George Root (1820-1895) was born in Sheffield, MA to a highly musical family. He was the oldest of eight children and learned to play the flute, piano, and organ as a child. He moved to Boston when he was 18 and began to teach singing there; he was eventually one of the first public school music teachers in the country, teaching at a number of academies in New York starting in the early 1840s. In his mid-20s he started to write and publish music books intended for teaching music; he eventually published more than forty such collections. He also wrote over thirty cantatas, which at the time were considered educational. Root is best known today for his songs; he published over 200 popular tunes, hymns, and gospel songs as sheet music. His most famous songs include the pro-Union tunes he wrote during the Civil War, including “The Battle Cry of Freedom,” “The Vacant Chair,” and “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp,” which are still known today.