<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Problems playing this file? See media help . </Td> </Tr> <P> "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (sometimes "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again") is a popular song from the American Civil War that expressed people's longing for the return of their friends and relatives who were fighting in the war . </P> <P> The lyrics to "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" were written by the Irish - American bandleader Patrick Gilmore during the American Civil War . Its first sheet music publication was deposited in the Library of Congress on September 26, 1863, with words and music credited to "Louis Lambert"; copyright was retained by the publisher, Henry Tolman & Co., of Boston . Why Gilmore chose to publish under a pseudonym is not clear, but popular composers of the period often employed pseudonyms to add a touch of romantic mystery to their compositions . Gilmore is said to have written the song for his sister Annie as she prayed for the safe return of her fiancé, Union Light Artillery Captain John O'Rourke, from the Civil War, although it is not clear if they were already engaged in 1863, as the two were not married until 1875 . </P> <P> Gilmore later acknowledged that the music was not original but was, as he put it in an 1883 article in the Musical Herald, "a musical waif which I happened to hear somebody humming in the early days of the rebellion, and taking a fancy to it, wrote it down, dressed it up, gave it a name, and rhymed it into usefulness for a special purpose suited to the times ." </P>

Who is johnny in when johnny comes marching home
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