Marching on to Richmond

A year ago I wrote a chorus of a song for which I had no deep knowledge:

Hip hip hooray we are marching on to Richmond
You'll see us come with the Stars and Stripes held high
Hip hip hooray we are marching on to Richmond
Jeff Davis better slip away tonight

It was a rousing melody of momentum for an ending to the war, but I was still at the beginning of my journey, so knew little about what went into the fall of Richmond and the aftermath. Just couldn't write the verses, so that is where the writing stopped.  Last [Saturday] night, almost exactly a year later, among 20 songwriters after a day of songwriting at the Philadelphia Area Songwriting Alliance (PASA) winter Songworks I wrote 4 verses in 15 minutes, distilling some of the most vivid elements of this dramatic fall of the Confederate capital.

In some ways  I felt my own triumph at being able to fashion from what I had learned 4 succinct verses that invoke the horror, the release, some humor, and finally the bravado that only the eventual victor can have.  It was a release for me to write without apology a Union victory song.

Perhaps it is fitting that the verses were written at this time-one week before the anniversary date, and as it happens, one week before the Festival of Freedom, the Passover seder.

To listen, go to: Marching on to Richmond

Chorus

Hip hip hooray

We are marching on to Richmond

You’ll see us come

with the Stars and Stripes held high

Hip hip hooray

We are marching on to Richmond

Jeff Davis better slip away tonight

These last 4 bloody years,

was all that we could bear

We’ve circled round this capital

And now we’re finally here

Hip hip hooray

We are marching on to Richmond

You’ll see us come

with the Stars and Stripes held high

Hip hip hooray

We are marching on to Richmond

Jeff Davis better slip away tonight

General U S Grant

Came here from the west

He’ll take us on to victory

With cigar in hand

Chorus

We see the city burning

[Tredagar] Iron works ablaze

It’s time we took charge of things

Now we’ve got them on the chase

Chorus

Sherman’s marching north

After Johnston’s tale

Lee’s army of Virginia.

Let’s throw them all in jail!