The song calls on the people of the North to fulfill Lincoln's call for volunteers.]]>
The first Union martyr of the Civil War, Colonel Elmer Ellsworth accompanied Lincoln on his inaugural train trip to Washington, D.C.. After the war began, he organized the 11th New York Infantry, a regiment which Ellsworth outfitted in the distinctive outfit of the French North African Zouaves.

Ellsworth was killed on May 24, 1861, during the Union's occupation of Alexandria, Virginia, where James W. Jackson, a diehard secessionist, shot Ellsworth as the later had just removed a Confederate from the top of Jackson's inn.

President and Mrs. Lincoln grieved over Ellsworth, whose body lay in state at the White House. Ellsworth's death became a rallying symbol for the Union.  Several songs and poems were written in his memory.]]> th 1863)."

Governor Curtin organized the effort to create a national soldiers' cemetery at Gettysburg.]]>
"Before everything but the republic he chastely dropped his eyes" "He was the marble lover of liberty" - Les Miserables.

Enjolras is a fictional charector in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. He is a revolutionary an defender of republican ideals.]]>