We Are Coming Father Abra'am

WE ARE COMING FATHER ABRA’AM 1862

By the summer of 1862, the country needed a morale boost -- more troops would be needed to carry on the war. On July 2nd, Lincoln issued the first of two calls for 300,000 more volunteers to serve for three years.

His answer came on July 19, 1862 in the form of a poem which appeared on the front page of the New York Evening Post under the heading 300,000 More. The words were penned by New York economist James S. Gibbons, who was inspired as he kept pace with a troop of marching soldiers, and it spread around the country in a matter of days. By the time the poem appeared in the Washington Star on August 7th, it had been set to music and published in sheet form; two million copies would eventually be sold.

Lincoln is said to have been serenaded with this song by Union troops the night before he delivered the Gettysburg Address. Since the original verses had been published anonymously, Gibbons received no credit on any of the sheet music versions printed. Numerous melodies were used; this version is credited to Stephen Foster.