Rally round the flag, boys

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In the suburban Seattle town in which I live, a few homes have altered their normal Christmas decorations for the sake of patriotic display. In place of reindeer or angels or icicles, these neighbors have strung up flashing red-white-and-blue lights in the shape of the American flag.

This holiday gesture reflects the mood of the moment, and its ferocious fascination with Old Glory. Since Sept. 11, the star spangled banner has turned up everywhere – on cars, front porches, shopping centers, office buildings, caps and lapels. Even those who once used the term “flag waving” with contempt, to connote the most shallow, embarrassing form of jingoism, now feel called upon to display, or at least honor, the stars and stripes. The old phrase, “rally round the flag” echoes in our national consciousness – not as a description of some public event, but as an urgent and universal imperative.

That phrase first became popular during the War Between the States, as part of the rousing Union song “The Battle Cry of Freedom”:

Yes, we’ll rally round the flag, boys, we’ll rally once again,

Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

We will rally from the hillside, we’ll gather from the plain,

Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

George Frederick Root, who worked at his brother’s music publishing company in Chicago, wrote the song in spring of 1862 in response to President Lincoln’s call for an additional 300,000 Union volunteers. At a dark period for the Northern cause, “Battle Cry of Freedom” became an instant sensation after its premiere at a courthouse recruiting rally.

In addition to its power in promoting enlistment (“We are springing to the call of our brothers gone before/Shouting the battle cry of freedom/And we’ll fill the vacant ranks with a million freemen more”), the song also invoked battlefield realities of the time. With smoke and noise and death on all sides, and without any form of electronic communication, soldiers of the era became easily confused – especially when separated from other elements of their army. “Rallying round the flag” provided a means of reassembling for a united stand, rather than exposing the fighter to enemy fire as an isolated individual or unit. As long as he could spot the flag, usually at some high ground, above the dust and carnage and fog of war, the soldier had a chance to rejoin his comrades and find new strength.

The 47th New York Regiment demonstrated that process in August of 1862, during the Battle of Second Manassas. In the midst of a shattering Confederate victory, these Union forces fled from the rebels, threatening to turn defeat into a rout, until a single color bearer stopped, planted the flag and stood his ground. At this point, a sergeant came up alongside him and began singing “The Battle Cry of Freedom” at the top of his voice:

The Union forever, hurrah, boys, hurrah!

Down with the traitor, up with the star,

While we rally round the flag, boys

Rally once again,

Shouting the battle cry of Freedom!

Hearing his voice, seeing the colors, the regiment came together and then counter-attacked, unexpectedly gaining lost ground.

Root’s song (he also penned the touching, “Just Before the Battle, Mother”) not only raised spirits for the Boys in Blue, but also served to discourage Confederates. Reporter Richard W. Brown interviewed a Southern officer in Richmond, shortly after Lee’s surrender, who told him: “I shall never forget the first time I heard that song, during the Seven Days Battles. I was on picket, when some fellow on the other side struck up a song, and others joined in the chorus, until it seemed to me the whole Yankee army was singing. A man with me sang out, ‘Good heavens, Cap’n, what are those fellows made of, anyway? Here we’ve licked ’em six days running, and now are on the eve of the seventh, and they’re singing ‘Rally Round the Flag.” I’m not naturally superstitious, but I tell you that song sounded like the knell of doom, and my heart went down into my boots. It’s been an uphill fight with me ever since that night.”

Eventually, the Confederates felt so impressed with the stirring Yankee tune that they paid it the ultimate compliment: they simply stole the melody, and provided new words (by H.L. Schreiner and W.H. Barnes):

Our Dixie forever, she’s never at a loss

Down with the eagle, up with the cross.

We’ll rally round the bonnie flag, we’ll rally once again

Shout, shout the battle cry of freedom!

Some 140 years later, morale once again plays the crucial role in America’s struggle. The war on terror presents a new battlefield that includes every major city in the country – a battlefield in which each of us may feel isolated and vulnerable. In that context, it makes perfect sense to rally round the flag – to look beyond our individual confusion and panic to unite with our fellow citizens at high ground. Even in this holiday season that inevitably celebrates peace and good will, the flag-waving seems oddly appropriate. It provides a sense of reassurance and comfort, more than strutting martial pride, and reminds us that, while gathered beneath Old Glory’s billowing folds, we need not stand alone.

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