![]() Primarily a vocal instructor, Root eventually began composing, writing in the classical genre. Root recalled years later, "From there the song went into the army, and the testimony in regard to its use in the camp and on the march, and even on the field of battle, from soldiers and officers, up to the good President himself, made me thankful that if I could not shoulder a musket in defense of my country I could serve her in this way."Ī Massachusetts native, Root had shown remarkable musical abilities from an early age, mastering no fewer than thirteen instruments by the age of 12. Heaps, writing in The Singing Sixties, call "The Battle Cry of Freedom" `the type of rousing tune which appears seldom during a period of war and but once in a generation."Ĭomposed in haste in a single day in response to President Abraham Lincoln's July 1862 call for 300,000 volunteers to fill the shrinking ranks of the Union Army, the song was first performed on July 24 and again on July 26 at a massive war rally.
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