In 1864, Samuel Hawkins Marshall Byers III, of the 5th Volunteer Iowa Infantry was imprisoned in Columbia, South Carolina. When Byers learned of Sherman’s decisive military operation and the fall of Atlanta, he was inspired to write a five-stanza poem. In his autobiography, Byers would claim that the poem was smuggled out of the prison camp by an exchanged prisoner named Tower, who “carried the song in this wooden limb [artificial leg] through the lines to our soldiers in the North, where it was sung everywhere and with demonstration.” Set to music by J. O. Rockwell, the song was issued as sheet music and remained popular for decades after its first publication in 1865.