Biography
The name Gruber will forever be associated with school teacher and organist Franz Xaver Gruber who composed the most famous Christmas carol of all times: “Silent Night”. Brigadier General Edmund Louis Gruber had clearly inherited his forefather’s musical talent. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on Nov. 11, 1879 to a German-speaking immigrant family, and soon discovered his love for the military.
He attended the United States Military Academy, also known as West Point, in New York from 1900-1904, and upon graduation received a commission as a second lieutenant in the Artillery Corps. His first duty station was Fort Riley in Kansas, followed by Fort Douglas in Utah, and the first Fort D.A. Russell in Wyoming. In February of 1906, he set sail for the Philippine Islands where he served until April 1908. It was during his time in the Philippines, after a particularly grueling march when he heard a section chief shout “Come on! Keep’em rolling!”, that he wrote the 5th Artillery Regimental song, titled “The Caissons Go Rolling Along” with caissons referring to the large chests and wagons holding ammunition and supplies. John Philip Sousa, also a German American (his mother was from Bavaria), transformed it into a march in 1917, and renamed it the “U.S. Field Artillery Song”. The song underwent an additional change in 1956, and with new lyrics by Harold Arberg, it became the official U.S. Army song now retitled “The Army Goes Rolling Along”.
In 1909, he was once again sent to the Philippine Islands, a U.S colony after the country’s annexation in December of 1898, and still embroiled in the Moro Rebellion, which lasted until June 15, 1913.
After a short stint, Edmund Gruber came back to the United States in 1910, and spent several months at the Presidio of San Francisco until receiving orders to travel to the German Empire as a student officer at the Imperial Military Riding Institute in Hannover. He graduated from the school in August 1912, and once again returned to Kansas. The life of an army officer meant constant transfers and new assignments, and Gruber served with several regiments in Kansas and Oklahoma until he was once again sent to West Point to become an instructor in the Department of Tactics.
By that time, World War I was ravaging Europe, and Gruber’s career took off with a quick succession of promotions to captain, lieutenant colonel, and eventually a temporary promotion to colonel in 1918. In 1919, he resigned his commission to become the president and superintendent of the Kentucky Military Institute, and was subsequently recommissioned on July 1, 1920. He continued his service at various artillery units until his sudden death in the evening hours of May 30, 1941 during a game of bridge. He was cremated and his ashes were laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
Edmund Gruber was one of the most popular artillerymen of his time, but he was also known for his exceptional planning and leadership skills, and his good sense of judgment for which he received the Distinguished Service Medal. In 1942, the War Department named an Oklahoma infantry training camp in his honor, and Fort Bragg in North Carolina still features a major road that bears his name, but he will always be remembered as the writer of The Army Song.