As I’ve shared previously, I was exposed to all sorts of musical genres growing up. As a result, I’m particularly fond of men’s choral music. Recently I came across a performance of the Battle Hymn of the Republic performed by the Dyfnant Male Choir from Wales.
Listening to this version got me wondering about the history of this hymn. My research led me to The Kennedy Center website where I found the story behind the song which I’ve included below.
I hope you find the story behind the song and the link to the performance of this famous hymn of interest.
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Patriotic songs have the power to bring people together in a musical celebration of unity and love of country. But what do people sing when their country tears itself apart? That was the unhappy circumstance during the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861–1865. For four years, the fate of the country hung in the balance as two parts of America took aim at each other.
For the victors, one song came to represent all they were fighting for. To the conquered, it was a musical slap at their honor and pride. Here is the story behind Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Battle Lines Being Drawn
In 1860, American voters elected Abraham Lincoln as president. Although he personally hated slavery, Lincoln promised not to interfere with the slave system in southern states.
Most Southerners, however, were fighting mad about Lincoln’s election. They were convinced his true goal was to end slavery and control the South. One by one these states seceded, or broke away, from the United States to form the Confederate States of America. As president, Lincoln felt duty-bound to fight to keep “the Union” together; the South vowed to fight for its independence.
Writing Fighting Words
In November 1861, a woman named Julia Ward Howe and her husband visited Washington, D.C. While there, Howe, a published poet, heard Union troops belting out a well-known marching song called John Brown’s Body, after the famous abolitionist, John Brown. A preacher standing with Howe encouraged her to write new lyrics to the tune.
“I replied that I had often wished to do so,” Howe later wrote.
I… awoke the next morning in the gray of the early dawn, and to my astonishment found that the wished-for lines were arranging themselves in my brain. I lay quite still until the last verse had completed itself in my thoughts, then hastily arose, saying to myself, I shall lose this if I don’t write it down immediately. I… began to scrawl the lines almost without looking…. Having completed this, I lay down again and fell asleep, but not before feeling that something of importance had happened to me.”
That “something of importance” proved to be the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic. In February 1862, she sold her poem to the Atlantic Monthly, a well-known magazine, for five dollars.
The new song spread quickly through the Union armies and was adopted by Union supporters who wanted to teach the southern rebels a lesson. (Oddly, it had been a southerner named William Steffe who had written the original music.) Howe’s version was packed with Biblical imagery and phrasing.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
Howe took dead aim at slavery in her lyrics. She and her husband were strong anti-slavery activists, called abolitionists. Included in one verse of the hymn were the words “let us die to make men free”—to fight to end slavery, in other words. Howe’s new words also angered southerners. Not only did the song sing for an end to slavery, this “hymn”—a holy, church song—claimed that God was on the North’s side.
Despite pressures of the time to provide for her husband and home in very traditional ways, Julia Ward Howe was quite socially active in circles that included other authors such as Charles Margaret Fuller, Charles Sumner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Charles Dickens. A lyrical poet and prolific author in her own right, Howe is best remembered for her new words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic. She was active in prison reform, the fight to end slavery, and the fight to win equal rights for women.
Julia Ward Howe’s efforts for social justice continued after the war. In 1870, she campaigned for Mother’s Day for Peace, a precursor of Mother’s Day. She also pushed for women’s suffrage—the right for women to vote.
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