“When Johnny Comes Marching Home”

Cultural  

1. A popular song from the American Civil War. The first stanza is:

   When Johnny comes marching home again, hurrah! Hurrah!

   We'll give him a hearty welcome then, hurrah! Hurrah!

   The men will cheer, the boys will shout,

   The ladies, they will all turn out,

   And we'll all feel gay, when Johnny comes marching home.

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Example Sentences

And a patriotic medley that follows, featuring “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” and “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” is as blandly perfunctory as a middling college halftime show.

From Washington Post • Mar. 24, 2023

The selections reached back to early Americana that includes a carping song about Congress and a take that reduced “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” to a mournful dirge.

From Washington Post • Mar. 7, 2018

Musicians, meanwhile, indulged the sentiment, pumping out songs about longing for home – from the hurrahs of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” to the forlorn ballad of “Lorena.”

From Time • Jun. 30, 2015

“When Johnny Comes Marching Home” became a near-hysterical rant, with frenzied percussion and Ms. Upshaw’s possessed singing.

From New York Times • Jun. 19, 2011

He began having aural hallucinations — hearing Hebrew chants, big band standards like “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” and traditional American songs like “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” that no one else heard.

From New York Times • Jun. 5, 2011