The American Civil War inspired more great songs than any other conflict. George Frederick Root composed a large share of them. Some of them are rousing patriotic tunes, such as Battle Cry of Freedom. But he also composed songs about the devastating impact of the war on American families.

“Just Before the Battle, Mother” is one of the earliest of these. It became such a great hit that it inspired many other songs. Root himself composed more than one of them, including the companion piece “Just After the Battle.”

It also inspired parodies that take a very different viewpoint.

Just Before the Battle, Mother

The Union was still optimistic about the war in 1862, but the bloody reality of the conflict was beginning to set in. Most of the Union-related songs of that year still celebrated the war and called for victory.

“Just Before the Battle, Mother” strikes a more somber note.  A soldier thinks of his mother, firmly believing in the rightness of the Union cause, but recognizing that he might die in the coming battle. The song became one of Root’s greatest hits.

Root was not above a little self-promotion. The last verse alludes to his earlier hit, “Battle Cry of Freedom.” The bottom of the page contains the note, “In some of the divisions of our army, the ‘Battle-Cry’ is sung when going into action, by order of the commanding officer.”

Many soldiers sang it. It expressed what probably all of them feared, and they found it comforting.

In Root’s autobiography, he recounted the story of a Union colonel who had been seriously wounded in the Battle of Franklin. The colonel told him that he had heard “Just Before the Battle, Mother” the day before that battle. During his year-long recuperation, he thought of it frequently.

Christy’s Minstrels soon took the song to England, where it also became so popular that soldiers in the Crimean War made it their own.

The song inspired many others, including “No, I’ll Not Forget You, Darling,” “Mother, Is the Battle Over?” and “Yes, My Boy, the Battle’s Over.” Root himself composed some. Besides “Just After the Battle,” they include “Brother, Tell Me of the Battle” and “On the Field of Battle, Mother.” None achieved the success of “Just Before the Battle, Mother.”

Just Before the Battle Mother (Lyrics)

Words and Music by Geo. F. Root
Published 1862 by Root & Cady, Chicago

[Verse 1]
Just before the battle, Mother,
I am thinking most of you,
While upon the field we’re watching,
With the enemy in view,

Comrades brave are ’round me lying,
Fill’d with tho’ts of home and God;
For well they know that on the morrow,
Some will sleep beneath the sod.

[Chorus]
Farewell, Mother,
you may never Press me to your heart again;
But O, you’ll not forget me, Mother,
If I’m number’d with the slain.

[Verse 2]
Oh I long to see you, Mother,
And the loving ones at home,
But I’ll never leave our banner,
Till in honor I can come,

Tell the traitors, all around you,
That their cruel words we know,
In ev’ry battle kill our soldiers,
By the help they give the foe.

[Chorus]

[Verse 3]
Hark! I hear the bugles sounding,
‘Tis the signal for the fight,
Now may God protect us, Mother,
As he ever does the right.

Hear the “Battle Cry of Freedom,”
How it swells upon the air,
Oh, yes we’ll rally round the standard,
Or we’ll perish nobly there.

Just After the Battle

According to Statista, the ten bloodiest battles of the war occurred before the middle of 1864:

10. Siege of Vicksburg (May/July 1863): 19,233 casualties
9. Second Battle of Bull Run (August 1862): 22,180
8. Battle of Antietam (September 1862): 22,717
7. Battle of Stones River (Dec. 1862/Jan. 1863): 23,515
6. Battle of Shiloh (April 1862): 23,746
5. Battle of Chancellorsville (April 1863): 24,000
4. Battle of the Wilderness (May 1864): 29,800
3. Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (May 1864): 30,000
2. Battle of Chickamauga (September 1863): 34,624
1. Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863): 51,000

The war saw many other battles that added to the total number of dead and wounded. About 620,000 young men died, about 2% of the population. The war left many other soldiers maimed for life. The carnage erased public optimism about the war. A somber mood took its place.

Root decided to follow up his earlier hit with “Just After the Battle” in 1864. It uses exactly the same cover design as before. We can suppose that the same soldier sings it. He has been severely wounded but not killed. Therefore, he expects his mother will see him again.

The new song is in a different key and has a different tune, but the words have the same poetic meter as earlier tune and so could easily be sung to it.

Just After the Battle (Lyrics)

Words and Music by Geo. F. Root
Published 1864 by Cady & Root, Chicago

[Verse 1]
Still upon the field of battle,
I am lying, Mother dear,
With my wounded comrades waiting,
For the morning to appear,

Many sleep to waken never,
In this world of strife and death,
And many more are faintly calling,
With their feeble dying breath.

[Chorus]
Mother dear, your boy is wounded,
And the night is drear with pain,
But still I feel that I shall see you,
And the dear old home again.

[Verse 2]
Oh the first great charge was fearful,
And a thousand brave men fell,
Still amid the dreaded carnage,
I was safe from shot and shell,

So amid the fatal shower,
I had nearly pass’d the day,
When here the dreaded Minnie struck me,
And I sunk amid the fray.

[Chorus]

[Verse 3]
Oh the glorious cheer of triumph,
When The foeman turn’d and fled,
Leaving us the field of battle,
Strewn with dying and with dead,

Oh, the torture and the anguish,
That I could not follow on,
But here amid my fallen comrades,
I must wait till morning’s dawn.

[Chorus]

Parody on Just Before the Battle, Mother

Years ago, I heard a parody that I assumed was a Confederate response to “Just Before the Battle, Mother.” As it turns out, it was written by a Northerner, Eugene T. Johnston

Johnston is basically forgotten now, but  WorldCat identities identifies 19 titles by him. Many of them are parodies of hit songs.

Johnston’s parody of “Just Before the Battle, Mother” appeared in 1864 or 1865 as a song sheet, that is, words but no musical notation. The words might seem to indicate that Johnston intended a protest against the war, but some of his other titles imply a more patriotic viewpoint. Johnston’s parody must have been reasonably successful; more than one publisher issued it. Some printings have the title “Skedaddling Song.”

Parody on Just Before the Battle, Mother (Lyrics)

Words by Eug. T. Johnston
Published (1864) by H. De Marsan, New York

[Verse 1]
Just before the battle, Mother,
I was drinking mountain dew;
But when I saw the Rebels marching,
Unto the rear I quickly flew.

Where all the stragglers were flying,
Thinking of their homes or wives.
It was not the Rebs they feared, dear Mother,
But their own dear precious lives.

[Chorus]
Then, farewell! Mother, you will never
See my name among the slain;
For if I only can skedaddle,
Dear Mother, I’ll come home again.

[Verse 2]
I have no thirst for martial glory,
Fame and honor’s all my eye;
I’d rather be a home-guard private
Than a Brigadier “Come home to die!”

Salt horse and crackers, dearest Mother,
Are not the things that make one brave;
And I assure you I have no ambition
To fill an early honored grave.

[Chorus]

[Verse 3]
I hear the bugle sounding, Mother:
(My soul is eager for the fray;)
I guess I’ll hide beneath some cover
And then I will be all O. K.

Discretion’s the better part of valor:
At least, I’ve often heard you say;
And he that loves his life, dear Mother,
Won’t fight if he can run away.

[Chorus]

I found a video by Bobby Horton with a somewhat altered parody, where the slacker is a Confederate soldier hiding from the Yankees.

Sources:

Just before the battle, Mother / Age of Revolution
Just before the battle, Mother / Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle, The Ballad Index. 2022
Library of Congress Civil War Sheet Music Collection
Parody on Just before the battle. Air: Just before the battle. By Eug. T. Johnston. H. De Marsan, Publisher, 54 Chatham Street, N. Y
Songs from the American Civil War Era, 1861 – 1865 / by Richard A. Reublin, The Parlor Songs Academy. 2008