Although George Root's famous "The Battle Cry of Freedom was originally written as a rallying song for the Union and its supporters, it was nevertheless popular with Confederate troops as well, who wrote their own "Southside" verses.

The MIDI that accompanies this song was made for the Civil War Poetry and Music Home Page by James Farris Chumbley, Web musician and 19th Century music interpreter extraordinaire. It follows very closely but is not identical to the original score as written by George F. Root. Jim expresses his surprise at how dissonant some of the accompaniment is, since such dissonance is usually characteristic of music written a half century after this piece, but his careful examination of the score revealed that Root did, indeed, score it as he has played it.

This piece was set in Finale 3.5 after the composer's original score with slight alterations for acoustical grand computer by Jim, to whom I am enormously grateful for his hard work and his magnificent musical abilities.




"The Battle Cry of Freedom" (Southern version)