"When Sherman Marched Down to the Sea"

The prisoner of war suffered through one of the most disheartening ordeals of any soldier. A soldier captured in battle would be forced to spend years in custody of the enemy, most of the time with little care for his well being. This compounded the already terrible realization that he was housed on foreign soil, with none of his comrades to liberate him from his captors. The common dream for a POW was to one day be freed by his comrades. This dream would be doused at every turn by the enemies, but deep down he would hope to one day see those boys in blue (or gray, whichever his side was) come marching into camp. That was the dream....

On November 25, 1863, at Tunnel Hill (near Chattanooga), the Fifth Iowa Infantry was deployed in a thin skirmish line screening the rebel forces along their front. With most of the line deployed as skirmishers, Confederate fire had picked up to a steady pace, drawing most of the Iowans into a constant lead exchange. The colonel of the Fifth, Colonel Jabez Banbury developed concern in his predicament. Towards the left of his line, a fifty-yard gap emerged between his extreme left flank and the supporting unit on his left. Hoping to fill this gap, Banbury ordered two companies to fill the space that must have looked like a giant welcome sign to the secessionists in their front. As the reinforcements tried to deploy, rebels poured down the hill onto the still forming skirmishers. The surprised and overwhelmed Federals along the left of the line were quickly forced to lay down their arms. A mad dash ensued with some of the Federals making for the rear but under a heavy fire poured into their retreating ranks by capture-seeking rebels. Eighty-two of the Iowans were captured by the Confederate attack. One of eight officers who found his way into rebel hands was the Adjudant of the Regiment, Lieutenant Samuel H. Marshall Byers.

Byers was shuttled from Libby Prison to other Confederate installations. During his tenure as a prisoner of war, Byers purported to have escaped three times, on one instance posing as an Confederate soldier before being recaptured in the Atlanta campaign. After his final capture, Byers was marched to Charleston and later to Columbia to be held in the prisoner of war camps. At Columbia, Byers was held at the Federal officer POW camp, where somehow word trickled back to the prisoners of Sherman's grand march to the sea. The story of Sherman's march to Savannah (and probably the prospect of his moving into South Carolina) inspired Byers to write the song "When Sherman Marched Down to the Sea." When news of Sherman's approach to Columbia became confirmed, the prisoners were moved from the South Carolina capital to destinations in North Carolina. The song would seem to be doomed to never reach Sherman's eyes, until a wounded Federal prisoner of war managed to hand the lyrics over to Sherman when the victorious Federal army captured Columbia, South Carolina, in February of 1865. The song would later achieve acclaim and become one of the more recognized songs immortalizing Sherman's March.

[Background info from http://members.aol.com/x69xer/song.html (with editing changes). This link includes an audio file of the music to which the poem was sung.]

"When Sherman Marched Down to the Sea," by Samuel H.M. Byers

Our camp-fires shone bright on the mountain
That frowned on the river below,
As we stood by our guns in the morning
And eagerly watched for the foe.
When a rider came out from the darkness
That hung over mountain and tree,
|: And shouted, "Boys, up and be ready
For Sherman will march to the sea. :|

Then cheer after cheer for bold Sherman
Went up from each valley and glen,
Till the bugles re-echoed the music
That came from the lips of our men.
For we knew that the stars in our banner
More bright in their splendor would be
|: And that blessings from Northland would greet us
When Sherman marched down to the sea. :|

Then forward, boys, forward to battle,
We marched on our wearisome way,
Till we stormed the wild heights of Resaca
God Bless those who fell on that day.
And Kennesaw high in its glory
Frowned down on the flag of the free,
|: And the east and the west bore our standards
When Sherman marched down to the sea. :|

Still onward we pressed till our banners
Shone out from Atlanta's grim walls,
And the blood of the patriots dampened
The soil where the traitor's flag falls.
But we paused not to weep for the fallen
Who slept by each river and tree,
|: But we twined them a wreath of the laurel
When Sherman marched down to the sea. :|

Oh, proud was our army that morning
That stood by the cypress and pine,
When Sherman says, "Boys, you are weary,
But today fair Savannah is mine."
Then sang we a song for our chieftain
That echoed o'er river and lea,
|: And the stars in our banner shone brighter
When Sherman marched down to the sea. :|

[Here's a link to a better audio file for the music.]