The First Gun Is Fired

Original 1861 sheet music cover of "The First Gun Is Fired" by Root & Cady

"The First Gun Is Fired, May God Protect the Right" is a patriotic song written and composed by George Frederick Root in 1861. A response to the attack on Fort Sumter, it is the first song of the American Civil War. It called for "the freeborn sons of the North [to] arise" and "bow no more to the tyrant few."

Prior to the war's onset, Root was already a established musician. He left his mark in nurturing American music education and composing homespun, popular songs that distinctly appealed to the masses. In 1860, Root moved to Chicago to work at Root & Cady, a leading American music store. He would later become its director. Root wrote about topical subjects. When the Civil War broke out, his populist approach to music duly translated into a rousing rallying song, "The First Gun Is Fired".

Published on April 15, the tune met little commercial success. However, it would herald the most successful songwriting career of the Civil War. Root produced the most wartime songs—chief among them, "The Battle Cry of Freedom", the Union's rallying song, and "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!". He even earned praise from President Abraham Lincoln for his service.

Background

Root as a songwriter

George Frederick Root in 1860, best known for "The Battle Cry of Freedom" and other Unionist compositions

According to writer George Birdseye, Root is a worthy successor to Stephen Foster as the "songwriter of America." Early on, he recognized his musical talent and desired to cultivate it. He left the farm to the big city, Boston, at age eighteen. Root did not have a direct career path to follow yet. However, an opportunity was conferred upon him by A. N. Johnson, a successful organist and music teacher. Johnson was pleased with Root’s talent, offering him a permanent position in his music school. Root quickly managed to make a living. Five years following the partnership’s start, Root was persuaded to move to New York City by Jacob Abbott, principal at Abbott’s Institute (a school). He thereby started providing music lessons at other private institutions, such as Springler's and Rutger's. His first appreciable venture into songwriting was "The Hazel Dell". The tune was so successful that the publishing house, William Hall & Son, promptly signed him up for an exclusive three-year contract. In 1853, Root helped found the Normal Musical Institute, a music teachers' convention of sorts. At the time, he was still, primarily, a music teacher, but the passion for songwriting demanded that he spend more time on independent creations.

In 1860, he became a partner of Root & Cady; his entry "immediately effected an increase of business and popularity to an already well-established house." Root's greatest contributions, and those that reaped most reward, were his Civil War-era songs. In Birdseye’s words, they "both fired and solaced the Northern heart during that war." He composed over thirty war songs, and rivalled even Stephen Foster in terms of popularity. Root published over two hundred songs.

Outbreak of war

The attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, which ignited the American Civil War

Secession.

The most critical situation existed at Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, which was occupied by a small federal garrison under the command of Maj. Gen. Robert Anderson. On his first day in office, however, President Abraham Lincoln learned that Anderson had just sent a letter indicating that he was nearly out of food. Anderson estimated that he could hold out for at most six weeks, after which he would have no alternative but to surrender. By now the American flag flying over Fort Sumter had become a symbol of the North's—and Lincoln's—claim that the Union remained unbroken. Uncertain of his options, Lincoln consulted Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott, the army's commander, who concurred with Anderson's assessment that it was impossible to reinforce the fort. The cabinet convened on March 9, and again on the 15th, to discuss the situation. At the second meeting, only Montgomery Blair unambiguously favored holding Fort Sumter. Secretary of State William Seward, in particular, urged that it be abandoned.

But Lincoln, who was under growing popular pressure to take action, could not bring himself to abandon the fort, a move which, he later contended, "would be our national destruction consummated." Instead, he sought other ways to deal with the crisis. He ordered that troops be landed at Fort Pickens, off Pensacola Harbor, Florida, in a display of federal determination (only later did he learn that this order and a subsequent one were not carried out). When Gustavus V. Fox, a former naval officer and brother-in-law of Blair, proposed trying to resupply Anderson using a small fleet, Lincoln withheld judgment and sent Fox to Charleston to survey the situation. Fox returned to Washington convinced that his plan would work. The time had come for a decision, and, after a sleepless night, Lincoln assembled the cabinet on March 29 to consider the situation at Fort Sumter. This time, all the members except Seward recommended trying Fox's plan to resupply the fort. Later that day, Lincoln ordered Fox to assemble a fleet in New York City and be ready to sail no later than April 6.

After a fumbling start, and in spite of internal divisions in his administration, Lincoln had maneuvered the situation so that if war ensued, the Confederates would have to fire the first shot. On April 9, Fox's fleet departed from New York. Quickly informed of Lincoln's action by South Carolina's governor, President Jefferson Davis and the Confederate cabinet decided to demand the immediate surrender of Fort Sumter. When Anderson refused, Confederate batteries opened fire at 4:30 in the morning on April 12. Fox's fleet, which arrived after the battle had started, could only watch helplessly off shore. After thirty-six hours of bombardment, Anderson finally surrendered. The Civil War had begun. Following the surrender of Fort Sumter, the administration lurched into action. The next day, April 15, Lincoln issued a proclamation for 75,000 troops to put down "combinations" in the seceded states "too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings."

Composition

Original lyrics

The first gun is fired.
May God protect the right,
Let the freeborn sons of the North arise
In power's avenging might;
Shall the glorious Union our fathers made,
By ruthless hands be sundered,
And we of freedom's sacred rights
By trait'rous foes be plundered?

CHORUS
Arise! Arise! Arise!
And gird ye for the fight,
And let our watchword ever be,
"May God protect the right."

The first gun is fired.
Its echoes thrill the land,
And the bounding hearts of the patriot throng,
Now firmly take their stand;
We will bow no more to the tyrant few
Who scorn our long forbearing,
But with Columbia's stars and stripes
We'll quench their trait'rous daring.

(CHORUS)

The first gun is fired.
Oh! heed the signal well,
And the thunder tone as it rolls along
Shall sound oppression's knell;
For the arm of freedom is mighty still,
Its strength shall fail us never,
That strength we'll give to our righteous cause
And our glorious land forever.

(CHORUS)

George Frederick Root

Lyrical analysis

Root dedicated "The First Gun Is Fired" to "all who love Union and Freedom." In the early Civil War-era context, "freedom" does not necessarily signify emancipation. Rather, according to historian Gary W. Gallagher when commenting on "The Battle Cry of Freedom", Root promotes the notion that Americans can only be free if their nation is united. This harks back to Daniel Webster's famous equation of "Liberty and Union". "Freedom" may also denote freedom for all Americans regardless of class—the ability of working-class white people to thrive against a Southern slaveholding oligarchy. These interpretations help decipher the third line: "Let the freeborn sons of the North arise."

The subtitle "May God Defend the Right," recurring in the chorus (with "protect" instead of "defend"), suits Root's background in Christian hymnody. In fact, many of his popular compositions bear religious overtones. Faith was a prevalent motif in Unionist music; Christian imagery imparted a sense of righteousness tied to their cause, evident in Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and Root's "God Bless Our Young Brave Volunteers".

In the song, the homeland stands for freedom and the enemy for oppression: "We will bow no more to the tyrant few / Who scorn our long forbearing"; "For the arm of freedom is mighty still / Its strength shall fail us never." American patriotic music was born of such a contrast. Citizens, weary of British colonial rule, weaponized music to proclaim their freedom. John Dickinson's "The Liberty Song" calls for all Americans to "rouse [their] bold hearts at fair Liberty's call," and William Billings' "Chester" boldly states: "Let tyrants shake their iron rods." Just as the nation's early songwriters spoke of patriotism "sincerely and forcefully," Root's lyrics "[flow] with energy and conviction."

The final two lines of the chorus are intended to be sung in four-part harmony. According to Carder, the song strikingly resembles a tune in Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Creation, "The Heavens Are Telling".

General analysis

Root was an avid practitioner of what might be called occasional music. As he would profess, "I never dreamed of eminence as a writer of music [...] I am simply one who…makes music for the people, having always a particular need in view." He excelled at making accessible music that served a specific purpose, for the classroom, church, home, and in this case, a patriotic rally—his song serving to unify an alarmed public on the brink of civil war. "The First Gun Is Fired" captured a historic moment and filled a need in the first days of the war.

Bibliography

Books

• Carder, P. H. (2008). George F. Root, Civil War Songwriter: A Biography. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3374-2.
• Ewen, David (1962). Popular American Composers from Revolutionary Times to the Present: A Biographical and Critical Guide. New York City, New York: H. W. Wilson Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0824200404.
• Finson, Jon W. (1994). The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song. New York City, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505750-3.
• Gienapp, William E. (2002). Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America: A Biography. New York City, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515100-3.
• Hattaway, Herman; Jones, Arthur (1991). How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil War (2 ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-06210-8.
• Howard, John T. (1946). Our American Music: Three Hundred Years of It (3rd ed.). New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company.
• Kelley, Bruce C.; Snell, Mark A. (2004). Bugle Resounding: Music and Musicians of the Civil War Era. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-8262-1538-6.
• McNeil, W. K. (2005). Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music. New York City, New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-94179-2.
• McWhirter, Christian (2012). Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-3550-0.
• Root, George F. (1891). The Story of a Musical Life: An Autobiography by Geo F. Root. Cincinnati, Ohio: The John Church Co. ISBN 978-1-4047-8329-4.
• Sadie, Stanley, ed. (1995). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 16 (6 ed.). London, United Kingdom: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 0-333-23111-2.
• Silber, Irwin (1995). Songs of the Civil War. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-28438-7.
• Spaeth, Sigmund (1948). A History of Popular Music in America. New York: Random House.

Studies and journals

• Birdseye, George (1879). "America's Song Composers: II. George F. Root". Potter's American Monthly. 12 (86): 145–148 – via Internet Archive.
• Epstein, Dena J. (1944). "Music Publishing in Chicago before 1871: The Firm of Root & Cady, 1858-1871". Notes. 1 (4): 43–59. doi:10.2307/891291. JSTOR 891291.

Websites

• Fuld, James J. (July 10, 2012). "Patriotic music". Grove Music Online. Retrieved January 16, 2025.
• Gallagher, Gary W. (February 15, 2024). "In Patriotic Melodies in the Civil War North, 'Freedom' Wasn't Necessarily a Cry for African-American Emancipation". HistoryNet. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
• "Fort Sumter". American Battlefield Trust. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
• "George Frederick Root". Song of America. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
• "The First Gun Is Fired! 'May God Protect the Right!' Rallying Song and Chorus". Jacob E. Arsenault & Company. Retrieved January 15, 2025.

Other media

• Root, George F. (1861). The First Gun Is Fired. Chicago, Illinois: Root & Cady. Retrieved January 15, 2025 – via Baylor University Digital Collections.
• "Poetry: "The First Gun Is Fired. 'May God Protect the Right!'"". Western Reserve Chronicle. May 17, 1861. p. 1. Retrieved January 15, 2025.

External links

• Sheet music via Baylor University Digital Collections
• Recording by Don and Katie King in 2011
• Recording by angloconc on the concertina in 2014