U.S. Field Artillery March

The "U.S. Field Artillery March" is a patriotic military march of the United States Army written in 1917 by John Philip Sousa, based on an earlier work by Edmund L. Gruber. The refrain is the "Caissons Go Rolling Along". This song inspired the official song of the U.S. Army which is called "The Army Goes Rolling Along", although the current official lyrics and arrangement of that song are substantially different from those written for this song in 1917.

Sousa was briefly in the U.S. Navy during World War I, and he was asked by Army Lieutenant George Friedlander, of the 306th Field Artillery, to compose a march for his regiment. Friedlander suggested it be built around a song already known as The Caisson Song (alternatively The Field Artillery Song or The Caissons Go Rolling Along). The song was thought to perhaps be of Civil War origin, and was unpublished, and its composer believed to be dead. Sousa agreed, changed the harmonic structure, set it in a different key, refined the melody, made the rhythm more snappy, and added further new material.

Sousa and Lieutenant Friedlander were surprised to later learn that the composer of The Caisson Song was still living and that the song had been written in 1908 by artillery First Lieutenant (later Brigadier General) Edmund L. Gruber, with some help on the lyrics from lieutenant William Bryden, and Lieutenant (later Major General) Robert Danford, while stationed at Fort Stotsenburg in the Philippines. Reportedly, Gruber may have been influenced by music composed by Alfred C. Montin at Fort Sheridan in Illinois, shortly before his unit was transferred to Fort Sill in Oklahoma.

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