The Battle Hymn of the Republic

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

Often in music, the words are written and a tune is composed to meet the words. In the case of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, it was the opposite. Julia Ward Howe, a prominent early Suffragist and ardent Abolitionist toured a Union Army camp on the Potomac River in Virginia in 1861, near the beginning of the war in some if its darkest days. During that visit, she overheard Union soldiers singing a popular song, “John Brown’s Body Lies a-Molderin’ in the Grave” – about abolitionist John Brown who had attempted to instigate a slave uprising through a raid on an armory at Harpers’ Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), but was caught and hanged.

She loved the tune, but wanted to rewrite the lyrics to capture not only the dread of the time, but to also capture her faith in God’s providence and triumphant power during the time. She gave it to a friend who worked for the magazine The Atlantic Monthly, which published it in February of 1862. Mrs Howe received the sum of $5 for it.

It quickly became one of the most popular songs of the time, and continues to inspire. At one point during the Civil War, it was sung as a solo during a large Patriotic rally attended by Abraham Lincoln. When the song was concluded, President Lincoln rose to his feet with tears in his eyes and shouted “Sing it again!” It was.

The song has inspired our nation many times since, including in the National Cathedral after the Sept 11th, 2001 attacks in the United States.


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.


Chorus: Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps;
they have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps
His day is marching on.


He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
O be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant my feet
Our God is marching on.


In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
with a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;
as He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
while God is marching on.

Morgan, Robert J. Then Sings My Soul. Thomas Nelson, Inc. 2003.
http://www1.cbn.com/devotions/battle-hymn-republic-story-behind-song