those two months give Atlanta]; and 

Proceedings of the Reunions Held in 1900 by the Association of Survivors Seventh 

Regiment Illinois Veteran Infantry Volunteers Held at Chicago and Springfield, III. 

[hereafter cited as Seventh Illinois Reunion Proceedings, with particular year added] 

(1901), pp. 28-29. 

6. OR, vol. 39, pt. 3, p. 75. 

7. Message from Sherman to Commanding Officers at Allatoona, Kingston, and 

Rome, 4 October 1864 (OR, vol. 39, pt. 3, p. 75). On Corse's instructions and actions 

prior to the Battle of Allatoona, see his report to Dayton, Sherman's aide-de-camp, 

27 October 1864 (OR, vol. 39, pt. 1, pp. 761-762) and the following messages (OR, 

vol. 39, pt. 3, pp. 8-9, 31, 53) : Sherman to Corse, 1 October 1864; Sherman to Smith, 

1 October 1864; Corse to Sherman, 1 October 1864; Corse to Smith, 2 October 

1864; Corse to Sherman, 2 October 1864; Sherman to Corse, 3 October 1864; and 

Sherman to Commanding Officer, Allatoona [Tourtellotte], 3 October 1864. 

8. Frankenberry, "Visiting War Scenes." 

9. Photographic descriptions and historical statement by George Carr Round, 

together with General Order No. 1, United States Veteran Signal Corps Association, 

21 July 1914 (George Carr Round papers, in possession of Round's daughter, Mrs. 

Emily R. Lewis, Manassas, Virginia). See also "Tattered Signal Flags Are Used," 

Sunday Star (Washington, D.C), 12 October 1913, p. 18. Claybaugh (p. 307) 

claims that the flag pictured in his " 'Hold the Fort—I am Coming' " is the one that 

Frankenberry gave to the adjutant general of Pennsylvania. Compare Claybaugh's 

illustration with the picture of the flag that accompanies Frankenberry's "Visiting War 

Scenes" and with the one of the large flag which Round borrowed from the Pennsylvania authorities and subsequently returned. Efforts by the author to locate the flag 

in Harrisburg have been unsuccessful. See J. Willard Brown, The Signal Corps, p. 116, 

for colored illustrations of United States Army signal flags of the Civil War period. 

There are some authentic Union signal flags from that conflict among the Myer 

memorabilia in the Signal Corps Museum, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. 

10. Oi?, vol. 39, pt. 3, p. 113. 

11. Lewis, Sherman: Fighting Prophet, pp. 599-600. 

12. Samuel G. French, Two Wars': An Autobiography of General Samuel G. 

French . . (1901) ; and letter from French to Julius L. Brown, 20 June 1901, in 

Joseph M. Brown papers, Atlanta Historical Society. [A copy of French's letter was 

obtained through the kindness of Fred E. Brown of Houston, Texas.] 

13. Headquarters, Military Division of the Mississippi, Special Field Order 86 

(OR, vol 39, pt. 1, pp. 771-772). 

14. The West story is from an item by J. L. Eby, a veteran of the 7th Illinois, 

in National Tribune (no date) as reprinted in the Seventh Illinois Reunion Proceedings (1903), p. 32. On Myer's brevet commission, see letter from J. C. Kelton to 

Myer, 16 June 1868, enclosing commission of 10 June 1868 (rank dating from 

13 March 1865) (Albert James Myer papers, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey) ; and 

Paul J. Scheips, "Union Signal Communications: Innovation and Conflict," Civil 

War History, vol. 9 (December 1963), pp. 414-415. 

15. "The Flag that Talks" was published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 
NUMBER 9 4 7 

vol. 32 (May 1866), pp. 733-737, and reprinted in J. Willard Brown, The Signal 

Corps, pp. 553-558 [verses quoted here are from p. 554]. 

16. Joseph M. Brown, The Battle of Allatoona, October 5, 1864 . . . (1890), 

pp. 15-16, 23. 

17. J. M. Brown, Battle of Allatoona, pp. 24-25. "The Lone Grave" does not appear in The Songs of Paul Dresser (1927), but compare therein, pp. 28-32, "He 

Fought for the Cause He Thought Was Right." 

18. Judson Kilpatrick and J. Owen Moore, Allatoona, an Historical and Military 

Drama in Five Acts (acting edition; "French's Standard Drama, " No. 376 [1875]), 

p. 46. 

19. Samuel H. M. Byers, Allatoona, a Play in Four Acts (1905), p. 62 and following pages. 

20. Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, edited by D. W. Whittle (1877), pp. 68-70. Substantially the same account has been published in a number of places; see, for example, 

the historical note on the sheet music cited in note 30, below, and Ira D. Sankey, 

My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns and of Sacred Songs and Solos (1907), 

pp. 168-170. None of these accounts is quite accurate. [The author is indebted to William H. Klusmeier, general manager of the Rockford Newspapers, Inc., for locating 

the report of the convention in The Rockford Register (30 April 1870, p. 4) and 

thereby correctly fixing the date of the convention.] 

21. Ther e is some difference of opinion as to what Bliss's first two initials stood 

for, although the principal accounts accept Whittle's conclusion—based upon a 

Bliss family genealogy signed "P. P. Bliss, 1861," which Whittle found among Bliss's 

papers—that they stood for Philip Paul (Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, pp. 15, 16). 

22. Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, pp. 42, 70. 

23. Information on Whittle's military service can be found in his pension file in 

the National Archives, Soldier Certificate [SC] 995511, R G 15, and in OR as follows: 

vol. 24, pt. 2, pp. 298, 682, and pt. 3, p. 537; vol. 38, pt. 4, p. 461 ; vol. 39, pt. 3, p. 96: 

vol. 44, pp. 74-75, 603-604; and vol. 47, pt. 2, pp. 25-26. Th e citation is quoted from 

Brigadier General Thoma s E. G. Ransom's report, Near Vicksburg, 26 May 1863 

(OR, vol. 24, pt. 2, p. 298). Whittle's brevet majority was for "faithful and meritorious 

service during the campaign against the city of Mobile and its defences" (War Department General Orde r 148, 14 October 1865, Section III, p. 58). 

24. Letter, Howard to H. Clay Evans, commissioner of pensions, 9 September 

1899, in Whittle's pension file, SC 995511, R G 15, National Archives. 

25. Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, pp. 68-70. 

26. Unaddressed communication concerning a Confederate deserter that was prepared by Captain and Assistant Provost Marshal General D. W. Whittle at Headquarters, Department and Army of the Tennessee, near Marietta, Georgia, 5 October 

1864(0/? , vol. 39, pt. 3, pp. 95-96). 

27. Scheips, "Battle of Allatoona," p. 39. 

28. Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, p. 43 ; Victor Charles Detty, P P Bliss, July 9, 

1838-December 29, 1876, a Centennial Sketch of His Life and Work, 1838-1938, with 

Selected Gospel Hymns [hereinafter cited as Centennial Sketch] (1938), p. 16. 

29. Sankey, My Life, p. 170. 
4 8 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

30. A copy of the original sheet music edition of Bliss's "Hold the Fort!" (Sheet 

Music Copyright No. 4736, 10 December 1870), as reproduced here, is in the Music 

Division, Library of Congress, as is an 1898 edition copyrighted 1898 (No. 41751-2) by 

Bliss's sons and heirs, P. P. and G. G. Bliss. The latter is in "Our National War Songs" 

series published by The John Church Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. The title of the song was 

printed with an exclamation mark on the cover sheet of the original sheet music, but 

was printed generally thereafter without the mark, as, indeed, was the case on the very 

first page of the original itself. Accordingly, unless called for by a quotation or some 

other reason, the title "Hold the Fort" appears in these pages without the exclamation 

mark. 

31. For an excellent history of Root & Cady which (with one exception) lists 

all the registered sheet music the firm published for Bliss, see Dena J. Epstein, "Music 

Publishing in Chicago Prior to 1871: The Firm of Root & Cady, 1858-1871" (M.A. 

thesis in library science, University of Illinois, 1943), published serially under the 

general title of "Music Publishing in Chicago before 1871," Music Library Association Notes (series 2), vol. 1 (June 1944), pp. 3-11, September 1944, pp. 43-59; vol. 2 

(December 1944), pp. 16-26, March 1945, pp. 124-148, June 1945, pp. 201-226, 

September 1945, pp. 310-314, 317-324; and vol. 3 (December 1945), pp. 80-98, 

101-109. Also, see George F. Root, The Story of a Musical Life (1891). Root was 

the author of the well-known Civil War songs "Just before the Battle Mother" and 

"Tramp, Tramp, Tramp." 

32. These words, with their capitalization and punctuation, are quoted from the 

original sheet music edition cited in note 30, above. 

33. See Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, p. 114; Sankey, My Life; Nicholas Smith, 

Hymns Historically Famous (1901), pp. 260-262; Elias Nason, The American Evangelists, Dwight L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey, with an Account of Their Work in 

England and America; and a Sketch of the Lives of P. P. Bliss and Dr. Eben Tourjee 

(1877), pp. 269-273; Richard Ellsworth Day, Bush Aglow: The Life Story of Dwight 

Lyman Moody, Commoner of Northfield (1936), pp. 133-134; and Theron Brown 

and Hezekiah Butterworth, The Story of Hymns and Tunes (1907), pp. 431-432. 

34. Memoirs of Philip P Bliss and Detty's Centennial Sketch are the principal 

sources for biographical information on Bliss. Among other sources, several of which 

are cited above, George C. Stebbins, Reminiscences and Gospel Hymn Stories (1924) 

is especially good. A brief biographical sketch, not otherwise mentioned in these pages, 

appears in the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, vol. 8, pp. 443-444. 

See also Root, Story of a Musical Life, pp. 138-139, 162; and Ernest K. Emurian, 

Living Stories of Famous Hymns (1955), pp. 66-68, 80-82. Willard A. Heaps and 

Porter W. Heaps, in The Singing Sixties: The Spirit of Civil War Days Drawn from 

the Music of the Times (1960), p. 347, quote lines from the Civil War song "Goodbye, Jeff" [Jeff, of course, being Jefferson Davis], for which Bliss wrote the words 

and music. 

35. The first verse and chorus as found in Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, pp. 30-31. 

Charles Harris arranged this song for the guitar. 

36. Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, p. 51. 

37. Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, p. 41. 
NUMBER 9 49 

38. O n Moody, see, among other references, Day, Bush Aglow, and the two 

editions of the biography by his son William R. Moody, The Life of Dwight L. Moody 

(1900) ; and D. L. Moody (1930). For scholarly accounts, see Luther Allan Weigle in 

Dictionary of American Biography [hereafter cited as DAB], vol. 13, pp. 103-106; 

Herbert W. Schneider's article on religious revivals in the Encyclopaedia of the Social 

Sciences, vol. 13, pp. 365, 366; and Bernard A. Weisberger, They Gathered at the 

River: The Story of the Great Revivalists and Their Impact upon Religion in America 

(1958), passim. 

39. Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, pp. 49-52. 

40. On die royalties from Bliss's and Sankey's joint and separate publications and 

on die famous Gospel Hymns (which grew out of their publications and eventually, 

with different collaborators, went through six principal editions) see Memoirs of 

Philip P. Bliss, p. 332; Day, Bush Aglow, pp. 176-177, 178; W. R. Moody, Dwight L. 

Moody, pp. 198-209, 418; A Dictionary of Hymnology . . edited by John Julian (2 

vols., 1957), vol. 1, p. 150; and Brown and Butterworth, Story of Hymns and Tunes, 

p. 418. Harris E. Starr's sketch of Bliss (in DAB, vol. 2, p. 376) incorrectly attributes 

Bliss's book Gospel Songs (1874) to both Bliss and Sankey, and attaches the royalties of 

$60,000 to that book instead of to Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs (1875), which 

Bliss and Sankey jointly compiled. 

4 1. Detty, Centennial Sketch, p. 17; and Stebbins, Reminiscences, p. 268. 

42. Quoted in Moody: His Words, Work, and Workers . Sketches of His Coworkers, Messrs. Sankey, Bliss, Whittle, Sawyer, and Others; and an Account of the 

Gospel Temperance Revival, with Thrilling Experiences of Converted Inebriates, 

edited by William H. Daniels (1877), p. 497. 

43. Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, pp. 52, 67-68. 

44. O n Bliss's last days and the accident, see Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, pp. 90-94, 

290-296; Root, Story of a Musical Life, p. 162; and Stephen D. Peet, The Ashtabula 

Disaster (1877). Th e spelling of young Phillip Paul Bliss's name with two l's is from a 

photograph of him in the frontispiece in Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss. 

45. Root, Story of a Musical Life, pp. 139, 162. 

46. Starr, in DAB, vol. 2, p. 376; and Weisberger, They Gathered at the River, 

p. 232. 

47. From an editorial in the Chicago Inter-Ocean (no date) as quoted in 

Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, p. 298. 

48. Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, p. 30; Detty, Centennial Sketch, p. 14; and 

Stebbins, Reminiscences, pp. 221-230. Stebbins succeeded McGranahan as Whittle's 

associate (Stebbins, Reminiscences, pp. 268-269). 

49. Stebbins, Reminiscences, pp. 263-271; David J. Beattie, The Romance of 

Sacred Song (1931), pp. 161-164; and Day, Bush Aglow, pp. 175-176. 

50. See Whittle's pension file, SC 995511, R G 15, National Archives. 

51. O n Moody's colleague Sankey, probably the most famous of the gospel singers, see Sankey, My Life; Stebbins, Reminiscences, pp. 201-220; Charles Ludwig, 

Sankey Still Sings (1947) ; The Ira D. Sankey Centenary: Proceedings of the Centenary Celebration of the Birth of Ira D. Sankey together with some Hitherto Unpublished Correspondence (1941) ; Helen F. Rothwell, Ira D. Sankey: A Great Song 
5 0 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

Leader (1946) ; and Starr's sketch of Sankey's life in DAB, vol. 16, pp. 352-353. Ther e 

are relatively few references to Sankey in W. R. Moody, D. L. Moody (almough there 

are more than the five indicated by the index) and they are not all complimentary, 

although Ludwig (pp. 142-147) states that Moody and Sankey got along "on the best 

of terms," but perhaps the same was not true of their families. 

52. Philip P. Bliss, Gospel Songs: A Choice Collection of Hymns and Tunes, New 

and Old, for Gospel Meetings, Prayer Meetings, Sunday Schools, Etc. (1874), p. 79. 

53. Edgar J. Goodspeed, A Full History of the Wonderful Career of Moody and 

Sankey, in Great Britain and America . . . (1876), p. 60. 

54. As quoted from the issue of 22 Jun e 1875, in W. R. Moody, D. L. Moody, 

p. 215. 

55. Weigle, in DAB, vol. 13, p. 104. 

56. Dwight Lyman Moody's Life Work and Gospel Sermons as Delivered by the 

Great Evangelist in . . . Great Britain and America. Together with a Biography of 

His Co-Laborer Ira David Sankey, edited by Richard S. Rhodes (1900), p. xxii. Day 

(Bush Aglow, p. 190) reports that "with four revival centers" the "total attendance " 

was 2,330,000. Weigle (in DAB, vol. 13, p. 104) puts the attendance at 2,530,000, and 

Weisberger (They Gathered at the River, p. 201) puts it at 1,500,000. 

57. Narrative of Messrs. Moody and Sankey's Labors in Great Britain and Ireland, with Eleven Addresses and Lectures . . ., edited by Anson D. F. Randolph (new 

edition, 1875), pp. 10-11 [this work compiled from material in the British Evangelist 

and The Christian, two weekly journals published in London]. Beattie (Romance of 

Sacred Song, p. 146; claims tha t the American singer Philip Phillips, the "Singing 

Pilgrim," introduced the new type of gospel songs into England prior to Moody's and 

Sankey's work in that country. 

58. Randolph, Moody and Sankey's Labors in Great Britain and Ireland, p. II. 

59. Stebbins, Reminiscences, p. 211. 

60. Goodspeed, History of the Wonderful Career of Moody and Sankey, p. 58. 

61. Day, Bush Aglow, pp. 167-168, 171. 

62. Narrative of Messrs. Moody and Sankey's Labors in Scotland and Ireland; 

Also in Manchester, Sheffield, and Birmingham, England, edited by Anson D. F. 

Randolph (1875), p. 93. [This work, like that cited in note 57, above, was compiled 

from the British Evangelist and The Christian.] 

63. Sankey, My Life, pp. 73-74. This story is also in Beattie, Romance of Sacred 

Song, p. 147; Ludwig, Sankey Still Sings, p. 86; and Stebbins, Reminiscences, p. 218; 

and it is referred to in Smith, Hymns Historically Famous, p. 263. 

64. Th e story that the clowns were put out with Moody and Sankey for having 

"interfered with . . . attendance at the Royal Circus" a few weeks before appears in 

Smith, Hymns Historically Famous, p. 263. 

65. Day, Bush Aglow, p. 190. 

66. Daniels, Moody, p. 45. 

67. As quoted by Day in Bush Aglow, p. 190. 

68. Sankey, My Life, p. 175. 

69. Goodspeed, History of the Wonderful Career of Moody and Sankey, p. 225; 

and Sankey, My Life, p. 170. 
NUMBER 9 51 

70. Nason, American Evangelists, p. 122. 

71. Sankey, My Life, pp. 150, 173-175. 

72. Sankey, My Life, p. 170. 

73. Detty (Centennial Sketch, pp. 24-28) gives an account of the unveiling ceremony and a photograph of the monument or cenotaph. 

74. See Fanny J. Crosby, Memories of Eighty Years: The Story of Her Life . . . 

History of Her Songs and Hymns (1906), p. 128; and Stebbins, Reminiscences, p. 210. 

75. Day, Bush Aglow, p. 177. 

76. Thus did Fanny Crosby (Memories, p. 128) refer to them, but in England, 

according to Sankey (My Life, p. 77) and Ludwig (Sankey Still Sings, p. 14), a pennyedition of his Sacred Songs and Solos was known as "little Sankey's." William R. 

Moody, however, gave his father such credit for the publication of Sacred Songs and 

Solos and for Bliss's and Sankey's Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs that he referred 

to them collectively as the "Moody and Sankey Hymnbook*' (W. R. Moody, Life of 

Dwight L. Moody, pp. 170-181, and D. L. Moody, pp. 198-209). Compare Sankey's 

different account of the origin of Sacred Songs and Solos in his My Life, pp. 47, 53-54. 

Day (Bush Aglow, p. 178) combines W. R. Moody's account with Sankey's. 

77. Th e correspondent probably was William Earl Dodge, the elder, who was very 

close to Moody, but it could have been his son, whose interests were similar to his 

father's. O n the elder Dodge (1805-1883), see William B. Shaw's biographical sketch 

in DAB (vol. 3, pp. 352-353) and the unsigned sketch in the National Cyclopaedia of 

American Biography (vol. 3, pp. 174-175). On die younger Dodge (1832-1903), see 

National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, vol. 13, p. 352; Day, Bush Aglow, 

pp. 178-179; and W. R. Moody, Life of Dwight L. Moody, pp. 173-175, 572-575; 

and D. L. Moody, pp. 202-204. 

78. Letter, Sherman to Dodge, 22 June 1875, in reply to a letter of 12 June. 

French, Two Wars, p. 262; and Fred E. Brown, "The Battle of Allatoona," p. 297. 

79. See "Th e Great Revival," Harper's Weekly, vol. 20 (11 March 1876), pp. 

201, 210. 

80. Daniels, Moody, pp. 60-61. Exterior and interior views of the Boston Tabernacle are in Nason, American Evangelists, pp. 206, 208. 

81. Daniels, Moody, p. 510. 

82. Nason, American Evangelists, p. 211. 

83. See I. A. M. Cumming, Tabernacle Sketches (1877) ; and Ludwig, Sankey 

Still Sings, p. 111. 

84. Cumming, Tabernacle Sketches, p. 11. Th e words of this song, also known as 

"Sowing the Seed" and sometimes attributed to Bliss, were by Emily Sullivan Oakey, 

aldiough Bliss wrote the music. See Sankey, My Life, p. 336, and Hymns Historically 

Famous, p. 245; Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, pp. 63-64 [where Mrs. Oakey is referred tn 

as Emily L. Oakey]; and Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography (revised edition, 1898), vol. 4, p. 548. 

85. Cumming, Tabernacle Sketches, p. 11. 

86. Cumming, Tabernacle Sketches, pp. 18-19. 

87. O n Tourjee, see Nason, American Evangelists, pp. 291-300. 

88. Cumming, Tabernacle Sketches, pp. 76-77. 
5 2 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

89. Ludwig, Sankey Still Sings, p. Ill ; Daniels, Moody, p. 63; and Weisberger, 

They Gathered at the River, p. 319, note 69. 

90. P. P. Bliss, "Hold the Fort," illustrated by L. B. Humphrey and Robert Lewis 

(1877), unpaged. [A perfect copy of this book in the general collections of the Library 

of Congress was called to the author's attention by Colonel Albert F. Moe, USMC 

(retired) ; a somewhat mutilated copy is among the Albert James Myer papers in the 

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.] 

91. See Sanger till Lammets lof. Sanger sjungna af Ira D. Sankey (1877), no. 6. 

The song's melody is given as that of "Ho! my comrades, see the signal," which is, of 

course, the first line of "Hold the Fort." [James S. Beddie, formerly of die Department 

of State, has verified for the author that "Hallen Fastet" is a free translation of "Hold 

the Fort," which he knows.] 

92. Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, p. 331, as quoted from E. P. Goodwin's memorial 

address on Bliss. 

93. Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, pp. 63, 92. Compare with Nason, American 

Evangelists, p. 275. 

94. W. R. Moody, D. L. Moody, p. 205. 

95. For a brief biographical sketch of William Ashley (Billy) Sunday, see Who 

Was Who in America (1897-1942), vol. 1, p. 1206. 

96. Seventh Illinois Reunion Proceedings (1908), p. 18. 

97. Homer A. Rodeheaver, Hymnal Handbook for Standard Hymns and Gospel 

Songs (1931), p. 150. [Copyright 1959, Renewal. The Rodeheaver Co., Owner. 

Used by Permission.] On Rodeheaver, see Who Was Who in America (1951-1960), 

vol. 3, p. 737. Rodeheaver participated in the 1938 centennial commemoration in 

Rome, Pennsylvania (Detty, Centennial Sketch, p. 3). 

98. See The Broadman Hymnal; Great Standard Hymns and Choice Gospel 

Songs New and Old .. . , edited by B. B. McKinney (1940), no. 303. [Fred E. 

Brown called this hymnal to the writer's attention.] 

99. Fifty Great Songs of the Church, compiled by Charles A. Kent (1942), 

pp. vm-rx. 

100. Letters: Dorothy C. Higgins, Theodore Presser Co., Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, to Scheips, 22 May 1956; and John W. Hottenson, Theodore Presser Co., to 

Scheips, 16 April 1959. 

101. Alden Todd, personal communication, 17 June 1960, regarding telephone 

conversation with a representative of the Billy Graham Crusade in Washington, D.C. 

102. Radio Station WRC, Washington, D.C, 19 April 1961. 

103. Unsigned and undated comment from Gospel Publishing House in response 

to a letter of inquiry from Scheips dated 10 November 1967. 

104. Hayes and Wheeler Song Book, [compiled by] Union Republican Congressional Committee (1876), p. 9. [Copy in Yale University Library.] For this and 

various other references to secular uses of "Hold the Fort" the author is indebted 

to Irwin Silber of New York City, who has been very generous with his time and 

knowledge. 

105. "Republican Campaign Song" (first verse), Hayes and Wheeler Song 

Book, p. 46. Other 1876 Republican campaign songs sung to the tune of "Hold the 
NUMBER 9 5 3 

Fort " were "Hayes, Wheeler and Victory," "Victory in the Air," and "Round Ou r 

Banner," for which see, respectively: Hayes and Wheeler Campaign Song Book, for 

the Centennial Year . . . (1876), pp. 20-21, Hayes & Wheeler Campaign Songster 

Including Biographical Sketches & Constitution for Campaign Clubs (1876), p. 39 

[a copy of each of these two books is in Library of Congress]; and the text and citations, 

below, at note 107. 

106. Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book, 1880, [compiled by] Republican Congressional Committee, 1879-1881 (1880), p. 15. [Copy in Library of 

Congress.] 

107. Garfield and Arthur Campaign Book, p. 7; Hayes and Wheeler Song Book, 

p. 11; and Hayes & Wheeler Campaign Song Book, pp. 38-39. 

108. Blaine and Logan Campaign Song-Book, 1884, compiled and edited by 

F. Widdows (1884), p. 16. [Copy in Library of Congress.] 

109. Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book, p. 11. 

110. Blaine and Logan Campaign Song-Book, p. 12. 

111. The Prohibition Songster, Words and Music for Prohibition Campaign 

Clubs, Temperance Organizations, Glee Clubs, Camp-Meetings, Etc., Etc., compiled 

by J. N. Stearns (1884), no. 28. [Copy in Library of Congress.] 

112. Prohibition Songster, no. 55. Other temperance songs of the time and to 

the tune of "Hold the Fort " were "Th e Temperance Standard" and J. B. Vinton's 

and W. Warren Bentley's "Storm the Fort," of which there were two printings widi 

very slight differences. Entire fines in both of these songs were lifted from "Hold the 

Fort " widiout acknowledgment. See Band of Hope Songster: A Collection of Temperance Songs . . , compiled by J. N. Steams (1885), pp. 7, 62 [copy in Library of 

Congress]; and Prohibition Songster, no. 10. 

113. National American Woman Suffrage Association, Victory—How Women 

Won It: A Centennial Symposium, 1840-1940 (1940), p. 66. This work contains 

chapters by Carrie Chapman Catt and others. 

114. "Songs of the Suffragettes." Sung by Elizabeth Knight accompanied on 

die guitar by Sol Julty, Folkways Record Album No. F H 5281 (1958), with notes by 

Irwin Silber on "A Brief History of the Woman's Suffrage Movement." 

115. Compare "Columbia's Daughters" in "Songs of the Suffragettes" with 

"Hark! Th e Sound of Myriad Voices" in Booklet of Song, A Collection of Suffrage 

and Temperance Melodies, compiled by L. May Wheeler (1884), no. 1, pp. 20-21, 

from which the first verse and chorus are quoted. 

116. Booklet of Song, pp. 21-22; and Henry W. Roby, The Suffrage Song 

Book: Original Songs, Parodies and Paraphrases Adapted to Popular Melodies 

(1909), p. 10. 

117. O n Populist songs and Mrs. Lease, see Elizabeth N. Barr, "Th e Populist 

Uprising," in William E. Connelley, History of Kansas State and People (5 vols., 

1928), vol. 2, pp. 1165-1167; John D. Hicks, The Populist Revolt: A History of the 

Farmers' Alliance and the People's Party (1961; a reprint of Hicks's 1931 study), 

pp. 159-160, 167-170; John Greenway, American Folksongs of Protest (Perpetua 

edition, 1960), pp. 57-63, 210-211 ; W. G. Clugston, Rascals in Democracy (1940), 
5 4 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

pp. 91-95 ; and C S. White, The People's Songster for Campaign Purposes and a 

Jolly Time Generally (1892), p. 16. 

118. Quoted from Federal Writers' Project, More Farmers' Alliance Songs of 

the 1890's ("Nebraska Folklore," 30 pamphlets in 2 vols., 1937-1940), no. 20, p. 16. 

[Typewritten copy provided through courtesy of Mrs. Thelma I. Kuhl, assistant 

librarian, State Library of Nebraska. Since Mrs. Kuhl's death in 1967, the folklore 

pamphlets, together with the other historical materials in the state library, have been 

transferred to the Nebraska State Historical Society in Lincoln.] Th e "Howe " referred 

to in the chorus was undoubtedly Edgar Watson Howe (1853-1937), the publisher 

of The Atchison Globe. Howe, known as "Th e Sage of Potato Hill," viewed the 

Populists as more or less akin to cyclones and grasshoppers, and they returned the 

compliment. See Calder M. Pickett, Ed Howe: Country Town Philosopher (1968), 

pp. 116,117,120,131,132-133, 216. 

119. Wilbur Fisk Crafts, Song Victories of "The Bliss and Sankey Hymns" . . . 

(1877), p. 153, citing the report in "a missionary letter" that "Hold the Fort " had 

been heard in the Zulu language. 

120. Sing Out!, vol. 7 (summer 1957), p. 29. Quoted by permission of Sing Out! 

An earlier article by Alexander Walgren related, with some common errors of fact, 

"Th e Story of 'Hold the Fort' " (Sing Out!, vol. 5 [spring 1955], pp. 22-23). 

121. Philip S. Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States 

(4 vols., 1947-1965), vol. 2, pp. 60-61 , and p. 443 (note 18, citing S. W. Foss in 

Tid-Bits, undated clipping in Scrapbooks on Labor, New York Public Library). 

[Words used by permission of International Publishers, Inc.] Th e italics in which 

Foner sets the quoted verse have been dropped. Th e same verse and chorus are 

quoted, with very slight differences, in Foster Rhe a Dulles, Labor in America: A 

History (1955), p. 142; and the chorus alone is quoted in Edith Fowke and Joe 

Glazer, Songs of Work and Freedom (1960), p. 37. 

122. Fowke and Glazer, Songs of Work and Freedom, p. 37. 

123. Norman J. Ware, The Labor Movement in the United States, 1860-1895: 

A Study in Democracy (1929), pp. 68-69. 

124. Ware, Labor Movement in United States, pp. xi, 66, 371-373. 

125. Among the many writings on Joe Hill are Philip S. Foner's The Case of Joe 

Hill (1965), a highly sympathetic account that lists articles, plays, poems, and other 

items about Hill, some of which are unfavorable; and the same author's edition of 

The Letters of Joe Hill (1965) and his History of the Labor Movement in the United 

States, vol. 4, pp. 151-155, 455 (note). Othe r references: Tur e Nerman, Arbetarsdngaren Joe Hill, Mordare cller Martyr? (1951); Barrie Stavis, The Man Who 

Never Died; A Play about Joe Hill with Notes on Joe Hill and His Times (1954) ; 

Ralph Chaplin, Wobbly, the Rough and Tumble Story of an American Radical (1948), 

passim; George Hardy, Those Stormy Years: Memories of the Fight for Freedom on 

Five Continents (1956), passim; Patrick Renshaw, The Wobblies: The Story of Syndicalism in the United States (1967), passim; and Melvyn Dubofsky, We Shall Be 

All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World (1969), passim. For the words 

and music of the song "Joe Hill," together with some historical notes, see Fowke and 

Glazer, Songs of Work and Freedom, pp. 20-21. O n its use at the Reuthe r funeral 
NUMBER 9 55 

and memorial service, see Jerry M. Flint, "Reuthe r Praised in Funeral Rites; Old 

Ballad Ends Service for U.A.W. Chief and Wife," The New York Times, 16 May 

1970, p. 25; " 'They Mad e Us Better People,' " UAW Solidarity, vol. 13, June 1970 

(memorial issue), p. 14; and "A Memorial Service for Walter and May Reuther, 

Friday, May 22, 1970, Washington Cathedral, Mount Saint Alban, Washington, D.C. " 

126. John G. T. Spink, Judge Landis and Twenty-Five Years of Baseball (1947), 

p. 1. "Kenesaw" was a common misspelling of Kennesaw during the Civil Wa r and 

afterward. 

127. See Renshaw, The Wobblies, pp. 215-271; Dubofsky, We Shall Be All, pp. 

423-444, 472; Hardy, Those Stormy Years, pp. 85-122; the decision of the United 

States Circuit Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit, in Haywood et al. v. U.S., 268 F. 795; the 

United States Supreme Court's refusal to issue a writ of certiorari in the Haywood 

case, 256 U.S. 689; and "Ralph H. Chaplin of IW W Is Dead, " The New York Times, 

29 March 1961, p. 33. 

128. See also Ralph H. Chaplin, When the Leaves Come Out and other Rebel 

Verses (1917), and his Somewhat Barbaric: A Selection of Poems, Lyrics and Sonnets 

(1944). 

129. Quoted from Songs of the Workers: On the- Road, in the Jungles, and in the 

Shops (14th edition, April 1918) by permission of Industrial Workers of the World, 

Carl Keller, general secretary-treasurer, Chicago, Illinois. Th e words appear opposite 

the frontispiece—a photograph of Joe Hill. 

130. Upton Sinclair, Singing Jailbirds: A Drama in Four Acts (1924), pp. 5, 6, 

10, 87-95. 

131. Th e formal title of this (15th) edition of "Th e Little Red Song Book" is 

the same as that of the 14th edition, cited as Songs of the Workers in note 129, above. 

132. For complete words see Songs of the Workers (15th edition, 1919), pp. 

16-17. Verses are quoted by permission of Industrial Workers of the World, Carl 

Keller, general secretary-treasurer, Chicago, Illinois. 

133. Th e 1919 IW W program is reproduced in Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology, edited by Joyce L. Kornbluh (1964), p. 330. Information concerning the 

publication of the modern labor version of "Hold the Fort" in the 28th (1945) edition 

of "Th e Little Red Song Book" is contained in a letter (enclosing the words of the 

song) from William R. Morgan of the general library, University of Michigan, 

Ann Arbor, to Scheips, 1 May 1956. 

134. Quotation from Songs of the Workers to Fan the Flames of Discontent (31st 

edition, May 1964, p. 33) by permission of Industrial Workers of the World, Carl 

Keller, general secretary-treasurer, Chicago, Illinois. Th e title of this edition of Songs 

of the Workers is slightly different from that of the 1918 edition, which is cited in note 

129, above. Some planning for a new edition of "Th e Little Red Song Book" had been 

accomplished by early 1969 for publication upon exhaustion of the existing supply 

of the old edition (letter, Keller to Scheips, 12 February 1969). On the history of this 

famous little songbook, whose first edition carried "Hold the Fort," see Richard 

Brazier, "Th e Story of the IWW s 'Little Red Songbook,' " Labor History, vol. 9 

(winter 1968), pp. 91-105. Brazier was a member of the committee that collected and 

published the first (1909) edition in Spokane, Washington, under the inspiration of 
5 6 SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 

J. H. Walsh. The songbook was preceded by a four-page song card, which sold for 5 

cents and which included "Hold the Fort" along with "The Red Flag" and "The 

Marseillaise." 

135. Schneider, in Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, vol. 13, p. 366. 

136. Letter to Scheips, 31 July 1959. 

137. Schneider, in Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, vol. 13, p. 366. 

138. See Nason, American Evangelists, pp. 104, 108, 111, 113, 117-118, 123; 

and Daniels, Moody, pp. 48-49. These references do not necessarily controvert the 

view that the middle classes provided Moody's chief stronghold but they do indicate 

that Moody was not inattentive to the masses. 

139. See V. L. Allen, Trade Union Leadership Based on a Study of Arthur 

Deakin (1957). 

140. Letter, McCullough to Scheips, 31 May 1956, and, as enclosed therein, a 

copy of a letter from Colonel Archer Wiggins, editor-in-chief, The Salvation Army, 

International Headquarters, London, to McCullough, 14 July 1955. 

141. Letter, McCullough to Scheips, 31 May 1956. 

142. Letters from Joe Glazer, education director, United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum, and Plastic Workers of America, AFL-CIO, to Scheips, 27 January and 18 June 

1959. Glazer stated that he had "no idea" where Bliss got the tune for his song. 

143. Footnote to verses and choruses of "Hold the Fort" in a mimeographed 

book of labor songs compiled by Edith Berkowitz, probably for the International 

Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU). [This book, with cover and title page 

missing, was loaned to the author by his union friend and colleague Vincent H. 

Demma, to whom he is also indebted for the loan of several other ephemeral old 

labor song books used in this study.] On the 1928 Paterson, New Jersey, strike, see 

The New York Times, 3, 4, 10, 11, 12 October and 6 November 1928, pages 53, 19, 

1, 56, 27, and 3, respectively. 

144. Rebel Song Book: Eighty-Seven Socialist and Labor Songs for Voice and 

Piano, compiled and edited by Samuel H. Friedman, with music edited by Dorothy 

Bachman (1935) ; and Labor Songs, compiled and edited by Zilphia Horton (about 

1939). The latter work also includes "The Steel Workers' Battle Hymn," dedicated 

to John L. Lewis, with words by W. H. Crawford, and sung to the tune of "Hold the 

Fort." 

145. UAW-CIO Songs (cited in letter from Morgan to Scheips, 1 May 1956) ; 

Dixie Union Songs (mimeographed, no date) ; Everybody Sings (1942) ; Let's Sing! 

(2nd edition, no date) ; and Songs of the Workers (cited in note 134, above). 

146. This undated album was distributed by the CIO department of education 

and research, Washington, D.C. The words are printed on the inside of the back 

cover. [Tom Glazer is not related to Joe Glazer.] 

147. The full title of the album by the Almanac Singers is The Original "Talking 

Union" with the Almanac Singers and other Union Songs with Peter Seeger and 

Chorus (Folkways FH 5285, undated). Songs for Victory are in Asch Album 346 

(undated). These albums are listed in Fowke and Glazer, Songs of Work and 

Freedom, pp. 204, 205, and in Greenway, American Folksongs of Protest, p. 317. 

148. CIO Song Book (revised edition, 1954); Amalgamated Song Book (1958?) ; 
NUMBER 9 57 

and AFL-CIO Song Book (6th printing, undated). Th e latter is a slightly revised 

edition of the old CIO Song Book. 

149. Fowke and Glazer, Songs of Work and Freedom, pp. 36-37. Probably inadvertently, Bliss's name is given as Philip H. Bliss. 

150. As quoted in and paraphrased from " 'Troubadour of Labor' Sees Passing 

of Singing Worker for Hu m of Motor, " The Washington Post Times Herald, 20 May 

1961, p. A3. 

151. " 'Troubadour of Labor,' " The Washington Post Times Herald, 20 May 

1961, p. A3 ; Nicholas Gage, "Farm Workers Union Puts Its Own Show on Road 

Raising Funds, " Wall Street Journal, 19 July 1967; Henry Santiestevan, "El Teatro 

Campesino—Right Off the Picket Lines" and "Delano—A New Harvest for Migrants," IUD Agenda, vol. 3 (February 1967), pp. 16-17, 22; Bill Boyarsky, "Pacts 

Bring Labor Peace to Vineyards at Delano," The Washington Post Times Herald, 30 

July 1970, p. A9 ; and Steven V. Roberts, "Chavez and His Grape Workers 'Overcome,' " The New York Times, 2 August 1970, sec. 4, p. 2. 

152. O n "We Shall Overcome," see "The Talk of the Town" in The New 

Yorker, vol. 41 (27 March 1965), pp. 37-38, and the recording by Joan Baez (with 

commentary by Harry Fleischman, together with the words) in the United Automobile 

Workers album This Land Is Your Land: Songs of Social Justice (produced in 1964 

by Joel O'Brien Productions, Inc., and UA W education department), no. 9. For the 

words and music of the labor version, "We Will Overcome," together with historical 

notes, see Fowke and Glazer, Songs of Work and Freedom, pp. 33-34. 

153. Letter, Glazer to Scheips, 2 December 1959. For words and music of these 

more popular songs, together with notes about them, see Fowke and Glazer, Songs of 

Work and Freedom, pp. 12-13, 38-39, 44-45. 

154. As quoted in and paraphrased from David Anderson, "Washington Sq. 

May Day Rally Turns into a Battle of Singers," The New York Times, 2 May 1961, 

p. 16. 

155. O n Joe Glazer and his songs, see Fowke and Glazer, Songs of Work and 

Freedom, passim; Greenway, American Folksongs of Protest, pp. 302-309; and 

Michael Kernan, "Glazer's Songs Still Work for Labor," The Washington Post Times 

Herald, 1 Ma y 1970, pp. CI, C2. 

156. Telephone interview with Glazer in Washington, D.C , 19 December 1967. 

157. Fowke and Glazer, Songs of Work and Freedom, pp. 10, 37. 

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