Hold the Fort
Hold the Fort
Author: Philip P. Bliss, 1838-1876
Composer: Philip P. Bliss, 1838-1876
As was true of so many of P. P. Bliss’s gospel songs, this stirring hymn was inspired by an illustration used by Major Whittle, an officer in the American Civil War, while addressing a YMCA meeting on the text from Revelation 2:25. Major Whittle’s illustration was about a small Northern force of soldiers in charge of guarding a great quantity of supplies. They were being hard pressed by greatly superior Confederate forces. Finally, the Confederate general, General French, commanded the Federal troops to surrender. At that moment the troops saw a signal from their leader, General Sherman, on a hill some miles away which said, “Hold the fort, I am coming. Sherman.” The story so captivated Bliss’s interest that he could not retire that evening until he had completed both the text and the music for this rousing gospel song.
At the next day’s YMCA service, Bliss introduced his new hymn to all of the delegates and the response was immediate and enthusiastic. Later it became a great favorite in the Moody-Sankey campaigns both in Great Britain and in the United States. As Moody and Sankey were leaving the British Isles in 1874, Lord Shaftesbury, presiding at the final service remarked, “If Mr. Sankey has done no more than teach the people to sing ‘Hold the Fort,’ he has conferred inestimable blessing on the British Empire, and it would have been worth all the expense of these meetings.”
Although Philip Bliss did not consider this to be one of his better songs, his monument at Rome, Pennsylvania, bears this inscription: “P. P. Bliss, author of ‘Hold the Fort.’”