File:Henry Clay Work, 1884 (alternate version).png

English: The American songwriter Henry Clay Work (1832–1884), famed for his Civil War-era compositions and collaboration with the popular firm Root & Cady. The original version of this restored photograph (link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Clay_Work.png) appeared in his an 1884 collection of his best-known publications titled "Songs".

Work, hailing from an abolitionist Connecticutian family, initiated his songwriting career in 1853 after migrating to Chicago. In 1861, at the Civil War's dawn, he started working for the local publishing firm Root & Cady; throughout the war, he churned out over twenty Unionist compositions. His songwriting career then stagnated, with only one subsequent composition managing to parallel the success of his Civil War-era tunes. He died largely forgotten in 1884 in the midst of a prolonged depression.

Whilst Work's popularity has not recovered since his death, his legacy must not be understated. Nowadays eclipsed by the likes of Stephen Foster, he was just as popular as Foster in his time. As the most prolific songwriter of the Civil War, he greatly contributed to boosting morale among Union troops, and aroused antislavery vigor with his minstrel songs. He even composed one of the first temperance songs in 1864.

Work's best known songs include "Kingdom Coming" (1862), "Come Home, Father" (1864), "Marching Through Georgia" (1865), "The Ship that Never Returned" (1865) and "My Grandfather's Clock" (1876), the last of which sold over a million copies of sheet music.