The Cyber Hymnal ‎#2503

2503. Hold the Fort

1. Ho, my comrades! see the signal waving in the sky!
Reinforcements now appearing, victory is nigh.

Refrain
Hold the fort, for I am coming, Jesus signals still;
Wave the answer back to Heaven, By Thy grace we will.

2. See the mighty host advancing, Satan leading on;
Mighty ones around us falling, courage almost gone! [Refrain]

3. See the glorious banner waving! Hear the trumpet blow!
In our leader’s name we triumph over ev’ry foe. [Refrain]

4. Fierce and long the battle rages, but our help is near;
Onward comes our great commander, cheer, my comrades, cheer! [Refrain]

Text Information

• First Line: Ho, my comrades! see the signal waving in the sky
• Title: Hold the Fort
• Author: Philip P. Bliss (1870)
• Refrain First Line: Hold the fort, for I am coming, Jesus signals still
• Language: English
• Copyright: Public Domain
• Notes: Bliss wrote this song af­ter hear­ing Dan­iel Whit­tle re­late the fol­low­ing in­ci­dent from the Amer­i­can ci­vil war: Just before [Will­iam Te­cum­seh] Sher­man be­gan his fa­mous march to the sea in 1864, and while his ar­my lay camped in the neigh­bor­hood of Atlanta [Georgia] on the 5th of Oc­to­ber, the ar­my of Hood, in a care­ful­ly pre­pared move­ment, passed the right flank of Sher­man’s ar­my, gained his rear, and com­menced the de­struction of the rail­road lead­ing north, burn­ing block­houses and cap­tur­ing the small gar­ri­sons along the line. Sher­man’s ar­my was put in ra­pid mo­tion pur­su­ing Hood, to save the sup­plies and larg­er posts, the prin­ci­pal one of which was lo­cat­ed at Al­too­na Pass. Gen­er­al Corse, of Il­li­nois, was sta­tioned there with about fif­teen hun­dred men, Col­o­nel Tour­te­lotte be­ing se­cond in com­mand. A mil­lion and a half ra­tions were stored here and it was high­ly im­port­ant that the earth­works com­mand­ing the pass and pro­tect­ing the sup­plies be held. Six thou­sand men un­der com­mand of Gen­e­ral French were de­tailed by Hood to take the po­si­tion. The works were com­plete­ly sur­round­ed and sum­moned to sur­rend­er. Corse re­fused and a sharp fight com­menced. The de­fend­ers were slow­ly driv­en in­to a small fort on the crest of the hill. Ma­ny had fall­en, and the re­sult seemed to ren­der a pro­long­a­tion of the fight hop­eless. At this mo­ment an of­fi­cer caught sight of a white sig­nal flag far away across the val­ley, twen­ty miles dis­tant, up­on the top of Ken­e­saw Mount­ain. The sig­nal was an­swered, and soon the mes­sage was waved across from moun­tain to moun­tain: "Hold the fort; I am com­ing. W. T. Sher­man." Cheers went up; ev­ery man was nerved to a full ap­pre­ci­a­tion of the po­si­tion; and un­der a mur­der­ous fire, which killed or wound­ed more than half the men in the fort—Corse him­self bei­ng shot three times through the head, and Tour­te­lotte tak­ing com­mand, though himself bad­ly wound­ed—they held the fort for three hours un­til the ad­vance guard of Sherman’s ar­my came up. French was obliged to re­treat. Sankey, pp. 150-1

Tune Information

• Name: [Ho, my comrades! see the signal waving in the sky]
• Composer: Philip Paul Bliss (1870)
• Incipit: 56531 21656 53256
• Key: D Major
• Copyright: Public Domain