American Civil War Song Lyric Sheets

Scope and Contents

Oberlin College Library Special Collections holds approximately 100 lyric sheets, most of which are Union ballads from the American Civil War, and a small number from periods immediately before and after the Civil War. Some sheets have printed illustrations and a few have touches of color printing. Musical notation is not present. The collection includes well-known songs as "The Battle Cry of Freedom," "Rally 'Round the Flag," and "The Girl I Left Behind Me."  Many of the songs are written specifically about Pennsylvania's war efforts, which where many of these songs were published, including "Keystone Brigade," "Give Me a Noble Fellow with a Bucktail in His Hat," and "The Pennsylvanian Battle Cry." The collection also holds "The Old Contraband," a song written in slave dialect.

Inventory

Union Civil War Ballads

• "After the Battle, Mother" Philadelphia: J. H. Johnson. (Flip side: "Just Before the Battle, Mother")
• "The American Boy" New York: J. Andrews.
• "Ballad of the Great Fight, Between the Union Eagle and the Old Rooster" by Jeff. Davis. Pennsylvania: c1847.
• "Battle Cry of Freedom, or, We'll Rally Round the Flag, Boys" Philadelphia: Johnson. (Flip side: "Grafted into the Army")
• "Battle of Bull-Run" New York: H. Demarsan.
• "Battle of Bull Run" Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "The Battle of the Wilderness" by James D. Gay. Philadelphia: James D. Gay, c1864.
• "Be My Mother Till I Die" by Elmer Ruan Coates. Philadelphia: Sep. Winner's Music Store.
• "Bob Anderson" Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "Bonnie Blue Flag" Philadelphia: J. H. Johnson. (The North's paraphrase of this song of the South.)
• "The Bounty-Jumper No. 2" Philadelphia: A. W. Auner. (Parody of "Just Before the Battle, Mother.")
• "Bowld Sojer Boy" by Samuel Lover. Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "Brave Boys Are They" Chicago: H. M. Higgins.
• "Carry the New to Mary! We Are All Surrounded!" by Charles Howard. Philadelphia: Johnson.
• "Col. Owen's Gallant Irish Volunteers" by Arthur McFadden.
• "Columbia Rules the Sea" New York: H. De Marsan.
• "Columbia's Glorious Banner" by William Sutherland. Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "Contraband's Song of Freedom" by Eastburn. Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "Death of Colonel Baker" by William Sutherland.
• "Dixie's Sunny Land, or, the Cruelty to Our Union Prisoners" Philadelphia: A.W. Auner.
• "E Pluribus Unum" by John Pierpoint. Philadelphia: Johnson.
• "Ellsworth Avengers" Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "Faded Coat of Blue" Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "Final Victory" by A. Anderson. Philadelphia: A. Anderson.
• "Flag of Fort Sumter" Philadelphia: Auner.
• "Flag of Our Union Forever" by General George P. Morris. Philadelphia: Johnson.
• "Flag of the Free" Philadelphia: Johnson.
• "The Flag With the Thirty Four Stars"
• "Freedom's Altar" Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "General Logan, and the Fifteenth Army Corps" by R. W. Burt.
• "General Siegel's Celebrated Camp Song" by J. P. Morris. Philadelphia: D. A. Warden.
• "The Girl I Left Behind Me" by John L. Zieber. Philadelphia, J. H. Johnson. 2 edns.
• "Give Me a Noble Fellow With a Bucktail in His Hat" by Harriet L. Castle. Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "Good Ship Cumberland" Philadelphia: Johnson.
• "Grafted Into the Army" by Henry C. Work. Philadelphia: Johnson. (Flip side: "With Battle Cry of Freedom")
• "Happy Land of Canaan" Philadelphia: Walter Warren.
• "The Hearty Welcome Home" by Eastburn. Philadelphia: Wm. R. Smith [1865].
• "Hoist up the Flag" by Billy Holmes. Philadelphia: J. H. Johnson. (New)
• "I Loved that Dear Old Flag the Best!" by Ednor Rossiter. Philadelphia: Lee & Walker.
• "Johnny is Gone for a Soldier" Philadelphia: J. H. Johnson.
• "Just Before the Battle, Mother" by George F. Root. [Philadelphia] J. L. Becker. (Flip side: "After the Battle, Mother")
• "Kearsarge and Alabama" by Silas W. Steel.
• "Keystone Brigade" by James D. Gay. Philadelphia.
• "Last of the 'Alabama'" Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "Lookout Mountain" by John M. Valleau. Philadelphia: Johnson.
• "Marching Along, No. 1" by William B. Bradburg. New York: Chas. Magnus. (Flip side: "Seven Days Fight")
• "Michigan, My Michigan" Washington, D.C.: W. Koch. (With poems: "Robin's Nest" by Mrs. Robert J. Burdette, "The Mournful Bird" by Lydia F. Hinman, "When We are Old and Gray" by F. E. Weatherly, & "Margery Daw")
• "Mother, is the Battle Over" Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "Mother's Waiting for Her Soldier Boy." Philadelphia: Johnson.
• "The Old Contraband" by John L. Zieber. Philadelphia: A. W. Auner [c1865].
• "On! On! On! The Boys Came Marching! or, The Prisoner Free!" by Geo. F. Root. Philadelphia: Johnson.
• "On! On! On! The Boys Came Marching!" (different edition)
• "Our Battle-Flag" by Edward Willett.
• "Our Flag is There" Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "Our Gallant Colonel" by John Doherty. Philadelphia: Johnson.
• "Our Yankee Generals" Philadelphia.
• "The Pennsylvanian Battle Cry!" by T. A'Becket. Philadelphia: J. H. Johnson, c1861.
• "The Pennsylvanian Battle Cry!" (5th edn.) by T. A'Becket. Philadelphia: J. H. Johnson
• "Prisoner's Hope. Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" by George F. Root. Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "The Prisoner's Release, or, The Dear Old Flag Has Come." Philadelphia: Johnson, c1865. 2 edns.
• "Rally Round the Flag Boys"
• "Rally Around the Good Old Flag" by John Dyer. Philadelphia: Johnson.
• "The Reveille" Philadelphia: A. W. Auner, c1862.
• "Richmond Falls: The War is O'er" by O. Wheelock. Philadelphia: A. W. Auner, c1865.
• "Ring, Merry Bells! or, The Union Victory" by M. L. Hofford. Philadelphia: A. W. Auner, c1862.
• "Seven Days Fight" by James Smith. Philadelphia: Johnson. (Flip side: "Marching Along")
• "Sherman's Bonny Boys in Blue" by H. Angelo. Philadelphia: A. W. Auner, c1865.
• "Since I've Been in the Army" Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "Soldier's Funeral" Philadelphia: J. H. Johnson.
• "Soldier's Sister" by J. Dyer. Philadelphia: J. H. Johnson. 2 edns (same as "To the Soldier's Sister")
• "Stand by the Flag" Philadelphia: Johnson.
• "Star-Spangled Banner! of 1861" Philadelphia: Stephens & Co., c1861.
• "Their Trophies" by A. Anderson. Philadelphia: c1864.
• "There's a Sound Among the Forest Trees" by Fanny Crosby. Philadelphia: A. W. Auner, c1861.
• "They Are Coming from the Wars" by Eugene H. Munday. Philadelphia: A. W. Auner, c.1865.
• "Those Seventy Men - A Tale of the Times" by Sarah H. Bradford. New York: Offices of the Rebellion Record.
• "To the Soldier's Sister" (see: "Soldier's Sister")
• "The Triumph of the Old Flag, or, Our Flag O'er Richmond Waves Again!" by Eastburn. Philadelphia: W. R. Smith.
• "Uncle Sam's Boys" by H. Angelo.
• "Up With the Flag, Long May It Wave"
• "Victory at Last" by Mrs. M. A. Kidder. New York: Wm. B. Bradbury, c1865.
• "Volunteers' Song" Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "We are for the Union" as sung by our volunteers.
• "We are for the Union" revised and printed expressedly for the public schools. Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "We Will Have the Union Still" by Robert Smith. Philadelphia: A. W. Auner.
• "We're Marching Along" (same as "Marching Along")
• "When Sherman Marched Down to the Sea"
• "When the Boys Come Marching Home" by A. Anderson. Philadelphia: A. Anderson, c1864.
• "When You and I Were Soldier Boys" Philadelphia: J. H. Johnson.
• "White Stars!" by W. H. P. [Philadelphia:] Johnson.
• "Wont We be a Happy People When this War is Over"
• "Yankee Boys So Handy, O!" by Stoopofero. Philadelphia: Johnson.

Not Civil War

• "(Union) Root Hog or Die!" by Wattie Rusher. Philadelphia: Walter Warren. (pre-Civil War)
• "How are You, Maximillian? or, Off for Mexico" Philadelphia: A. W. Auner, c1865.
• "The Soldier's Chorus" [from Faust].

Last Updated August 2026