More Old Songs

Something came to my mind just today that I hadn’t remembered for probably 60 years. But to introduce it, I have to go back even further. This song has a tune that many are probably familiar with due to Sunday School songs.

Apparently the tune was original with this old Civil War Song. As written here, there is a note in the book I have that the chorus was changed slightly from the original, but since then it has remained unchanged. However, the version I learned of it is somewhat different, and I will present that later:

Tramp, Tramp, Tramp!

On the battle front we stand, ‘neath the flag that made us free,
Ever ready for the words to do and dare;
Tho’ we’re twice a million strong, still they’re coming from the sea,
We can hear the tread like thunder in the air.

Chorus:
Tramp, tramp, tramp! the boys are marching!
Cheer, brave comrades, they will come;
Every heart is in the fight
For the cause of Truth and Right
And the freedom of our own beloved land!

They are coming from the West, you can hear the mighty roar,
As they tramp the earth and sing a battle song;
There are millions in the fight, and as many millions more
Only wait the Nation’s call to come along.

There’s a God in glory still, and His Word is on the sky,
Blazing letters for the dastard foe to read:
Ye are traitors to the truth and as traitors ye shall die,
Tho' a world be made to suffer and to bleed.

The original version I learned is probably from World War I. My mother was a school teacher near the end of that war, and she probably learned it in her teacher’s training school (called “Normal School” back then). I know only one verse to this version, but it’s the only version I ever heard when I was young. It is written as a prisoner of war writing home to his mother.


In my prison cell I sit, thinking, mother, dear, of you
And our sweet and happy home so far away;
And the tears they fill my eyes, ‘spite of all that I can do,
Though I try to cheer my comrades and be brave.

Tramp, tramp, tramp! the boys are marching!
Cheer up, comrades, they will come
And beneath the starry flag
shall breathe the air again
Of the free land in our own beloved home.

Now this tune has been used for a couple of Sunday School songs, with which you may be familiar: “Jesus Loves the Little Children” and “Jesus Died for All the Children.”
And this brings me to my original thought. My mother once used to sing a song that was based on the confrontation between the prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. I think there was much more to it, but I remember only the chorus – and, as I said above, I hadn’t heard it or even thought about it in many years:

Pray again, my good Elijah!
Prayer will bring abundant rain.
By His grace and mighty power*
May the Lord our hearts inspire
‘Til we get down on our knees and pray again.

*This term may actually be “holy fire,” I’m not sure.

(Originally posted November 20, 2006)