80th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, "We Are Coming Father Abra'am" lyrics

This was a popular Union Army recruiting song. James Sloan Gibbons wrote these words as a poem in response to the call for 300,000 more men to volunteer for the Federal Army, which was issued by President Abraham Lincoln ("Father Abra'am") on July 1, 1862. Sloan's words were put to music by 8 different composers, one of which was composer and conductor Luther Orlando Emerson (1820-1915). Sloan's words (mistakenly credited to William Cullen Bryant) and Emerson's music were printed up as sheet music for the piano by Ditson & Company of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1862. The reference in the final stanza to "foreign foes" was a reference to Great Britain, which was at that time unofficially aiding the Confederate cause ("Richmond's bloody tide").

"We are coming, Father Abra'am, three hundred thousand more,
From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's shore;
We leave our plows and workshops, our wives and children dear,
With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear;
We dare not look behind us, but steadfastly before--
We are coming, Father Abra'am, three hundred thousand more!"

Chorus
We are coming, we are coming, our Union to restore;
We are coming, Father Abra'am, with three hundred thousand more;
We are coming, Father Abra'am, with three hundred thousand more."

"If you look across the hill tops that meet the northern sky,
Long moving lines of rising dust your vision may descry;
And now the wind, an instant, tears the cloudy veil aside,
And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in pride;
And bayonets in the sunlight gleam, and bands brave music pour--
We are coming, Father Abra'am, three hundred thousand more!"
(Chorus)

"If you look up all our valleys, where the growing harvest shine,
You may see our sturdy farmer boys fast falling into line;
And the children from their mother's knees are pulling at the weeds,
And learning how to reap and sow, against their country's needs;
And a farewell group stands weeping at every cottage door--
We are coming, Father Abra'am, three hundred thousand more!"
(Chorus)

"You have called us, and we're coming, by Richmond's bloody tide,
To lay us down for freedom's sake, our brothers' bones beside;
Or from foul treason's savage group, to wrench the murderous blade,
And in the face of foreign foes its fragments to parade;
Six hundred thousand loyal men and true have gone before--
We are coming, Father Abra'am, three hundred thousand more!"
(Chorus)