Video: We are Coming, Father Abraham

On July 1, 1862, Lincoln put out a call for 300,000 more volunteer soldiers to fight in the Union army. Quaker abolitionist James Sloan Gibbons quickly wrote the poem "We Are Coming Father Abra'am (300,000 More)," which was printed in the New York Evening Post on July 16. Several composers just as quickly set the poem to music, including Stephen Foster and L.O. Emerson. The Emerson version is the most famous.

The video begins with a brief historical monologue. The song begins at about 1:30. It is performed by Frederick Fennell & the Eastman Wind Ensemble, and apparently is an accurate rendition of how the song would have been performed in 1862.

WE ARE COMING, FATHER ABRAHAM Words by James Sloan Gibbons Music L.O. Emerson

We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 more,
From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's shore.
We leave our plows and workshops, our wives and children dear,
With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear.
We dare not look behind us but steadfastly before.
We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 more!

CHORUS: We are coming, we are coming our Union to restore,
We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 more!

If you look across the hilltops that meet the northern sky,
Long moving lines of rising dust your vision may descry;
And now the wind, an instant, tears the cloudy veil aside,
And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in pride;
And bayonets in the sunlight gleam, and bands brave music pour,
We are coming, father Abr'am, three hundred thousand more!

CHORUS

If you look up all our valleys where the growing harvests shine,
You may see our sturdy farmer boys fast forming into line;
And children from their mother's knees are pulling at the weeds ,
And learning how to reap and sow against their country's needs;
And a farewell group stands weeping at every cottage door,
We are coming, Father Abr'am, three hundred thousand more!

CHORUS

You have called us, and we're coming by Richmond's bloody tide,
To lay us down for freedom's sake, our brothers' bones beside;
Or from foul treason's savage group, to wrench the murderous blade;
And in the face of foreign foes its fragments to parade.
Six hundred thousand loyal men and true have gone before,
We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 more!

CHORUS