Marching Through Georgia
| Composer | Henry Clay Work |
| Lyricist | Henry Clay Work |
| Year Published | 1865 |
| Type | Soldiering Life |
| Comments | "Georgia" was written shortly after General Sherman began his
famous march to the sea about the 16th of November, 1864. Mr. Work wrote some splendid
army songs, but his reputation will rest on "Marching Through Georgia." So
universal in its use was "Georgia" that General Sherman heard it with supreme
disgust. It pursued him from city to city, and from state to state, and in all the great
cities of Europe in which he was received. When the General attended the national
encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic in Boston in 1890, he saw from the reviewing
stand two hundred and fifty bands, and a hundred fife and drum corps pass in review; and
the old warrior stood for seven mortal hours listening to the never ending strains of the
music which commemorates the most triumph march of modern times. His patience collapsed,
and with a grim gravity, peculiar to him, and in language too emphatic for repetition
here, he declared that he would never attend another national encampment until every band
in the United States has signed an agreement not to play "Marching Through
Georgia" in his presence. This was Sherman's last encampment, and when the tune was
next played in his presence, six months after, "there came no response from the
echoless shore to which his soul had wafted." Notes from Bill Warren, SNGSTR11.SAM |