| Show from halls of montezuma marines fighting song dates to mexican war the united states marines have completed an investigation into the origin of their famous song from the halls of montezuma which they have made famous in almost every part of the world the results of the investigation reports a san francisco calif united press correspondent show that the song had its origin at the time of the invasion of mexico city in september 1847 near the close of the mexican war elated with victory of american arms over the mexicans an officer sat down in the aztec club and scribbled the first velse verse of the popular sea soldier ballad it is thus that the marines account for the beginning of the sprightly ballad which has since become a bulwark of their esprit de corps later the song grew by leaps and bounds verse after verse being added by some more or less inspired leatherneck the investigation of the origin of the song also developed the tact fact that the music came from an old french opera genevieve de brabant eventually however the number of verses became so lon long that the corps set in lor for a deliberate delibera te pruning of everything that was not in ac corrance cor dance with the traditions of the corps As the song now stands it consists of only three stanzas which begin with halls of montette Mont etty zuma the place of origin and end with the assurance that the marines will be found guarding the streets of heaven the song has been the battle cry of marines in the civil war the spanish american war the world war and in the scores of other international ter operations in which the marines have participated |
