“ALLONS ENFANS.”

The Southern Marseillaise.

By A. E. Blackmar, New Orleans, 1861.

[The music of this song can be obtained of Oliver Ditson Co., Boston, Mass.]

Sons of the South awake to glory, A thousand voices bid you rise, Your children, wives and grandsires hoary, Gaze on you now with trusting eyes, Gaze on you now with trusting eyes; Your country ev’ry strong arm calling, To meet the hireling Northern band That comes to desolate the land With fire and blood and scenes appalling, To arms, to arms, ye brave; Th’ avenging sword unsheath! March on! March on! All hearts resolved on victory or death. March on! March on! All hearts resolved on victory or death. Now, now, the dang’rous storm is rolling, Which treacherous brothers madly raise, The dogs of war let loose, are howling And soon our peaceful towns may blaze, And soon our peaceful towns may blaze. Shall fiends who basely plot our ruin, Unchecked, advance with guilty stride To spread destruction far and wide, With Southrons’ blood their hands embruing? To arms, to arms, ye brave! Th’ avenging sword unsheath! March on! March on! All hearts resolved on victory or death, March on! March on! All hearts resolved on victory or death. With needy, starving mobs surrounded, The jealous, blind fanatics dare To offer, in their zeal unbounded, Our happy slaves their tender care, Our happy slaves their tender care. The South, though deepest wrongs bewailing, Long yielded all to Union name; But Independence now we claim, And all their threats are unavailing. To arms, to arms, ye brave! Th’ avenging sword unsheath! March on! March on! All hearts resolved on victory or death, March on! March on! All hearts resolved on victory or death.

This may be called the rallying song of the Confederacy. Composed early in 1861, it was sung throughout the South while the soldiers were hurried to Virginia with this, the grandest of martial airs, as a benediction.