War Anthem, 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home,' was first Performed on September 26, 1863 at Boston's Tremont Temple

Sheet Music, When Johnny Comes Marching Home

The classic war anthem, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," was first performed at Tremont Temple in Boston on Saturday, September 26, 1863 by Patrick S. Gilmore and his Orchestra.

Gilmore originally published the song - also known as the "Soldiers Return March" - under the pseudonym Louis Lambert for reasons unknown, but later acknowledged that he authored the piece. The song appeared during the height of the American Civil War, and was meant as an optimistic tribute "dedicated to the Army and Navy of the Union." Henry Tolman & Company of Boston was the publisher.

The late Gilmore historian Michael Cummings, founder of the Patrick S. Gilmore Society, wrote that Gilmore took the song for an earlier Irish marching song called "Johnie I Hardly Knew Ye," which was apparently sung by Irish regiments fighting for the British in Ceylon in the early 19th century.

According to Cummings, Gilmore never claimed to have written the melody, quoting Gilmore from a Boston Musical Herald story in 1883: "It was a musical waif which I happened to hear somebody humming in the early days of the Rebelion, and taking a fancy to it, wrote it down, dressed it up, gave it a name, and rhymed it into usefulness."

While the song had some traction during the Civil War, it became a popular hit decades later during the Spanish American War of 1898.

It has remained popular ever since and has been recorded by hundreds of musicians, ranging from jazz organist Jimmy Smith to Boston's own Dropkick Murphys.

Gilmore was born in Ballygar, County Galway, in 1829 and emigrated to Boston in 1849 during the Irish Famine years. He quickly became a successful musician, bandleader and impresario, and also trained bands for the Union Army during the American Civil War. He died on September 24, 1892 in St. Louis.

For more about Patrick S. Gilmore, read Irish Boston, published by Globe Pequot Press.

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