What is origin of song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again"?

Question

I believe this song was written during the Civil War. Not sure if it was designed for the Union or Confederate soldiers. Some of the words are: "When Johnny comes marching home again/hurrah, hurrah/We'll give him a hearty welcome then/hurrah, hurrah...."

Answer 1

The story of "When Johnny comes Marching Home" is also the story of Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore. Gilmore, an 1848 Irish immigrant to Boston, was considered by no less a musician than John Philip Sousa as the "Father of the American Band."

Gilmore led a number of bands in the Boston area, including Patrick Gilmore's Band. At the beginning of the Civil War, in September 1861, the band enlisted as a group in the Union Army and was attached to the 24th Massachusetts Infantry. Gilmore's band served both as musicians and stretcher bearers at such horrific battles as Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Richmond. Gilmore was posted to occupied New Orleans, Louisiana in 1863 and, as Grand Master of the Union Army, ordered to reorganize the state military bands. It was at this time that he claimed to have composed the words and music to "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."

"When Johnny Comes Marching Home" bears a remarkable similarity of the melody of the Irish song "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye," which might be considered a protest song in the vein of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" The Irish song concerns conscription into the British Army

Where are your legs that used to run, huroo, huroo,
Where are your legs that used to run, huroo, huroo,
Where are your legs that used to run when first you went for to carry a gun?
Alas, your dancing days are done, och, Johnny, I hardly knew ye.

When Johnny comes marching home again, hurrah, hurrah.
[between 1965 and 1975].
Prints and Photographs Division

It is possible that this air was written before Gilmore's "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" and that Gilmore unconsciously might have borrowed from it. For his part, Gilmore claimed that he had adapted an African-American spiritual.

Sheet music for "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" was first published by Henry Tolman and Company of Boston in 1863 and bore the dedication "To the Army and Navy of the Union." Gilmore published the song under the pseudonym Louis Lambert, although the title page also read "as introduced by Gilmore's Band."

During his tenure in New Orleans Gilmore showed himself to be not only a skilled musician but an extraordinary showman. He organized a musical extravaganza, with 500 musicians and 5,000 or more school children, many from Confederate families, and staged a monumental concert in that city's Lafayette Square. After the war Gilmore's flair for amassing large groups of musicians in spectacular productions reemerged. Perhaps sick of war's tragedy Gilmore organized a National Peace Jubilee in 1869 that featured over 1,000 instrumentalists and 10,000 singers. In 1872 he presented an even larger World Peace Jubilee with 2,000 instrumentalists and 20,000 vocalists, including the composer Johann Strauss and his orchestra. During this extravaganza Gilmore made use of an electrically controlled cannon and one hundred Boston firemen to pound out Verdi's Anvil Chorus on real anvils!

Gilmore's "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" became popular with northerners and southerners alike. Years later, in 1939, one child of the Civil War era remembered:

The songs we sang were all patriotic. My niece Mary Hill, or Mollie, as we called her, but two years younger than I, was a little songbird. She learned all the popular songs of the day and was ready to sing on any occasion. "Dixie Land" was one of her favorites. She earned the pet name of "Dixie" by this song. Other songs that were sung in school entertainments were "When Johnny comes marching home again," [and] "On the field of battle, mother."

-- Mrs. Hortense Applegate, February 21, 1939
American Life Histories: 1936-1940

The song also gave rise to many a parody. The best known was the Confederate parody "For Bales." Union soldiers sang about Generals such as Burnside, McClellan and Mead in a parody titled "Boys of the Potomac"and northerners disgruntled by taxes, conscription and inflation sang "Johnny, Fill up the Bowl." During the Spanish American War in 1898, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" reached new heights of popularity.

Answer 2

When Johnny Comes Marching Home

To the Army & Navy of the Union.
"When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (1863)
Music introduced in the Soldier's Return March
by Gilmore's Band
Words by "Louis Lambert" aka Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore
Music from an Old Irish Folk Song

When Johnny comes marching home again,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
We'll give him a hearty welcome then,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The men will cheer, the boys will shout,
The ladies they will all turn out,
And we'll all feel gay
When Johnny comes marching home.

The old church bells will peal with joy,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
To welcome home our darling boy,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The village lads and lassies say
With roses they will strew the way,
And we'll all feel gay
When Johnny comes marching home.

Get ready for the Jubilee,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
We'll give the hero three times three,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The laurel wreath is ready now
To place upon his loyal brow,
And we'll all feel gay
When Johnny comes marching home.


Let love and friendship on that day,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
Their choicest treasures then display,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
And let each one perform some part
To fill with joy the warrior's heart,
And we'll all feel gay
When Johnny comes marching home.

Answer 3

“Johnny” why “Johnny”? There is a reason that the Irish and others picked that common name, often “Johnny” as it ensured better “sales” of the music sheets. Folks could identify with the name. That simple besides there was a tradition of Johnny in war songs as we see. Johnny, I hardly knew you. With drums and guns arid guns and drums, The enemy nearly slew ye, bears a strong resemblance to “When Johnny Comes Marching Home This song was not as popular; it is Irish and dates to say 1790’s. But it can be taken a source. JOHNNY HAS GONE FOR A SOLDIER 1776: A Revolutionary War Song O Johnny dear ... O my heart is sad and weary today, I'll sell my clock, I'll sell my reel, I'll sell my flax and spinning wheel, To buy my true love a sword of steel, Johnny has gone for a soldier. Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier,” for example, was based on an old Irish folk song, the doleful “Shule Aroon” But “Planxty Creagh” an Irish Air is a closer match, to “When Johnny comes marching home” and probably the “root” of “I hardly knew you”, that is just trivia. “Tonalic” is correct. -

Answer 4

"When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (sometimes "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again") is a song of the American Civil War that expressed people's longing for the return of their friends and relatives who were fighting in the war.

The tune is that of the Irish antiwar song "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye", generally presumed to be the original, although no published version is known to pre-date "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again" [1]. The same tune is used for the children's songs "The Ants Go Marching One By One" and also "The Animals Went in Two by Two". The lyrics, written by Irish-American bandleader Patrick Gilmore, effectively reverse those of the original, in which Johnny returns home blind and crippled, to the woman he abandoned in order to join the army. The larcenous tendencies of the Union soldiers in New Orleans were parodied in the Confederate lyrics, "For Bales", to the same tune.

Answer 5

This is generally credited to the Union Army bandmaster, Patrick S. Gilmore, who wrote it in 1863. It is similar to the Irish song Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye (a tale of a maimed soldier returning from war). Which version came first is debated.

Answer 6

Song originated from the USA Civil War

Answer 7

http://www.instantknowledgenews.com/johnny.htm