— Ch. 1 · Henry Clay Work Biography —
Marching Through Georgia.
~6 min read · Ch. 1 of 7
Henry Clay Work stood at the counter of a Chicago music shop in 1861. He held a manuscript titled Kingdom Coming and wore a dark jacket over his shirt. The man behind the counter was George F. Root, director of the firm Root & Cady. Work had been a printer by trade since his youth but found true passion in composing songs. His first published song appeared in 1853 when he was twenty-one years old. Eight years later, the American Civil War broke out and changed his life forever. Root hired him immediately after hearing the new composition. Work remained employed there throughout the entire conflict. He wrote twenty-nine songs between 1861 and 1865 to document the Union struggle. These works communicated feelings of Northern civilians more than any other songwriter of that era. Some pieces carried anti-slavery sentiments stemming from his upbringing on the Underground Railroad.
Shermans March To The Sea
Sixty-two thousand troops gathered outside Atlanta in November 1864. Major General William T. Sherman led them toward the coastal city of Savannah. They departed on the 15th day of that month to begin their journey. Minor skirmishes occurred along the route before two notable engagements took place at Griswoldville and Fort McAllister. The army entered Savannah on December 21, ending the campaign. Destruction followed every step as soldiers scavenged land for food and resources. Public buildings and infrastructure lay waste behind them. This strategy aimed to persuade Southerners that continuing the war held no value. Over fourteen thousand enslaved people joined Union troops with brisk enthusiasm once they passed near their native plantations. The march crippled the Southern economy by approximately one hundred million dollars. Richard D. Goff described it as knocking the Confederate war effort to pieces. Civilians whose territory was ravaged grew so appalled that their will to fight dissipated.Lyrical And Musical Analysis
A Union soldier sings from a first-person perspective about the campaign he witnessed. Five stanzas and a refrain make up the entire composition. The first stanza begins with a rallying cry for Sherman's troops despite historical records showing over sixty thousand participants rather than the fifty thousand mentioned in lyrics. The chorus symbolizes the end of African American servitude and the advent of freedom. A retelling of Southern Unionists' celebration defines the third stanza where they weep with joyful tears upon seeing the honor'd flag again. The fourth stanza carries a comedic tone as Confederates who scoffed at the campaign see themselves proven wrong. The final stanza celebrates success after treason fled before resistance proved vain. The song sits in common time within the key of B flat major. It commences with a four-bar introduction following a chord progression of B flat, E flat, B flat, F seven, then back to B flat. Each verse and chorus spans eight bars long. A soloist sings individual stanzas while a joint choir accompanies the voice during the chorus. Work wrote no expression markings or dynamics throughout except a fortissimo marking at the start of the chorus. Original sheet music provides piano accompaniment to be performed alongside the vocal line.