This tune was very popular before World War I - the first recording was a 2-minute Edison cylinder in 1903 - but retained popularity during both World Wars, the version by Glenn Miller and his orchestra being especially significant.  F. W. Meacham usually worked as arranger rather than composer, for Victor Herbert musicals and Stephen Foster songs.

March 15, 2002, Archivist's Note: Since this exhibit went live, we have had several requests for the lyrics to "American Patrol." Our sheet music, published in 1914, has no lyrics. We believe that people are looking for the lyrics to "We Must Be Vigilant," a song from the 1942 movie When Johnny Comes Marching Home. This song's music was adapted by Joseph Burke from Meacham's "American Patrol." So the music is close to what is in our sheet music collection, but the lyrics, written by Edgar Leslie, do not appear on our copy of the music. The sheet music for the song was published in 1942 under the title "We Must Be Vigilant," with Burke and Leslie given as the creators. I have located at least one library that has a copy of this sheet music (Henderson Library doesn't appear to have one), so you might try Interlibrary Loan using "We Must Be Vigilant" as the title and Burke and/or Leslie as the author(s)/arranger(s). Happy hunting! - Julie Sikes, Archival Associate I