Just Before the Battle, Mother  

Composer George F. Root
Lyricist George F. Root
Year Published 1864
Type Soldiering Life
Playing Time  
Comments There is more mournful pathos in Dr. Root's "Just Before the Battle, Mother", than any other of the thirty or more songs he composed. The song whose sentiment was truly pathetic had a mission in the army as well as a song of humor. Dr. Root wrote for almost all the varied circumstances caused by war, and was written for all time as well. There is always a war, a conflict, a battle, a triumph, a blessing somewhere, and Dr. Root caught its melody and gave it life.

Notes from Bill Warren, SNGSTR10.SAM
  In "Just Before the Battle, Mother," one of the most widely sung songs of the war, Root takes the opportunity to inveigh against Northern Copperheads:

Tell the traitors all around you,
That their cruel words we know,
In every battle kill our soldiers,
By the help they give the foe.

Root, apparently, had also been reading his press notices when he wrote "Just Before the Battle" in 1862, for his reference to "Battle Cry of Freedom" came as a result of numerous reports to the effect that the song was actually sung by troops marching into battle.

Surprisingly enough, the song was also popular in the South, where it was sung as written, including the reference to "The Battle Cry of Freedom." Early in the war, Christy's Minstrels brought the song to England where it became immensely popular; so popular, in fact, that the English could not believe that a "foreigner" had written it.

Songs of the Civil War, pg.'s 121-122