Hold the Fort!
Cover: Signal Corpsman sends message from Kennesaw Mountain, 5 October 1864, as General Sherman points to beleaguered Allatoona in the distance. (Library of Congress photo of color illustration by H. A. Ogden in Benson J. Lossing, History of the Civil War, 1912.)
SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY • NUMBER 9
THE STORY OF A SONG FROM THE SAWDUST TRAIL
TO THE PICKET LINE
by
Paul J. Scheips
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS
City of Washington
1971
THE STORY OF A SONG FROM THE SAWDUST TRAIL
TO THE PICKET LINE
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.
The Author: 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."
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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)
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
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