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Topical songs, like lithographs, dime novels, and occasional poems, were another
important popular form through which the culture dealt with events like the Chicago fire.
As their titles suggest, these songs were full of feeling and faith. Root was a very
successful Chicago composer and author of the famous Civil War songs "Tramp, Tramp,
the Boys are Marching," "Just Before the Battle, Mother," "Marching Through Georgia,"
and "The Battle Cry of Freedom." Other Root fire songs were "Lost and Saved" and
"Passing Through the Fire." Philip Paul Bliss, composer of "The Billow of Fire,"
dedicated his hymn to the noted Chicago evangelist Dwight L. Moody, and in 1873 himself
became an evangelist. He died three years later in another famous nineteenth-century
disaster, the failure of the Ashtabula (Ohio) railroad bridge late in 1876.
Lyrics for a selection of fire songs are included in the Library for this section.
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Stage, Story, and Song 