My Maryland

Maryland, My Maryland (Union Version)
by Anonymous

The Rebel feet are on our shore,
Maryland, my Maryland!
I smell 'em half a mile or more,
Maryland, my Maryland!
Their shockless hordes are at my door,
Their drunken generals on my floor,
What now can sweeten Baltimore?
Maryland, my Maryland!

Hark to our noses' dire appeal,
Maryland, my Maryland!
Oh unwashed Rebs to you we kneel!
Maryland, my Maryland!
If you can't purchase soap, oh steal
That precious article-I feel
Like scratching from the head to heel
Maryland, my Maryland!

You're covered thick with mud and dust,
Maryland, my Maryland!
As though you'd been upon a bust,
Maryland, my Maryland!
Remember, it is scarcely just,
To have a filthy fellow thrust
Before us, till he's been scrubbed fust,
Maryland, my Maryland!

I see no blush upon thy cheek,
Maryland, my Maryland!
It's not been washed for many a week,
Maryland, my Maryland!
To get thee clean-'tis truth I speak-
Would dirty every stream and creek,
From Potomac to Chesapeake,
Maryland, my Maryland!

Maryland, My Maryland, the original poem was a result of events at the beginning of the American Civil War. During the secession crisis, President Abraham Lincoln (referred to in the poem as "the despot" and "the tyrant") ordered federal troops to be brought to Washington, D.C. to protect the capital. Many of these troops were brought through Baltimore City, a major transportation hub. There was a lot of Confederate sympathy in Maryland at the time and riots ensued in April 1861. Several people were killed in the Baltimore riots, including a friend of James Ryder Randall. Randall, a native Marylander, was teaching in Pointe Coupee, Louisiana at the time and, moved by the news of his friend's death, wrote the nine-stanza poem, "Maryland, My Maryland" which was first published in the New Orleans Sunday Delta on 26 April 1861.
The poem was quickly turned into a song by putting it to the tune "O Tannenbaum" (also known as "Lauriger Horatius") and became instantly popular in Maryland and throughout the South. It was sometimes called "the Marseillaise of the South. The origin of the Union version of the song is not known. (Information from Wikipedia)


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