The Good Old Songs We Used to Sing, '61 to '65

In the smoke-filled camps andfield hospitals of the American Civil War, soldiers sang. They sang to lift their spirits before battle, to mourn their fallen comrades, to remember home. This collection preserves those voices across time, gathering the lyrics to songs that once rang through Union camps and Northern parlors between 1861 and 1865. Osborn H. Oldroyd, himself a soldier who marched with the Union Army, compiled these pieces with urgency and reverence, knowing how quickly such music could vanish without someone to catch it. Here are the anthems of a nation at war with itself: "Battle Hymn of the Republic," with its thundering prophecy of justice, the bittersweet longing of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," and the brutal celebratory march of "Marching Through Georgia." Each lyric is accompanied by brief context, illuminating when a song was born and why it mattered to those who sang it. What emerges is not merely a historical document but a fragile, living connection to Americans who lived, died, and endured through the war that nearly tore the nation apart. This is the music they carried in their hearts.