Enjoyable and very playable, this stellar march is yet another example of Sousa’s complete mastery of the style. The Loyal Legion was written to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, an organization composed primarily of American Civil War officers and their descendants. The anniversary celebration was held in Philadelphia on April 15 and 16, 1890, and the U.S. Marine Band was ordered by the Secretary of the Navy to participate. The march was originally an entr'acte to the Sousa opera The Queen of Hearts, composed in 1885. The work is now available in a superb edition by Sousa scholar Loras John Schissel, which is exclusively endorsed by John Philip Sousa IV.