McPherson described the surrender of General Robert E. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. It may actually be the best ever published." Editions Writing for The New York Times, Brogan described it as ".the best one-volume treatment of its subject I have ever come across. It spent 16 weeks on The New York Times hardcover bestseller list with an additional 12 weeks on the paperback list. The book was an immediate commercial and critical success, an unexpected achievement for a 900-page narrative. For Northerners, their fight was to sustain the government established by the Constitution with its guaranties of rights and liberties." Reception For Southerners, the Revolution was a war of secession from the tyranny of the British Empire, just as their war was a war of secession from Yankee tyranny.
In an interview, McPherson claimed: "Both sides in the Civil War professed to be fighting for the same 'freedoms' established by the American Revolution and the Constitution their forefathers fought for in the Revolution-individual freedom, democracy, a republican form of government, majority rule, free elections, etc. McPherson sees to it that it steals up on his readers in the same way." Ī central concern of this work is the multiple interpretations of freedom. Slowly, slowly the remote possibility became horrible actuality and Mr. So it must have seemed to most Americans at the time. Historian Hugh Brogan, reviewing the book, commends McPherson for initially describing "the republic at midcentury" as "a divided society, certainly, and a violent one, but not one in which so appalling a phenomenon as civil war is likely. Thus, it examined the Civil War era, not just the war, as it combined the social, military and political events of the period within a single narrative framework. His greatest composition “The Battle Cry of Freedom” continues to inspire American patriots and has been acknowledged as one of the most great freedom songs of all time.Battle Cry of Freedom covers two decades, the period from the outbreak of the Mexican–American War to the Civil War's ending at Appomattox. In his later life, he was instrumental in founding the New York Normal Institute dedicated to the training of music instructors. Root continued working for Root & Cady after the war and in 1872, the University of Chicago awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Music. Other songs composed during this time: “Just Before the Battle, Mother”, “Just After the Battle”, “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp”, “On, On, On the Boys Came Marching” and “The Vacant Chair”. In 1863, he composed “The First Gun is Fired” and then in 1864 the anthem of the Civil War, “The Battle Cry of Freedom” was published. Influenced by the Civil War, Root’s music shifted from popular standards to war songs. In 1959, he moved the family to Chicago to join his older brothers publishing company, Root & Cady. Dana (“Free As a Bird”), Frances Jane Crosby (“There’s Music in the Air”) and Rev.
His first successful composition came in 1853 with “The Hazel Dell” and in 1855 another success was published with “Rosalie, The Prairie Flower.”įrom 1853-1858, Root lived in New York collaborating with other songwriters such as Mary S.
Friedrich Wurzel (a German word meaning “Root”). Root began working as a songwriter for minstrel songs in 1851 under the pseudonym G. Returning to the states he began assisting Lowell Mason at Boston’s Academy of Music. That same year he met and married Mary Olive Woodman and the couple had six children, Frederick, Charles, Clara Louise, Arabella, May and Nellie.Īs a respected musician, Root toured Europe in the year 1850. In 1845, he moved to New York City where he played the organ at the Church of the Strangers and taught music at the Abbott Institute for Young Ladies. George Frederick Root was born on Augin Sheffield, Massachusetts.Īs a young boy growing up in Boston, Root was trained on the piano by George J.