George Frederick Root
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George Frederick Root (30 August 1820 – 6 August 1895) was a popular American songwriter during the American Civil War.
He was born at Sheffield, Massachusetts, and was named after the German-born British composer George Frideric Handel. For awhile, he was a music teacher in Boston and New York. He then took to writing songs and founded a music publishing company in Chicago, Illinois.
During the Civil War, Root leaped into fame as the composer of "Tramp, tramp, tramp the Boys are Marching", "Just before the Battle, Mother", "The Battle Cry of Freedom", and other popular songs.
He was made a Musical Doctor by the first University of Chicago in 1872. He died at his summer home in Bailey Island, Maine, at 75 years old.
Root was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 1970.
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This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.
