Civil War Music: God Will Defend the Right

This is a close-up image of a Confederate States of America bill.

This song was written by an unnamed lady of Richmond in 1861 in defiance against the North. It supports the rights of southerners to leave the Union, and portrayed Northerners as tyrants, wanting to control the South.

The lyrics are:

Sons of the South arise!
Rise in your matchless might.
Your war cry echo to the skies,
"God will defend the right."
Let haughty tyrants know,
Our sunny land shall be
In spite of every foe,
Home of the brave and free.

Our flag shall proudly stream,
Defiant of assault.
With bars of the rainbow's brightest beam
And stars from the heaven's blue vault.
Thousand of true and brave,
Their hero lives may end.
Over thousands that flag shall wave
And thousands its foes defend.

Sons of the South arise!
Rise in your matchless might.
Your war cry echo to the skies,
"God will defend the right."
Let haughty tyrants know,
Our sunny land shall be
In spite of every foe,
Home of the brave and free.

No wrongs our breasts alarm
No fears our hearts appall.
Unswerving justice nerves our arms.
We cannot conquered fall.
Think on our noble sires.
Immortal in renown.
Think on our altar-fires.
And strike the oppressor down.

Sons of the South arise!
Rise in your matchless might.
Your war cry echo to the skies,
"God will defend the right."
Let haughty tyrants know,
Our sunny land shall be
In spite of every foe,
Home of the brave and free.

With threats of horrors dire,
The fierce invader comes,
We scorn his boats, we scorn his ire
Striking of hearths and homes.
Strike for our mothers now,
For daughters, sisters, wives,
Freely would each bestow,
Were it ten thousand lives.

Sons of the South arise!
Rise in your matchless might.
Your war cry echo to the skies,
"God will defend the right."
Let haughty tyrants know,
Our sunny land shall be
In spite of every foe,
Home of the brave and free.

Music

Primary Source