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 Pau l J. Scheips SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS City of Washington 1971 S E R I A L P U B L I C A T I O N S OF T H E S M I T H S O N I A N I N S T I T U T I O N The emphasis upon publications as a means of diffusing knowledge was expressed by the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In his formal plan for the Insti? tution, Joseph Henry articulated a program that included the following statement: "It is proposed to publish a series of reports, giving an account of the new discoveries in science, and of the changes made from year to year in all branches of knowledge." This keynote of basic research has been adhered to over the years in the issuance of thousands of titles in serial publications under the Smithsonian imprint, com? mencing with Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge in 1848 and continuing with the following active series: Smithsonian Annals of Flight Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology Smithsonian Contributions to Astrophysics Smithsonian Contributions to Botany Smithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology In these series, the Institution publishes original articles and monographs dealing with the research and collections of its several museums and offices and of profes? sional colleagues at other institutions of learning. These papers report newly acquired facts, synoptic interpretations of data, or original theory in specialized fields. These publications are distributed by mailing lists to libraries, laboratories, and other in? terested institutions and specialists throughout the world. Individual copies may be obtained from the Smithsonian Institution Press as long as stocks are available. S. DILLON RIPLEY Secretary Smithsonian Institution Official publication date is handstamped in a limited number of initial copies and is recorded in the Institution's annual report, Smithsonian Year. UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1971 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price $1.25 cents (paper cover) 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 account- to 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 car? toon 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 en? couragement: 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, A F L - C I O ; 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 i i i COVER: Signal Corpsman sends message from Kennesaw Mountain, 5 October 1864, as General Sherman points to beleaguered Allatoona in the distance. (Library of Con? gress photo of color illustration by H. A. Ogden in Benson J. Lossing, History of the Civil War, 1912.) HILI THE FORT! T H E S T O R Y O F A S O N G F R O M T H E S A W D U S T T R A I L T O T H E P I C K E T L I N 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 A U T H O R : 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 " H O L D T H E FORT" grew out of the Civil War Battle of Allatoona on 5 October 1864, the last action in the vicinity of Atlanta.1 More particu? larly, it grew out of a report of one or more messages wigwagged from Kennesaw Mountain, north of Atlanta, as Confederate forces of Lieuten? ant General John J3. Hood moved to cut the communications of Major General William T. Sherman along the line of the Western & Atlan? tic 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 sub? ordinate, 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 Alla? toona 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 Octo? ber 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 Alla? toona. 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 evi? dently received this message in due time, although its transmission was delayed by fog. In any case, because of related instructions and his knowl? edge of troop dispositions, the Vandever message was perfectly clear to Corse.7 Major General William Te- cumseh Sherman. (Photo from United States Army Signal Corps negative in Na? tional 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 War Depar tment 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 Ten? nessee. 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 distin? guished 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 approxi? mating folk status. It was preceded in 1866 by Caroline Stickney's long narrative poem, "The Flag that Talks," of which the following are repre? sentative 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 cur? tain?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 Alla? toona 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 num? ber) 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 cur? tain 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 Fri? day, 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 re? called 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 Gen? eral 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 Con? federate 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 Con? gregational 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 moral? izing 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 hold? ing 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 pro? fessionally and financially successful, earning as much as $100' for a four- day 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 all- absorbing 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 Chi? cago 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 signal? men 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~ fz Hi : 3 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 esti? mate of Bliss, observed in 1891 that Bliss's "musical training and experi? ence 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-^A- Hold the fort, for com - ing, Je BUS big nals still, * NtW- 1 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.' :S-~ ^- I =? ? r ? = P =E " ? ? ? 1 Wave the aa - swer back to heav en,? " By thy grace, we ^ EE ?zi 1. i 3 = if m 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, joyous- ness, 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 re? ligious 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, Wil? liam 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 Mc- Kinley, 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 com? parable only to that under the preaching of Wesley and Whitefield." In 1875, in London alone, according to one report, they held 285 meet? ings 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 com? mentator, 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-and- by" 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, how? ever, 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 con? siderable misgivings, for organs and "human hymns" long had been for? bidden 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 ap? pear 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 re? vivalists. 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 fare? well to England from the deck of the Spain at Liver? pool, 1875. (Library of Con? gress photo.) through an open window as Sankey sang it in another building and, prob? ably 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 con? ferred 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 York- ville," 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 mem? ber of . . . parliament." When the congregation joined in the chorus "it was heard blocks away." At that time Sankey was en route to Switzer? land 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 trade- union movement, as it did the cause of labor in the United States. Mean? while, 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 taber? nacle?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 tem? perance 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 illustra? tion 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 meet? ings 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 neverthe? less 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 way? faring 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. I D 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 entertain? ments. 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 tread? ing out a wild, weird and majestic accompa? niment 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 ! What 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. San? key'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 concealed- Unhappy Tourjee 1 His fate is hard- hr. Saufcejj ut actum,, 1 know exactly why Sankey lifts been a suc? cess. 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 un? like 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 mis? took 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 Blooil- good 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 Bee? thoven 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