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In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln was forced to call for an additional 300, 000 volunteers, a time when the war was not going well for the Union. Under the leadership of General George McClellan, the Union army was merely inching toward the Confederate capitol of Richmond after months spent drilling and frustrating the Commander-in-Chief such that he sarcastically asked to borrow the army if McClellan was not planning on using it. Nonetheless, abolitionist James Sloan Gibbons wrote this stirring call which reflected continued support of the President despite the setbackS' of the previous year.

We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more, From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's shore; We leave our plows and workshops, our wives and children dear, With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear;
We dare not look behind us, but steadfastly before,
We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more.

We are coming, coming our union to restore,
We are coming, Father Abraham, with three hundred thousand more. If you look across the hilltops that meet the northern sky .
Long moving lines of rising dust your vision may descry;
And now the wind an instant, tears the cloudy veil aside,
And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in pride;
And bayonets in the sunlight gleam, and bands brave music pour,
We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more.

If you look all up our valleys, where the growing harvests shine, You may see our sturdy farmer boys fast forming into line;
And children from their mothers knees are pulling at the weeds,
And learning how to reap and sow, against their country's needs; And a farewell group stands weeping at every cottage door,
We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more.

You have called us and we're coming, by Richmond's bloody tide, To lay us down for Freedom's sake, our brother's bones beside;
Or from foul treason's savage group to wrench the murd'rous blade, And in the face of foreign foes its fragments to parade;
Six hundred thousand loyal men and true have gone before,
We are coming Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more.