THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
GIFT OF
COMMODORE BYRON MCCANDLESS
THE STORY OF
THE BATTLE HYMN
OF THE REPUBLIC
BY
FLORENCE HOWE HALL
HARPER & BROTHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
THE STORY OF THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC
Copyright, 1916, by Harper & Brothers
Printed in the United States of America
Published October. 1916
9S
0017
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author wishes to express her cordial thanks
to Messrs. Houghton & Mifflin for their courtesy
in allowing her to quote a number of passages from
the Reminiscences of Julia Ward Howe (published
by them in 1899) and several from Julia Ward
Howe (published by them in 1916).
962511
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE ANTI-SLAVERY PRELUDE TO THE GREAT
TRAGEDY OF THE CIVIL WAR 3
II. THE CRIME AGAINST KANSAS 21
in. MRS. HOWE VISITS THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC 38
IV. "THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC" . . 49
V. THE ARMY TAKES IT UP 64
VI. NOTABLE OCCASIONS WHERE IT HAS BEEN SUNG 73
VII. How AND WHERE THE AUTHOR RECITED IT . . 88
VIII. TRIBUTES TO "THE BATTLE HYMN" .... 96
IX. MRS. HOWE'S LESSER POEMS OF THE CIVIL WAR 107
X. MRS. HOWE'S LOVE OF FREEDOM AN INHERITANCE 121
THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE
REPUBLIC
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.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires 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.
I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of
steel:
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my
grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with
his heel,
Since God is marching on,"
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never
call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judg-
ment-seat:
Oh! 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.
THE STORY OF
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF
THE REPUBLIC"
THE ANTI-SLAVERY PRELUDE TO THE GREAT
TRAGEDY OF THE CIVIL WAR
The encroachments of the slave power on Northern soil Green
Peace, the home of Julia Ward Howe, a center of anti-slavery
activity She assists her husband, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe,
in editing the Commonwealth He is made chairman of the
Vigilance Committee Slave concealed at Green Peace Charles
Sumner is struck down in the United States Senate.
THE "Battle Hymn of the Republic," "the
crimson flower of battle," bloomed in a
single night. It sprang from the very soil of the
conflict, in the midst of the Civil War. Yet the
plant which produced it was of slow growth, with
roots reaching far back into the past.
In order to understand how this song of our
3
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
nation sprang into sudden being we must study
that stormy past the prelude of the Civil War.
How greatly it affected my mother we shall see
from her own record, as well as from the story of
the events that touched her so nearly. My own
memory of them dates back to childhood's days.
Yet they moved and stirred my soul as few things
have done in a long life.
Therefore I have striven to give to the present
generation some idea of the fervor and ferment,
the exaltation of spirit, that prevailed at that
epoch among the soldiers of a great cause, es-
pecially as I saw it in our household.
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel.
So many years have elapsed since the evil
monster of slavery was done to death that we
sometimes forget its awful power in the middle
of the last century. The fathers of the Republic
believed that it would soon perish. They forbade
its entrance into the Territories and were careful
to make no mention of it in the Constitution.
The invention of the cotton-gin changed the
whole situation. It was found that slave labor
could be used with profit in .the cultivation of the
cotton crop. But slave labor with its wasteful
4
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
methods exhausted the soil. Slavery could only
be made profitable by constantly increasing its
area. Hence, the Southern leaders departed from
the policy of the fathers of the Republic. Instead
of allowing slavery to die out, they determined to
make it perpetual. Instead of keeping it within
the limits prescribed by the ancient law of the
land, they resolved to extend it.
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 gave the first
extension of slavery, opening the great Territory of
Missouri to the embrace of the serpent. The fugi-
tive-slave law was signed in 1850. Before this time
the return of runaway negroes had been an un-
certain obligation. The new law took away from
State magistrates the decision in cases of this sort
and gave it to United States Commissioners. It
imposed penalties on rescues and denied a jury
trial to black men arrested as fugitives, thus
greatly endangering the liberties of free negroes.
The Dred Scott decision (see page 10), deny-
ing that negroes could be citizens, was made in
1854. In 1856 the Missouri Compromise was re-
pealed by the Kansas and Nebraska law. 1 Ad-
1 Abraham Lincoln said of this law: "I look upon that enactment
not as a law, but as a violence from the beginning. It was conceived
in violence and is being executed in violence" (letter to Joshua F.
Speed, August 24, 1855).
5
THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC
territory was thrown open to the sinister
institution which now threatened to become like
the great Midgard snake, holding our country in
Hs suffocating embrace, as that creature of fable
surrounded the earth. It was necessary to fling
off the deadly coils of slavery if we were to endure
as a free nation.
The first step was to arouse the sleeping con-
agicncr of the people. For the South was not
alone in wishing there should be no interference
with their "peculiar institution." The North was
hp supine an I <i~~.~'L-i any men MWUMCfll
that might interfere with trade and national
rity. I can well remember my father's
pointing thi* out to his children, and inveighing
against the selfishness of the merchants as a class.
Alas! it was a Northern man, Stephen A. Douglas,
who was the father of the "Kansas and Nebraska
bflL
"The trumpet note of Garrison" had sounded,
some years before this time, the first note of anti-
slavery protest. But the Garrisonian abolitionists
did not seek to carry the question into politics.
laoWd, they held it to be wrong to vote under the
Federal Constitution, "A league with death and
a covenant with hefl," as they called it. Whit-
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
tier, the Quaker poet, took a more practical view
than his fellow-abolitionists and advocated the use
of the ballot-box
When the encroachments of the slave power
began to threaten seriously free institutions
throughout the country, thinking men at the
North saw that the time for political action had
come. There were several early organizations
which preceded the formation of the Republican
party the Liberty party, Conscience Whigs, Free-
soilers, as they were called. My father belonged
to the two latter, and I can well remember that
my elder sister and I were nicknamed at school,
"Little Free-Dirters."
The election of Charles Sumner to the United
States Senate was an important victory for the
anti-slavery men. Dr. Howe, as his most intimate
friend, worked hard to secure it. Yet we see by
my father's letters that he groaned in spirit at
the necessity of the political dickering which he
hated.
Women in those days neither spoke in public
nor took part in political affairs. But it may be
guessed that my mother was deeply interested in
all that was going on in the world of affairs, and
under her own roof, too, for our house at South
7
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
Boston became one of the centers of activity of
the anti-slavery agitation.
My father (who was some seventeen years
older than his wife) well understood the power of
the press. He had employed it to good effect in his
work for the blind, the insane, and others. Hence
he became actively interested in the management
of the Commonwealth, an anti-slavery newspaper,
and with my mother's help edited it for an entire
winter. They began work together every morn-
ing, he preparing the political articles, and she
the literary ones. Burning words were sent forth
from the quiet precincts of "Green Peace." My
mother had thus named the homestead, lying in
its lovely garden, when she came there early in
her married life. Little did she then dream that
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise would dis-
turb its serene repose some ten years later.
The agitation had not yet become so strong as
greatly to affect the children of the household.
We played about the garden as usual and knew lit-
tle of the Commonwealth undertaking, save as it
brought some delightful juveniles to the editorial
sanctum. The little Howes highly approved of
this by-product of journalism!
Our mother's pen had been used before this time
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
to help the cause of the slave. As early as 1848
she contributed a poem to The Liberty Bell, an
annual edited by Mrs. Maria Norton Chapman
and sold at the anti-slavery bazars. "In my
first published volume, Passion Flowers, appeared
some lines 'On the Death of the Slave Lewis,'
which were wrung from my indignant heart by a
story alas! too common in those days of mur-
derous outrage committed by a master against his
human chattel" (Recollections of the Anti-Slavery
Struggle, Julia Ward Howe).
Another method of arousing the conscience of
the nation was through the public platform. My
father and his friends were anxious to present the
great question in a perfectly fair way. So a series
of lectures was given in Tremont Temple, where
the speakers were alternately the most prominent
advocates of slavery at the South and its most
strenuous opponents at the North. Senator
Toombs, of Georgia, and General Houston, of
Texas, were among the former.
It was, probably, at this lecture course that my
father exercised his office as chairman in an un-
usual way. In those days it was the custom to
open the meeting with prayer, and some of the
contemporary clergymen were very long-winded.
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
Dr. Howe informed each reverend gentleman be-
forehand that at the end of five minutes he should
pull the latter's coat-tail. The divines were in
such dread of this gentle admonition that they in-
variably wound up the prayer within the allotted
time.
At this time no criticism of the "peculiar insti-
tution" was allowed at the South. Northerners
traveling there were often asked for their opinion of
it, but any unfavorable comment evoked dis-
pleasure. Indeed, a friend of ours, a Northern
woman teaching in Louisiana, was called to book
because in his presence she spoke of one of the
slaves as a "man." A negro, she was informed,
was not a man, and must never be so called. "Boy"
was the proper term to use. This was a logical
inference from Judge Taney's famous Dred Scott
decision viz., that "such persons," i. e., negroes,
"were not included among the people" in the
words of the Declaration of Independence, and
could not in any respect be considered as citizens.
Yet, to quote Abraham Lincoln again, "Judge
Curtis, in his dissenting opinion, shows that in five
of the then thirteen States to wit, New Hamp-
shire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and
North Carolina free negroes were voters, and in
10
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
proportion to their numbers had the same part in
making the Constitution that the white people
had."
Events now began to move with ever-increasing
rapidity. The scenes of the stirring prelude to the
Civil War grew ever more stormy. Men became
more and more wrought up as the relentless
purpose of the Southern leaders was gradually
revealed. The deadly serpent of slavery became
a hydra-headed monster, striking north, east, and
west. The hunting of fugitive slaves took on a
sinister activity in the Northern "border" States;
at the national capital the attempts to muzzle free
speech culminated in the striking down of Charles
Sumner in the Senate Chamber itself; in Kansas
the "border ruffians" strove to inaugurate a
reign of terror, and succeeded in bringing on a local
conflict which was the true opening of the Civil
War.
The men who combated the dragon of slavery
the Siegfrieds of that day fought him in all
these directions. In Boston Dr. Howe was among
the first to organize resistance to the rendition of
fugitive slaves. An escaped negro was kidnapped
there in 1846. This was four years before the pas-
sage by Congress of the fugitive-slave law made
2 11
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
it the duty ( !) of the Free States to return runaway
negroes to slavery. My father called a meeting of
protest at Faneuil Hall. He was the chief speaker
and "every sentence was a sword-thrust" (T. W.
Higginson's account). I give a brief extract from
his address:
"The peculiar institution which has so long been
brooding over the country like an incubus has at
length spread abroad its murky wings and has
covered us with its benumbing shadow. It has
silenced the pulpit, it has muffled the press; its in-
fluence is everywhere. . . . Court Street can find no
way of escape for the poor slave. State Street,
that drank the blood of the martyrs of liberty
State Street is deaf to the cry of the oppressed
slave; the port of Boston that has been shut up
by a tyrant king as the dangerous haunt of free-
men the port of Boston has been opened to the
slave-trader; for God's sake, Mr. Chairman, let
us keep Faneuil Hall free!"
Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, and Theodore
Parker also spoke. John Quincy Adams presided
at the meeting.
The meeting resulted in the formation of a
vigilance committee of forty, with my father as
chairman. This continued its work until the
12
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
hunting of fugitives ceased in Boston. Secrecy
necessarily characterized its proceedings. An un-
dated note from Dr. Howe to Theodore Parker
gives us a hint of them:
1 DEAR T. P. Write me a note by bearer. Tell him merely
whether I am wanted to-night; if I am he will act accordingly
about bringing my wagon.
I could bring any one here and keep him secret a week and
no person except Mrs. H. and myself would know it.
Yours,
CHEV. 2
This letter raises an interesting question. Were
fugitives concealed, unknown to us children, in
our house? It is quite possible, for both our
parents could keep a secret. I remember a young
white girl who was so hidden from her drunken
father until other arrangements could be made for
her. I remember also a negro girl, hardly more
than a child, who was secreted beneath the roof
of Green Peace. Her mistress had brought her to
Boston as a servant. Since she was not a run-
away, the provisions of the odious fugitive-slave
1 From The Journal* and Lettert of Samuel Gridley Howe. Dana,
Estes & Co.
2 "Chev" was the abbreviation of Chevalier, a title bestowed on
him for his services in the Greek Revolution. He was called
"Cbev" by certain intimate friends.
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
law did not apply to her. Here at least we
could cry:
No fetters in the Bay State!
No slave upon her land!
My father applied to the courts and in due process
of time Martha was declared free so long as she
remained on Northern soil. It may be guessed
that she did not care to return to the South!
The feeling of the community was strongly op-
posed to taking part in slave-hunts. Yankee in-
genuity often found a way to escape this odious
task, and yet keep within the letter of the law.
A certain United States marshal thus explained
his proceedings:
"Why, I never have any trouble about run-
away slaves. If I hear that one has come to
Boston I just go up to Nigger Hill [a part of Joy
Street] and say to them, 'Do you know of any
runaway slaves about here?' And they never do !"
This was a somewhat unique way of giving
notice to the friends of the fugitive that the
officers of the law were after him.
If he could only escape over the border into free
Canada he was safe. According to the English
law no slave could remain such on British soil,
14
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
The moment he "shook the Lion's paw" he be-
came free. Our law in these United States is
founded on the English Common Law. Alas! the
pro-slavery party succeeded in overthrowing it.
No wonder that Senator Toombs, of Georgia,
boasted that he would call the roll of his slaves
under the shadow of Bunker Hill Monument.
The fugitive-slave law gave him the power to do
this, and thus make our boasted freedom of the
soil only an empty mockery.
The vigilance committee did its work well, and
for some time no runaway slaves were captured in
Boston. One poor wretch was finally caught.
My mother thus describes the event:
"At last a colored fugitive, Anthony Burns by
name, was captured and held subject to the
demands of his owner. The day of his rendition
was a memorable one in Boston. The court-
house was surrounded by chains and guarded with
cannon. The streets were thronged with angry
faces. Emblems of mourning hung from several
business and newspaper offices. With a show of
military force the fugitive was marched through
the streets. No rescue was attempted at this
time, although one had been planned for an earlier
date. The ordinance was executed; Burns was
15
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
delivered to his master. But the act once con-
summated in broad daylight could never be re-
peated " (from Julia Ward Howe's Recollections of
the Anti-Slavery Struggle).
So great was the public indignation against the
judge who had allowed himself to be the instru-
ment of the Federal Government in the return of
Burns to slavery that he was removed from office.
Shortly afterward he left Boston and went to live
in Washington.
The attempts to enforce the fugitive-slave law
at the East failed, as they were bound to fail.
The efforts to muzzle free speech at the national
capital were more successful for a time.
The task of Charles Sumner in upholding the
principles of freedom in the United States Senate
was colossal. For long he stood almost alone, "A
voice crying in the wilderness, make straight the
paths of the Lord." Fortunately he was endowed
by nature with a commanding figure and presence
and a wonderful voice that fitted him perfectly for
his great task. My mother thus described him:
"He was majestic in person, habitually reserved
and rather distant in manner, but sometimes un-
bent to a smile in which the real geniality of his
soul seemed to shed itself abroad. His voice was
16
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
ringing and melodious, his gestures somewhat
constrained, his whole manner, like his matter,
weighty and full of dignity."
As an old and intimate friend, my father some-
times urged him to greater haste in his task of
combating slavery at the national capital. Thus
Charles Sumner writes to him from Washington,
February 1, 1854:
DEAR HOWE Do not be impatient with me. I am doing
all that I can. This great wickedness disturbs my sleep, my
rest, my appetite. Much is to be done, of which the world
knows nothing, in rallying an opposition. It has been said
by others, that but for Chase and Sumner this Bill would
have been rushed through at once, even without debate.
Douglas himself told me that our opposition was the only
sincere opposition he had to encounter. But this is not true.
There are others here who are in earnest.
My longing is to rally the country against the Bill 1 and
I desire to let others come forward and broaden our front.
Our Legislature ought to speak unanimously. Our people
should revive the old report and resolutions of 1820. 2
At present our first wish is delay, that the country may
be aroused.
"Would that night or Bliicher had come!"
God bless you always!
C. S.
1 The Kansas and Nebraska bill.
2 Protesting against the Missouri Compromise.
17
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
In the fateful spring of 1856 Dr. and Mrs. Howe
were in Washington. They saw both Charles
Sumner and Preston Brooks. My mother has
given us pictures of the two men as she then saw
them:
"Charles Sumner looked up and, seeing me in
the gallery, greeted me with a smile of recognition.
I shall never forget the beauty of that smile.
It seemed to me to illuminate the whole precinct
with a silvery radiance. There was in it all the
innocence of his sweet and noble nature." *
"At Willard's Hotel I observed at a table near
our own a typical Southerner of that time, hand-
some, but with a reckless and defiant expression
of countenance which struck me unpleasantly.
This was Preston Brooks, of South Carolina." 2
During one of his visits to the Howes, Sumner
said:
"I shall soon deliver a speech in the Senate
which will occasion a good deal of excitement. It
will not surprise me if people leave their seats and
show signs of unusual disturbance."
My mother comments thus:
1 From Reminiscences by Julia Ward Howe. Houghton, Mifflin
&Co.
2 Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Struggle. By Julia Ward Howe.
18
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
"At the moment I did not give much heed to his
words, but they came back to me, not much later,
with the force of prophecy. For Mr. Sumner did
make this speech, and though at the moment
nothing was done against him, the would-be
assassin only waited for a more convenient season
to spring upon his victim and to maim him for life.
Choosing a moment when Mr. Sumner's imme-
diate friends were not in the Senate Chamber,
Brooks of South Carolina, armed with a cane of
india-rubber, attacked him in the rear, knocking
him from his seat with one blow, and beating
him about the head until he lay bleeding and
senseless upon the floor. Although the partisans
of the South openly applauded this deed, its
cowardly brutality was really repudiated by all
who had any sense of honor, without geographical
distinction. The blow, fatal to Sumner's health,
was still more fatal to the cause it was meant to
serve, and even to the man who dealt it. Within
one year his murderous hand was paralyzed in
death, and Sumner, after hanging long between
life and death, stood once more erect, with the
aureole of martyrdom on his brow, and with the
dear-bought glory of his scars a more potent
witness for the truth than ever. His place
19
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
in the Senate remained for a time eloquently
empty." 1
Hon. Miles Taylor, of Louisiana, defended in the
Senate the attack on Sumner. A part of his
speech makes curious reading:
"If this new dogma" (the evil of slavery)
"should be received by the American people with
favor, it can only be when all respect for revola-
tion . . . has been utterly swept away by such a
flood of irreligion and foul philosophy as never
before set in."
1 Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Struggle. By Julia Ward Howe.
II
THE CRIME AGAINST KANSAS
Border ruffians from Missouri carry Kansas elections with pistol and
bowie-knife. They prevent peaceable Free State emigrants from
entering the national teiritory Dr. Howe carries out aid from New
England Clergymen and Sharp's rifles Mrs. Howe's indignant
verses She opens the door for John Brown, the hero of the war
in Kansas Gov. Andrew, Theodore Parker, Charles Sumner
The attack on Fort Sumter "The death-blow of slavery."
THESE assaults by the serpent of slavery on
the free institutions of the North and East
were dangerous enough, yet, like other evils, they
brought their own remedies with them. Such an
open attack on free speech as that on Sumner
was sure to be resented, while the forcible carrying-
off of fugitive slaves under the shadow of old
Faneuil Hall aroused a degree of wrath that even
the pro-slavery leaders saw was ominous.
"The crime against Kansas" was still more
alarming because it threatened to turn a free
Territory into a slave State. In 1854 the Kansas
and Nebraska bill had been passed, repealing the
21
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
Missouri Compromise and exposing a vast area of
virgin soil to the encroachments of the "peculiar
institution."
The Free-soil men were speedily on the alert.
During that same year of 1854 two Massachu-
setts colonies were sent out to Kansas, others
going later.
But the leaders of the slave power had no inten-
tion of allowing men from the free States to settle
peacefully in Kansas. They had repealed the
Missouri Compromise with the express purpose of
gaining a new slave State, and this was to be ac-
complished by whatever means were necessary.
It was an easy matter to send men from Missouri
into the adjacent Territory of Kansas to vote
there and then to return to their homes across the
Mississippi.
The New York Herald of April 20, 1855, pub-
lished the following letter from a correspondent in
Brunswick, Missouri:
From five to seven thousand men started from Missouri
to attend the election, some to remove, but the most to re-
turn to their families, with an intention, if they liked the
Territory, to make it their permanent abode at the earliest
moment practicable. But they intended to vote. . . . Indeed,
every county furnished its quota; and when they set out it
22
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
looked like an army They were armed Fifteen hundred
wore on their hats bunches of hemp. They were resolved
if a tyrant attempted to trample upon the rights of the
sovereign people to hang him.
It will be noted that "the rights of the sovereign
people" were to go to the ballot-box not in their
own, but in another State. These "border ruf-
fians " took possession of the polls and carried the
first election with pistol and bowie-knife.
The pro-slavery leaders strove to drive out the
colonists from the free States and to prevent ad-
ditional emigrants from entering the Territory. A
campaign of frightfulness was inaugurated with
the usual result.
Governor Geary of Kansas, although a pro-
slavery official himself, wrote (Dec. 22, 1856) that
he heartily despised the abolitionists, but that
" The persecutions of the Free State men here were
not exceeded by those of the early Christians."
My father was deeply interested in the coloniza-
tion of Kansas and in the struggle for freedom
within its borders. He helped in 1854 to organize
the "New England Emigrant Aid Company"
which assisted parties of settlers to go to the
Territory. In 1856 matters began to look very
dark for the colonists from the free States. "Dr,
23
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
Howe was stirred to his highest activity by the
news from Kansas and by the brutal assault on
Charles Sumner" (F. B. Sanborn). With others
he called and organized the Faneuil Hall meeting.
He was made chairman of its committee, and at
once sent two thousand dollars to St. Louis for
use in Kansas. This prompt action had an im-
portant effect on the discouraged settlers. Soon
afterward he started for Kansas to give further
aid to the colonists.
"I have traversed the whole length of the State
of Iowa on horseback or in a cart, sleeping in
said cart or in worse lodgings, among dirty men
on the floor of dirty huts. We have organized
a pretty good line of communication between
our base and the corps of emigrants who have
now advanced into the Territory of Nebraska.
Everything depends upon the success of the at-
tempt to break through the cordon infernale which
Missouri has drawn across the northern frontier of
Kansas." 1
In another letter he writes:
The boats on the river are beset by spies and ruffians,
are hauled up at various places and thoroughly searched for
anti-slavery men.
1 Letter from Dr. S. G. Howe to Charles Sumner,
24
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
He thus describes the emigrants : x
CAMP OF THE EMIGRATION, NEBRASKA TERRITORY,
July 29, '56.
The emigration is indeed a noble one; sturdy, industrious,
temperate, resolute men. ... I wish our friends in the East
could know the character and behavior of these emigrants.
They are and have been for two weeks encamped out upon
these vast prairies in their tents and waggons waiting pa-
tiently for the signal to move, exhausting all peaceful re-
sources and negotiations before resorting to force.
There is no liquor in the whole camp; no smoking, no
swearing, no irregularity. They drink cold water, live mostly
on mush and rice and the simplest, cheapest fare. They have
instruction for the little children; they have Sunday-schools,
prayer-meetings, and are altogether a most sober and earnest
community. Most of the loafers have dropped off. The
Wisconsin company, about one hundred, give a tone to all
the others. I could give you a picture of the drunken, rollick-
ing ruffians who oppose this emigration but you know it.
Will the North allow such an emigration to be shut out
of the National Territory by such brigands?
In another letter he tells us that among the
emigrants were thirty -eight women and children
grandfathers and grandmothers, too, journeying
with their live stock in carts drawn by. oxen .to
the promised land.
Journals and Letters of Samuel Gridley Howe. Dana, Estes'&'Co:
25
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
He says nothing of danger to himself, but Hon.
Andrew D. White tells us that "Dr. Howe had
braved death again and again while aiding the
Free State men against the pro-slavery myrmidons
of Kansas."
The strength of the movement may be judged
from the fact that during this year (1856) the
people of Massachusetts sent one hundred thou-
sand dollars in money, clothing, and arms to help
the Free State colonists. This money did not
come from the radicals only, but from "Hunkers,"
as they were then called i. e., conservative and
well-to-do citizens. My father wrote: "People
pay readily here for Sharp's rifles. One lady
offered me one hundred dollars the other day,
and to-day a clergyman offered me one hundred
dollars."
My mother was greatly moved by these tragic
events the assault on Sumner and the civil war
in Kansas. In Words for the Hour a volume of
her poems published in 1857 we find a record of
her just indignation. In the "Sermon of Spring"
she describes Kansas as:
Wearing the green nodding plumes of the Court of the Prairie,
Gyves on her free-born limbs, on her fair arms shackles,
Blood on her garments, terror and grief in her features.
26
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
"Tremble," she cried, "tho' the battle seem thine for a season,
Not a drop of my blood shall be wanting to judge thee.
Tremble, thou fallen from mercy' ere fallen from office"
This poem, which is a long one, contains a
tribute to Sumner, as do also "Tremont Temple,"
"The Senator's Return," and "An Hour in the
Senate." I give a brief extract from the last
named:
Falls there no lightning from yon distant heaven
To crush this man's potential impudence?
Shall not its outraged patience thunder: "Hence!
Forsake the shrine where Liberty was given!"
"The strong shall rule, the arm of force have sway,
The helpless multitude in bonds abide "
Again the chuckle and the shake of pride
"God's for the stronger so great Captains say."
Yet, rise to answer, chafing in thy chair,
With soul indignant stirred, and flushing brow.
Thou art God's candidate speak soothly now,
Let every word anticipate a prayer.
Gather in thine the outstretched hands that strive
To help thy pleading, agonized and dumb; ,
Bear up the hearts whose silent sorrows come
For utterance, to the voice that thou canst give.
3 27
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
In the same volume are verses entitled "Slave
Eloquence" and "Slave Suicide."
How did the children of the household feel dur-
ing this period of "Sturm und Drang"? To the
older ones, at least, it was a most exciting time.
While we did not by any means know of all that
was going on, we felt very strongly the electric
current of indignation that thrilled through our
home, as well as the stir of action. My father
early taught us to love freedom and to hate
slavery. He gave us, in brief, clear outline, the
story of the aggressions of the slave power. We
knew of the iniquity of the Dred Scott decision
before we were in our teens. Child that I was, I
was greatly moved when he repeated Lowell's
well-known lines:
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim
unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His
own.
My father had always something of the soldier
about him a quick, active step, gallant bearing,
and a voice tender, yet strong, "A voice to lead a
regiment." This was the natural consequence of
his early experiences in the Greek War of Inde-
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
pendence, when he served some seven years as
surgeon, soldier, and most important of all
almoner of America's bounty to the peaceful
population. The latter would have perished of
starvation save for the supplies sent out in re-
sponse to Dr. Howe's appeals to his countrymen.
The greater part of his life was devoted to the
healing arts of the good physician. Yet the por-
traits of him, taken during the tremendous strug-
gle of the anti-slavery period, show a sternness not
visible in his younger nor yet in his later days.
In her poem "A Rough Sketch" my mother
described him as he seemed to her at this time:
A great grieved heart, an iron will,
As fearless blood as ever ran;
A form elate with nervous strength
And fibrous vigor, all a man.
Charles Sumner came often to Green Peace when
he was in Boston. We children greatly admired
him. He seemed to us, and doubtless to others,
a species of superman. I can hardly think of
those days without the organ accompaniment of
his voice deeper than the depths, round and full.
When our friend was stricken down in the Senate,
great was our youthful indignation. Many were
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
the arguments held with our mates at school and
dancing-school, often the children of the "Hunker"
class. They sought to justify the attack, and we
replied with the testimony of an eye-witness to
the scene (Henry Wilson, afterward Vice-President
of the United States) and the fact that a colleague
of Brooks stood, waving a pistol 1 in each hand,
to prevent any interference in behalf of Sumner.
We had heard about the cruel "Mochsa" with
which his back was burned in the hope of cure, and
we lamented his sufferings.
John A. Andrew, afterward the War Governor
of the State, was another intimate of our house-
hold, a great friend of both our parents. Genial
and merry, as a rule, he yet could be sternly elo-
quent in the denunciation of slavery.
Indeed, it was a speech of this nature which first
brought him into prominence. In the Massa-
chusetts Legislature of 1858 the most striking
figure was that of Caleb Gushing. He had been
Attorney-General in President Franklin Pierce's
Cabinet and was one of the ablest lawyers in the
United States. When all were silent before his
1 History declares that a colleague of Brooks did thus stand, to
prevent any one's coming to Sumner's assistance. About the
pistols, I am not sure.
30
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
oratory and no one felt equal to opposing this
master of debate, Andrew, a young advocate, was
moved, like another David, to attack his Goliath.
In a speech of great eloquence he vindicated the
action of the Governor and the Legislature in
removing from office the judge who had sent
Anthony Burns back into slavery and thus out-
raged the conscience of the Bay State. As a
lawyer he sustained his opinion by legal prec-
edents.
"When he took his seat there was a storm of
applause. The House was wild with excitement.
Some members cried for joy; others cheered,
waved their handkerchiefs, and threw whatever
they could find into the air." 1
And so, like David, he won not only the battle
of the day, but the leadership of his people in the
stormy times that soon followed.
When a box of copperhead snakes was sent to
our beloved Governor we were again indignant.
(Political opponents had not then learned to send
gifts of bombs.)
From Kansas itself Martin F. Conway came to
us, full of fiery zeal for the Free State cause, al-
though born south of Mason and Dixon's line.
1 Sketch of John Albion Andrew by Eben F. Stone.
SI
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
He later represented the young State in Congress.
Samuel Downer and George L. Stearns we often
saw; both were very active in the anti-slavery
cause. The latter was remarkable for a very long
and beautiful beard, brown and soft, like a
woman's hair and reaching to his waist.
We heard burning words about the duty of
Massachusetts during these assaults of the slave
power. Could she endure them, or should she not
rather seek to withdraw from the Union?
These words sound strangely to us now, but it
must be remembered that in the fifties we had seen
our fair Bay State made an annex to slave terri-
tory. Men might well ask one another, " Can the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts endure the dis-
grace of having slave-hunts within her borders?"
"The Irrepressible Conflict" had come. When
the pro-slavery leaders forced the fugitive-slave
law through Congress they struck a blow at the
life of the nation as deadly as that of Fort Sumter.
The latter was the inevitable sequel of the former.
We saw often at Green Peace another intimate
friend of our parents Theodore Parker, the famous
preacher and reformer. As he wore spectacles
and was prematurely bald, he did not leave upon
our childish minds the impression of grandeur
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
inseparably connected with Charles Sumner. Yet
the splendid dome of his head gave evidence of his
great intellect, while his blue eyes looked kindly
and often merrily at us. Having no children of
his own, he would have liked to adopt our youngest
sister, could our parents have been persuaded to
part with her.
Theodore Parker advocated the anti-slavery
cause with great eloquence in the pulpit. He also
belonged to my father's vigilance committee and
harbored fugitive slaves in his own home. To one
couple of runaway negroes he presented a Bible and
a sword after marrying them legally a thing not
always done in the day of slavery. My father suc-
ceeded in sending away from Boston the man who
attempted to carry them back to the South, and
William and Ellen Croft found freedom in England.
Theodore Parker's sermons had a powerful in-
fluence on his great congregation, of which my
mother was for some time a member. In one of
her tributes to him she tells us how he drew them
all toward the light of a better day and prepared
them also for "the war of blood and iron."
"I found that it was by the spirit of the higher
humanity that he brought his hearers into sym-
pathy with all reforms and with the better society
33
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
that should ripen out of them. Freedom for
black and white, opportunity for man and woman,
the logic of conscience and the logic of progress
this was the discipline of his pulpit. . . . Before
its [the Civil War's] first trumpet blast blew his
great heart had ceased to beat. But a great body
of us remembered his prophecy and his strategy
and might have cried, as did Walt Whitman at a
later date, 'O captain, my captain!'" 1
Rev. James Freeman Clarke, our pastor for
many years, was among those whose visits gave
pleasure and inspiration as well to our household.
He did not hesitate to preach anti-slavery doc-
trines, unpopular as they were, from his pulpit.
My mother says of him at this time:
"In the agitated period which preceded the Civil
War and in that which followed it he in his modest
pulpit became one of the leaders, not of his own
flock alone, but of the community to which he
belonged. I can imagine few things more in-
structive and desirable than was his preaching in
those troublous times, so full of unanswered ques-
tion and unreconciled discord." 2
Her beloved minister was among those who
1 Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Struggle. By Julia Ward Howe.
2 Reminiscences by Julia Ward Howe.
34
"THE BATTLE HYMN OP THE REPUBLIC"
accompanied my mother on the visit to the army
which inspired "The Battle Hymn of the
Republic." This was written to the tune of:
John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave,
His soul is marching on.
"Old Ossawotamie Brown" was the true hero
of the bloody little war in Kansas, where the Free
State men finally prevailed, though many lives
were lost. He has been called " Savior of Kansas
and Liberator of the Slave." He came at least
once to Green Peace. My mother has described
her meeting with him. My father had told her
some time previously about a man who "seemed
to intend to devote his life to the redemption of
the colored race from slavery, even as Christ had
willingly offered His life for the salvation of man-
kind." One day he reminded her of the person
so described, and added: "That man will call here
this afternoon. You will receive him. His name
is John Brown." . . .
Later, my mother wrote of this meeting:
"At the expected time I heard the bell ring, and,
on answering it, beheld a middle-aged, middle-
sized man, with hair and beard of amber color
streaked with gray. He looked a Puritan of the
35
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
Puritans, forceful, concentrated, and self-con-
tained. We had a brief interview, of which I only
remember my great gratification at meeting one
of whom I had heard so good an account. I saw
him once again at Dr. Howe's office, and then
heard no more of him for some time." 1
Elsewhere she has written apropos of his raid
at Harper's Ferry:
"None of us could exactly approve an act so
revolutionary in its character, yet the great-hearted
attempt enlisted our sympathies very strongly.
The weeks of John Brown's imprisonment were
very sad ones, and the day of his death was one of
general mourning in New England." 2
With the election of Lincoln we seemed to come
to smoother times. We young people certainly
did not realize that we were on the brink of civil
war, although friends who had visited the South
warned us of the preparations going on there.
If there should be any struggle, it would be a
brief one, people said.
Suddenly, like a flash of lightning out of a clear
sky, came the firing on Sumter. My father came
triumphantly into the nursery and called out to
his children: "Sumter has been fired upon!
1 From Reminiscences by Julia Ward Howe. 2 Ibid,
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
That's the death-blow of slavery." Little did he
or we realize how long and terrible the conflict
would be. But he knew that the serpent had re-
ceived its death -wound. All through the long
and terrible war he cheered my mother by his
unyielding belief hi the ultimate success of our
arms.
So the prelude ended and the greater tragedy
began. The conflict of ideas, the most soul-
stirring period of our history, passed into the con-
flict of arms. In the midst of its agony the stead-
fast soul of a woman saw the presage of victory
and gave the message, a message never to be for-
gotten, to her people and to the world.
m
MRS. HOWE VISITS THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC
The Civil War breaks out Dr. Howe is appointed a member of the
Sanitary Commission Mrs. Howe accompanies him to Washing-
ton She makes her maiden speech to a Massachusetts regiment
She sees the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps She visits
the army and her carriage is involved in a military movement
She is surrounded by "Burnished rows of steel."
"finHE years between 1850 and 1857, eventful
JL as they were, appear to me almost a period
of play when compared with the time of trial which
was to follow. It might have been likened to the
tuning of instruments before some great musical
solemnity. The theme was already suggested, but
of its wild and terrible development who could
have had any foreknowledge?"
In her Reminiscences my mother thus compares
the Civil War and its prelude. Again she says of
the former:
"Its cruel fangs fastened upon the very heart of
Boston and took from us our best and bravest.
From many a stately mansion father or son went
38
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
forth, followed by weeping, to be brought back
for bitterer sorrow."
Mercifully she was spared this last. My father
was too old for military service and no longer in
vigorous health, being in his sixtieth year when the
war broke out; my eldest brother was just thirteen
years of age. Nevertheless she was brought into
close touch with the activities of the great struggle
from the beginning.
On the day when the news of the attack on
Fort Sumter was received Dr. Howe wrote to
Governor Andrew, offering his services:
" Since they will have it so in the name of God,
Amen ! Now let all the governors and chief men of
the peopleseetoit that war shall not ceaseuntil eman-
cipation is secure. If I can be of any use, anywhere,
in any capacity (save that of spy), command me." 1
With what swiftness the "Great War Governor
of Massachusetts " acted at this time is matter of
history. Two days after the President issued a
call for troops, three regiments started for Wash-
ington. Massachusetts was thus the first State
to come to the aid of the Union the first, alas!
to have her sons struck down and slain.
Journals and Letters of Samuel Gridley Howe. Dana,
Estes & Co.
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
Governor Andrew was glad to avail himself of
Dr. Howe's offer of aid. The latter's early ex-
periences in Greece made his help and counsel
valuable both to the State and to the nation.
Gen. Winfield Scott, Commander -in-Chief of the
Army, and Governor Andrew requested him, on
May 2, 1861, to make a sanitary survey of the
Massachusetts troops in the field at and near the
national capital. Before the end of the month
the Sanitary Commission was created, Dr. Howe
being one of the original members appointed by
Abraham Lincoln.
Governor Andrew was almost overwhelmed
with the manifold cares and duties of his office.
Our house was one of the places where he took
refuge when he greatly needed rest. He was
obliged to give up going to church early in the
war because many people followed him there,
importuning him with requests of all sorts.
Thus the questions of the Civil War were
brought urgently to my mother's mind in her
own home, just as those of the anti-slavery
period had been a year or two before.
To quote her Reminiscences again:
"The record of our State during the war was a
proud one. The repeated calls for men and for
40
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
money were always promptly and generously
answered. And this promptness was greatly for-
warded by the energy and patriotic vigilance of
the Governor. I heard much of this at the time,
especially from my husband, who was greatly at-
tached to the Governor and who himself took an
intense interest in all the operations of the war.
... I seemed to live in and along with the war,
while it was in progress, and to follow all its ups
and downs, its good and ill fortune with these two
brave men, Dr. Howe and Governor Andrew.
Neither of them for a moment doubted the final
result of the struggle, but both they and I were
often very sad and much discouraged."
Governor Andrew was often summoned to
Washington. Dr. Howe's duties as a member of
the Sanitary Commission also took him there.
Thus it happened that my mother went to the
national capital in their company in the late
autumn of 1861. Mrs. Andrew, the Governor's
wife, Rev. James Freeman Clarke, and Mr. and
Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple were also of the party.
As they drew near Washington they saw omi-
nous signs of the dangers encompassing the city.
Mrs. Howe noticed little groups of armed men
sitting near a fire pickets guarding the railroad,
41
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
her husband told her. For the Confederate Army
was not far off, the Army of the Potomac lying like
a steel girdle about Washington, to protect it.
This was my mother's first glimpse of the Union
Army which later made such a deep impression
upon her mind and heart. I have always fancied,
though she does not say so, that some of the vivid
images of the "Battle Hymn" were suggested by
the scenes of this journey.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires 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!
Arrived at Washington, the party established
themselves at Willard's Hotel. Evidences of the
war were to be seen on all sides. Soldiers on
horseback galloped about the streets, while am-
'bulances with four horses passed by the windows
and sometimes stopped before the hotel itself.
Near at hand, my mother saw "The ghastly ad-
vertisement of an agency for embalming and for-
warding the bodies of those who had fallen in the
42
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
fight or who had perished by fever." 1 In the
vicinity of this establishment was the office of the
New York Herald.
Governor Andrew and Dr. Howe were busy with
their official duties; indeed, the former was under
such a tremendous pressure of work and care
that he died soon after the close of the war.
The latter "carried his restless energy and in-
domitable will from camp to hospital, from battle-
field to bureau." His reports and letters show
how deeply he was troubled by the lack of proper
sanitation among the troops.
My mother again came in touch with the Army,
visiting the camps and hospitals in the company
of Mr. Clarke and the Rev. William Henry Chan-
ning. It need hardly be said that these excursions
were made in no spirit of idle curiosity.
In ordinary times she would not look at a cut
finger if she could help it. I remember her telling
us of one dreadful woman who asked to be shown
the worst wound in the hospital. As a result this
morbid person was so overcome with the horror
of it that the surgeon was obliged to leave his
patient and attend to the visitor, while she went
from one fainting fit into another!
1 Reminiscences.
4 43
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
Up to this time my mother had never spoken in
public. It was from the Army of the Potomac
that she first received the inspiration to do so.
In company with her party of friends she had made
"a reconnoitering expedition," visiting, among
other places, the headquarters of Col. William B.
Greene, of the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery.
The colonel, who was an old friend, warmly wel-
comed his visitors. Soon he said to my mother,
"Mrs. Howe, you must speak to my men."
What did he see in her face that prompted him to
make such a startling request?
It must be remembered that in 1861 the women
of our country were, with some notable exceptions,
entirely unaccustomed to speaking in public. A
few suffragists and anti-slavery leaders addressed
audiences, but my mother had not at this time
joined their ranks.
Yet she doubtless then possessed, although
she did not know it, the power of thus express-
ing herself. Colonel Greene must have read
in her face something of the emotion which
poured itself out in the "Battle Hymn." He
must have known, too, that she had already
written stirring verses. So he not only asked, but
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
insisted that she should address the men under
his command.
"Feeling my utter inability to do this, I ran
away and tried to hide myself in one of the
hospital tents. Colonel Greene twice found me
and brought me back to his piazza, where at last I
stood and told as well as I could how glad I was
to meet the brave defenders of our cause and how
constantly they were in my thoughts." 1
I fear there is no record of this, her maiden
speech.
Throughout her long life church-going was a
comfort, one might almost say a delight, to her.
During this visit to Washington, where the weeks
brought so many sad sights, she had the pleasure
of listening on Sunday to the Rev. William Henry
Channing. Love of his native land induced him
to leave his pulpit in England and to return to
this country in her hour of darkness and danger.
My mother tells us that this nephew of the great
Dr. Channing was heir to the latter's spiritual
distinction and deeply stirred by enthusiasm in a
noble cause. "On Sundays his voice rang out,
clear and musical as a bell, within the walls of the
Unitarian church" 2 her own church. Thus she
1 Reminiscences. 2 Ibid,
to
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
listened both in Washington and in Boston, her
home city, to men who were patriots as well as
priests.
As she tells the story, one sees how almost all the
circumstances of her environment tended to pro-
mote her love of country and to stir the emotions
of her deeply religious nature. It was by no
accident that the national song which bears her
name is a hymn. Written at that time and amid
those surroundings, it could not have been any-
thing else.
Among her cherished memories of this visit was
an interview with Abraham Lincoln, arranged for
the party by Governor Andrew. "I remember
well the sad expression of Mr. Lincoln's deep blue
eyes, the only feature of his face which could be
called other than plain. . . . The President was
laboring at this time under a terrible pressure of
doubt and anxiety." 1
The culminating event of her stay in Washing-
ton was the visit to the Army of the Potomac on
the occasion of a review of troops. As the writ-
ing of the "Battle Hymn" was the immediate re-
sult of the memorable experiences of that day, I
shall defer their consideration till the next chapter.
1 Reminiscences.
46
"THE "BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
I have thus sketched briefly the train of events
and experiences both before and during the Civil
War which led up to the composition of this
national hymn. The seed had lain germinating
for years at the last it sprang suddenly into
being. My mother's mind often worked in this
way. It had a strongly philosophic tendency which
made her think long and study deeply. But she
possessed, also, the fervor of the poet. Her men-
tal processes were often extremely rapid, es-
pecially under the stress of strong emotion. She
herself thought the quick action of her mind was
due to her red-haired temperament. The two
opposing characteristics of her intellect, delibera-
tion and speed, were perhaps the result of the
mixed strains of her blood inherited from English
and French ancestors.
The student of her life will note a number of
sudden inspirations, or visions, as we may call
them. Before these we can usually trace a long
period of meditation and reflection. Her peace
crusade, her conversion to the cause of woman
suffrage, her dream of a golden time when men
and women should work together for the better-
ment of the world, were all of this description.
The "Battle Hymn" was the most notable of
47
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
these inspirations. In her Recollections of the
Anti-Slavery Struggle she ascribes its composition
to two causes the religion of humanity and the
passion of patriotism. The former was a plant of
slow growth. In her tribute to Theodore Parker, 1
she tells us how this developed under his preach-
ing, and how he prepared his hearers for the war of
blood and iron that soon followed.
My mother had long cherished love for her
country, but it burned more intensely when the
war came, bursting into sudden flame after that
memorable day with the soldiers.
"When the war broke out, the passion of
patriotism lent its color to the religion of humanity
in my own mind, as in many others, and a
moment came in which I could say:
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!
and the echo which my words awoke in many
hearts made me sure that many other people
had seen it also." 2
1 See Chap, ii, page 33.
z Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Struggle.
IV
THE BATTLE HYMN OP THE BEPUBLIC
"The crimson flower of battle blooms" in a single night The vision
in the gray morning twilight It is written down in the half-
darkness on her husband's official paper of the U. S. Sanitary
Commission How it was published in the Atlantic Monthly
and the price paid for it The John Brown air derived from a
camp-meeting hymn The simple story in her own words.
OVER and over again, so many times that she
lost count of them, was my mother asked to
describe the circumstances under which she com-
posed "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
Fortunately she wrote them down, so that we are
able to give "the simple story" in her own words.
The following account is taken in part from her
Reminiscences and in part from the leaflet printed
in honor of her seventieth birthday, May 27, 1889,
by the New England Woman's Club. She was
president of this association for about forty years:
"I distinctly remember that a feeling of dis-
couragement came over me as I drew near the city
of Washington. I thought of the women of my
49
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
acquaintance whose sons or husbands were fight-
ing our great battle; the women themselves
serving in the hospitals or busying themselves
with the work of the Sanitary Commission. My
husband, as already said, was beyond the age of
military service, my eldest son but a stripling;
my youngest was a child of not more than two
years. I could not leave my nursery to follow the
march of our armies, neither had I the practical
deftness which the preparing and packing of san-
itary stores demanded. Something seemed to
say to me, 'You would be glad to serve, but you
cannot help any one; you have nothing to give,
and there is nothing for you to do.' Yet, because
of my sincere desire, a word was given me to say
which did strengthen the hearts of those who
fought in the field and of those who languished in
prison.
"In the late autumn of the year 1861 I visited
the national capital with my husband, Dr. Howe,
and a party of friends, among whom were Governor
and Mrs. Andrew, Mr. and Mrs. E. P. Whipple,
and my dear pastor, Rev. James Freeman Clarke.
"The journey was one of vivid, even roman-
tic, interest. We were about to see the grim
Demon of War face to face, and long before we
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
reached the city his presence made itself felt in the
blaze of fires along the road, where sat or stood
our pickets, guarding the road on which we traveled.
"One day we drove out to attend a review of
troops, appointed to take place at some distance
from the city. In the carriage with me were
James Freeman Clarke and Mr. and Mrs. Whipple.
The day was fine, and everything promised well,
but a sudden surprise on the part of the enemy
interrupted the proceedings before they were well
begun. A small body of our men had been sur-
rounded and cut off from their companions, re-
enforcements were sent to their assistance, and
the expected pageant was necessarily given up.
The troops who were to have taken part in it were
ordered back to their quarters, and we also turned
our horses' heads homeward.
"For a long distance the foot soldiers nearly
filled the road. They were before and behind,
and we were obliged to drive very slowly. We
presently began to sing some of the well-known
songs of the war, and among them:
'John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave.'.
This seemed to please the soldiers, who cried,
'Good for you,' and themselves took up the strain.
51
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
Mr. Clarke said to me, 'You ought to write some
new words to that tune.' I replied that I had
often wished to do so.
"In spite of the excitement of the day I went to
bed and slept as usual, but awoke next morning in
the gray of the early dawn, and to my astonish-
ment found that the wished-for lines were ar-
ranging 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 searched for a sheet of paper and an old stump
of a pen which I had had the night before and
began to scrawl the lines almost without looking,
as I had learned to do by often scratching down
verses in the darkened room where my little chil-
dren were sleeping. Having completed this, I
lay down again and fell asleep, but not without
feeling that something of importance had hap-
pened to me."
It will be noted that the first draft of the
"Battle Hymn" was written on the back of a
sheet of the letter-paper of the Sanitary Com-
mission on which her husband was then serving.
Mr. A. J. Bloor, the assistant secretary of that
body, has called attention to this. His account
fit
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
of the eventful day is given at the close of this
chapter.
My mother gave the original draft of the "Bat-
tle Hymn" to her friend, Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple,
"who begged it of me, years ago." Hence below
the letter-heading:
SANITARY COMMISSION, WASHINGTON, D. C.
TREASURY BUILDING
1861
we find the inscription
WILLARD'S HOTEL
JULIA W. HOWE
TO
CHARLOTTE B. WHIPPLE
The draft remained for many years in the pos-
session of the latter, until it was sent to Messrs.
Houghton & Mifflin, in order to have a facsimile
made for the Reminiscences.
Mr. and Mrs. Whipple were among the familiar
friends of our household in those days. The
former achieved brilliant successes both as a writer
and as a lecturer. He was greatly interested in
the anti-slavery agitation; "His eloquent voice
was raised more than once in the cause of human
53
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
freedom." The younger members of our family
remember him best for his ready and delightful
wit. The fact that he -was decidedly homely
seemed to give additional point to his funny say-
ings. Mrs. Whipple was as handsome as her
husband was plain sweet-tempered and sym-
pathetic, yet not wanting in firmness.
Before publishing the poem the author made
a number of changes, all of which are, as I think,
improvements. The last verse, which is an anti-
climax, was cut out altogether.
We find from her letters that she hesitated to
allow the publication of the original draft of the
"Battle Hymn" 1 because it contained this final
verse. She did not consider it equal to the rest of
the poem. 2 After consulting other literary people,
in her usual painstaking way, she decided to have
the first draft published. 3 It will be noted that
in the first verse "vintage" has been substituted
for "wine press." The first line of the third verse
read originally,
I have read a burning gospel writ in fiery rows of steel.
1 Reminiscences, 1899.
2 In the reprint of the " Battle Hymn," made in England for the
use of the soldiers during the present war, this discarded verse has,
through some misunderstanding, been included.
8 See Julia Ward Howe, Vol. II, Chap. xi.
54
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
The later version,
I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel :
brings out more clearly the image of the long lines
of bayonets as they glittered in her sight on that
autumn afternoon. In the fourth verse the second
line was somewhat vague in the first draft,
He has waked the earth's dull bosom with a high ecstatic beat,
The allusion was probably to the marching feet
of the armed multitude. The new version,
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat:
is more direct and simple, hence accords better
with the deeply religious tone of the poem.
In the last stanza,
In the whiteness of the lilies he was born across the sea,
now reads,
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
A number of people have asked the meaning
of this line. The allusion is evidently to the lilies
carried by the angel, in pictures of the annunciation
to the Virgin, these flowers being the emblem of
purity.
55
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
The original version of the second line read,
With a glory in his bosom that shines out on you and me,
The present words,
Transfigures you and me,
give us a clearer and more beautiful image. The
passion of the poem seems, indeed, to lift on high
and glorify our poor humanity.
It is interesting to note that my mother asso-
ciated with her husband the line,
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
Not long before her death, new buildings were
erected at Watertown, Massachusetts, for the
Perkins Institution for the Blind, founded and
administered for more than forty years by Dr.
Howe. His son-in-law, Michael Anagnos, ably
continued the work during thirty more years.
When we were talking about a suitable inscrip-
tion in memory of the latter, I suggested to my
mother the use of this line. The answer was,
"No, that is for your father "
The original draft of the "Battle Hymn" isdated
November, 1861 ; it was published in the Atlantic
Monthly for February, 1862. The verses were
56
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
printed on the first page, being thus given the
place of honor. According to the custom of that
day, no name was signed to them. James T.
Fields was then editor of the magazine. My
mother consulted him with regard to a name for
the poem. It was he, as I think, who christened
it "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." The
price paid for it was five dollars. But the true
price of it was a very different thing, not to be
computed in terms of money. It brought its
author name and fame throughout the civilized
world, in addition to the love and honor of her
countrymen. As she grew older and the spiritual
beauty of her life and thought shone out more and
more clearly, the affection in which she was held
deepened into something akin to veneration.
The "Battle Hymn " soon found its way from the
pages of the Atlantic Monthly into the newspapers,
thence to army hymn-books and broadsides. It
has been printed over and over again, in a great
variety of forms, sometimes with the picture of the
author, as in the Perry prints. A white silk hand-
kerchief now in my possession bears the line,
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
worked in red embroidery silk.
67
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
My mother was called upon to copy the poem
times without number. While she was very willing
to write a line or even, upon occasion, a verse or two,
she objected very decidedly, especially in her later
years, to copying the whole poem. Always re-
sponsive to the requests of the autograph fiend,
she felt that so much should not be asked of her.
For it naturally took time and trouble to make the
fair copy that came up to her standard. It was
with some difficulty that I persuaded her to send
a promised copy to Edmund Clarence Stedman,
for his collection.
"But mamma, you said you would write it out
for him."
With a roguish twinkle, she replied, "Yes, but
I did not say when."
However, the verses were duly executed and
sent to the banker-poet.
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" has been
translated into Spanish, Italian, Armenian, and
doubtless other languages. New tunes have been
composed for it, but they have failed of accept-
ance. My mother dearly loved music and was a
trained musician, hence her choice of a tune was no
haphazard selection. She wrote her poem to the
"John Brown" air and they cannot be divorced.
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
I have been so fortunate as to secure from
Franklin B. Sanborn an account of the origin of
the words and music of the "John Brown" song.
Mr. Sanborn, biographer of Thoreau, John Brown,
and others, is the last survivor of the brilliant
group of writers belonging to the golden age of
New England literature.
CONCORD, MASS., 1916.
DEAR MRS. HALL I investigated quite thoroughly the
air to which the original John Brown folk song was set; . . .
I happened to be in Boston the day that Fletcher
Webster's regiment (the 12th Mass. Volunteers) came up
from Fort Warren, landed on Long Wharf, and marched
up State Street past the old State House, on their way to
take the train for the Front, in the summer of 1861. As
they came along, a quartette, of which Capt. Howard Jenkins,
then a sergeant in this regiment, was a tenor voice, was
singing something sonorous, which I had never heard. I
asked my college friend Jacobsen, of Baltimore, who stood
near me, "What are they singing?" He replied, "That boy
on the sidewalk is selling copies." I approached him and
bought a handbill which, without the music, contained the
rude words of the John Brown song, which I then heard
for the first time, but listened to a thousand times afterward
during the progress of the emancipating Civil War before
they were superseded by Mrs. Howe's inspired lines, which
now take their place almost everywhere.
The chorus was borne by the marching soldiers, who had
5 59
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
practised it in their drills at the Fort; indeed, it had been
adapted from a camp-meeting hymn to a marching song,
for which it is admirably fitted, by the bandmaster of Col.
Webster's regiment, and afterward revised by Dodworth's
military band, then the best in the country. It was this
thrilling music, with its resounding religious chorus, which
Mrs. Howe, in company with our Massachusetts Governor
Andrew, heard near the Potomac, the next November, in
the evening camps that encircled Washington.
Yours ever,
F. B. SANBOBN.
The following account of Mrs. Howe's visit to
Washington and of the circumstances connected
with the writing of the "Battle Hymn" was
written by Mr. A. J. Bloor, assistant secretary of
the U. S. Sanitary Commission:
"JULIA WARD HOWE
"It was the writer's privilege to be introduced
early in the Civi War to Julia Ward Howe, the
author of 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic,'
and now, through the fullness of her days, the
dean of American literature, though recognized
long ago as having employed her high gift of
utterance not merely as the magnet to attract to
herself an advantageous celebrity, but para-
mountly as the instrument for the righting of
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
wrong and the amelioration of the current con-
ditions of humanity.
"I was presented to Mrs. Howe by her husband,
Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, a companion of Lord
Byron in aiding the Greeks to throw off the yoke
of the Turks, and the philanthropist who opened
the gates of hope to the famous Laura Bridgman,
born blind, deaf, and dumb. Dr. Howe invented
various processes by which he rescued her from
her living tomb, as he subsequently did others
born to similar deprivations, and he was careful
to leave on record such exhaustive and clear state-
ments as to his methods that, after his decease, the
track was well illumined wherein later any well-
doer for other victims in like case might open to
them, through their single physical sense of touch,
the doors leading to all earthly knowledge so far
stored in letters. . . .
"Dr. Howe, on the outbreak of the Civil War,
consented to serve as a member of the U. S.
Sanitary Commission, a volunteer organization
of influential Union men, springing from a central
association in New York City for the relief of the
forces serving in the war, and consisting of a few
Union ladies, one of whom, Miss Louisa Lee
Schuyler, suggested the formation of a similar but
61
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
larger and wider-spread body of men, representing
the Union sentiment of the whole North, into
which her own society should be merged as one of
so it turned out many branches.
"Such a body was accordingly enrolled and,
with Dr. Bellows, a prominent Unitarian clergy-
man of the day, as its president, was appointed a
commission, by President Lincoln, as a quasi
Bureau of the War Department, to complement
the appliances and work of the Government's
Medical Bureau and Commissariat, which, at the
sudden outbreak of the war, were very deficient.
"Of this commission I was the assistant secre-
tary, with headquarters at its central office in
Washington. . . . On the occasion of General
McClellan's first great review of the Army of the
Potomac numbering at that time about seventy
thousand men at Upton's Hill, in Virginia, not
far from the enemy's lines, Dr. Howe asked me to
accompany him thither on horseback to see it,
which I did. Mrs. Howe had preceded us, with
several friends, by carriage, and it was there, in
the midst of the blare and glitter and bedizened
simulacra of actual and abhorrent warfare, that
he did me the honor of presenting me to his wife,
then known, outside her private circle, only as
62
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
the author of a book of charming lyrical essays;
but for years since recognized, and doubtless, in
the future, will be adjudged, the inspired creator
of a war song which for rapt outlook, reverent
mysticism, and stateliness of expression, as well
as for more widely , appreciated patriotic ardor,
has more claim, in my estimation, to be styled a
hymn than not a few that swell the pages of some
of our hymnals. I have always thought it an
honor even for the Sanitary Commission with all
its noble work of help to the nation in its straits,
and of mercy to the suffering, that Julia Ward
Howe's * Battle Hymn of the Republic' should
have been written on paper headed 'U. S. Sani-
tary Commission,' as may be seen by a facsimile
of it in her delightful volume of reminiscences.
It seems a pity that Mrs. Howe, an accomplished
musical composer in private, as well as a poet in
public, should not herself have set the air for her
own words in that famous utterance of insight,
enthusiasm, and prophecy."
THE ARMY TAKES IT UP
Gloom in Libby Prison, July 6, 1863 The victory of Gettysburg-
Chaplain McCabe sings " Mine eyes have seen the glory of the
coming of the Lord" Five hundred voices take up the chorus
The "Battle Hymn" at the national capital The great throng
shout, sing, and weep Abraham Lincoln listens with a strange
glory on his face The army takes up the song.
"rriHE Battle Hymn of the Republic" was in-
JL spired by the tremendous issues of the war,
as they were brought vividly to the poet's mind
by the sight of the Union Army.
My mother had seen all that she describes she
had been a part of the great procession of "bur-
nished rows of steel" when her carriage was sur-
rounded by the Army. She had heard the sol-
diers singing:
"John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave,
His soul is marching on."
Old John Brown who had
Died to make men free,
whose spirit the army knew to be with them!
64
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
All this sank deeply into the heart of the poet.
The soul of the Army took possession of her.
The song which she wrote down in the gray
twilight of that autumn morning voiced the
highest aspirations of the soldiers, of the whole
people. Hence, when the armies of freedom heard
it, they at once hailed it as then' own. My mother
writes in her Reminiscences:
"The poem, which was soon after published
in the Atlantic Monthly, was somewhat praised on
its appearance, but the vicissitudes of the war
so engrossed public attention that small heed was
taken of literary matters. I knew, and was con-
tent to know, that the poem soon found its way
to the camps, as I heard from time to time of its
being sung in chorus by the soldiers."
This was the beginning, but the interest in-
creased as the "Battle Hymn" became more and
more widely known, until it grew to be one of the
leading lyrics of the war. It was "sung, chanted,
recited, and used in exhortation and prayer on
the eve of battle." "It was the word of the
hour, and the Union armies marched to its
swing."
The "singing chaplain" Rev. Charles Card-
well McCabe of the 122d Ohio Regiment of
65
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
Volunteers, did much to popularize this war
lyric. Reading it in the Atlantic Monthly, he was
so charmed with the lines that he committed
them to memory before arising from his chair. A
year or so later, while attending the wounded men
of his regiment, after the battle of Winchester
(June, 1863), he was taken prisoner and carried
to Libby Prison. Here he was a living benedic-
tion to the prisoners. Deeply religious by nature
and blest with a cheerful, happy disposition, he
kept up the spirits of his companions, ministering
alike to their bodily and spiritual needs. Thus he
begged three bath-tubs for them, an inestimable
treasure, even though these had to serve the needs
of six hundred men. Books, too, he procured for
them, for the prisoners at this time comprised a
notable company of men doctors, teachers, ed-
itors, merchants, lawyers. "We bought books
when we needed bread," the chaplain tells us.
With the music of his wonderful voice he was
wont to dispel the gloom that often settled upon
the inmates of the prison. Many stories are told
of its power, pathos, and magnetism. Whenever
the dwellers in old Libby felt depression settling
upon their spirits they would call out, "Chap-
lain, sing us a song." Then "The heavy load
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
that oppressed us all seemed as by magic to be
lifted."
1 July 6, 1863, was a dark day for the prisoners.
They were required to cast lots for the selection
of two captains who were to be executed. These
officers were taken to the dungeon below and told
to prepare for death. Then the remaining men
huddled together discussing the situation. The
Confederate forces were marching north, and a
terrible battle had been fought. Grant was striv-
ing to capture Vicksburg, the key to the Missis-
sippi, with what result they did not know. The
Richmond newspapers brought tidings of disaster
to the Union armies. In startling head-lines the
prisoners read : " Meade defeated at Gettysburg."
"The Northern Army fleeing to the mountains."
"Grant repulsed at Vicksburg." "The campaign
closed in disaster."
A pall deeper and darker than death settled
upon the Union prisoners. The poor, emaciated
fellows broke down and cried like babies. They
lost all hope. "We had not enough strength left
to curse God and die," as one of them said later.
"By and by 'Old Ben/ a negro servant, slipped
1 This account of the day in Libby Prison is compiled from the
Washington Star and from the Life of Chaplain McCabe.
67
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
in among them under pretense of doing some work
about the prison; concealed under his coat was
a later edition of the paper, on which the ink
was scarcely dry. He looked around upon the
prostrate host, and called out, 'Great news in de
papers.' If you have never seen a resurrection,
you could not tell what happened. We sprang to
our feet and snatched the papers from his hands.
Some one struck a light and held aloft a dim
candle. By its light we read these head-lines:
"'Lee is defeated! His pontoons are swept
away! The Potomac is over its banks! The
whole North is up in arms and sweeping down
upon him!'
"The revulsion of feeling was almost too great to
endure. The boys went crazy with joy. They
saw the beginning of the end." Chaplain McCabe
sprang upon a box and began to sing:
"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord "
and the five hundred voices sang the chorus,
" Glory, Glory, Hallelujah," as men never sang
before. The old negro rolled upon the floor in
spasms of joy. I must not forget to add that the
two captains were not executed, after all.
Chaplain McCabe remained in Libby Prison
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
until October, 1863, when an attack of typhoid
fever nearly cost him his life. As soon as his
health would permit, he resumed his labors in be-
half of the Army, this tune as a delegate of the
United States Christian Commission. His deep
religious feeling, of which patriotism was an in-
tegral part, had a great influence among the
soldiers. Wherever he went he took the "Battle
Hymn" with him. "He sang it to the soldiers
in camp and field and hospital; he sang it in school-
houses and churches; he sang it at camp-meetings,
political gatherings, and the Christian Commission
assemblies, and all the Northland took it up." 1
As he wrote the author:
"I have sung it a thousand times since and
shall continue to sing it as long as I live. No
hymn has ever stirred the nation's heart like 'The
Battle Hymn of the Republic.'"
I must not forget to say that the singing chap-
lain made excellent use of this war lyric to raise
funds for the work among the soldiers. With
his matchless voice he sang thousands of dollars
out of the people's pockets into the treasury of
the Christian Commission.
On February 2, 1864, a meeting in the interests
1 Life of Chaplain McCabe.
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
of the Christian Commission was held in the hall
of the House of Representatives at Washington.
Hannibal Hamlin, Vice-President of the United
States, presided. Abraham Lincoln was present,
and an immense audience filled the hall. Various
noted men spoke; then Chaplain McCabe made
a short speech and, "by request,' sang the "Bat-
tle Hymn." The effect on the great throng was
magical. "Men and women sprang to their feet
and wept and shouted and sang, as the chaplain
led them in that glorious 'Battle Hymn'; they
saw Abraham Lincoln's tear-stained face light up
with a strange glory as he cried out, 'Sing it
again! 9 and McCabe and all the multitude sang
it again." 1
Doubtless many Grand Army posts have
among their records stories of the inspiring in-
fluence of this song in times of trouble or danger.
Such an anecdote was related at the Western home
of Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, where Acker Post
had been invited to meet my mother:
"Capt. Isaac Mahan affectingly described a
certain march on a winter midnight through
eastern Tennessee. The troops had been for days
without enough clothing, without enough food.
* Life of Chaplain McCabe.
70
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
They were cold and wet that stormy night, hun-
gry, weary, discouraged, morose. But some one
soldier began, in courageous tones, to sing 'Mine
eyes have seen ' Before the phrase was finished
a hundred more voices were heard about the hope-
ful singer. Another hundred more distant and
then another followed until, far to the front and
away to the rear, above the splashing tramp of
the army through the mud, above the rattle of
the horsemen, the rumble of the guns, the creaking
of the wagons, and the shouts of the drivers, there
echoed, louder and softer, as the rain and wind-
gusts varied, the cheerful, dauntless invocation
of the 'Battle Hymn.' It was heard as if a
heavenly ally were descending with a song of
succor, and thereafter the wet, aching marchers
thought less that night of their wretched selves,
thought more of their cause, their families, their
country."
Mr. A. J. Bloor, assistant secretary of the
United States Sanitary Commission, has given us
some vivid pictures of the soldiers as they sang
the hymn:
"Time and again, around the camp-fires scat-
tered at night over some open field, when the
Army of the Potomac or a portion of it was on
71
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
the march, have I heard the 'Battle Hymn of
the Republic' generally, however, the first verse
only, but in endless repetition sung in unison by
hundreds of voices occasions more impressive
than that of any oratorio sung by any musical
troupe in some great assembly-room. And I re-
member how, one night in the small hours, re-
turning to Washington from the front, by Govern-
ment steamer up the Potomac, with a party of
'San. Com.' colleagues and Army officers, mostly
surgeons, we found our horses awaiting us at the
Seventh Street dock; and how, mounting them,
we galloped all the long distance to our quarters,
singing the 'Battle Hymn' this time the whole
of it at the top of our voices."
VI
NOTABLE OCCASIONS WHERE IT HAS BEEN SUNG
By great crowds in the street after Union victories in the Civil War
On the downfall of Boss Croker At Memorial Day celebrations
from the Atlantic to the Pacific At the Chicago convention
where the General Federation of Women's Clubs indorsed
woman suffrage At Brown University and Smith College when
Mrs. Howe received the degree of LL.D.
THE Battle Hymn of the Republic" has been
sung and recited thousands of times, by
all sorts of people under widely varying circum-
stances, yet the key-note of it is most fitly struck
when men and women are lifted out of themselves
by the power of strong emotion. In times of
danger and of thanksgiving the "Battle Hymn"
is now, as it was in the 'sixties, the fitting vehicle
for the expression of national feeling. Indeed, it
has been so used in other countries as well as in
our own. In my mother's journal the entry often
occurs, "They sang my 'Battle Hymn.'" Usu-
ally she makes no comment.
73
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
It would, of course, be impossible and it might
be tedious to rehearse all the notable occasions
where this national song has been given. Yet
many of them have been so full of interest as to
demand a place in the story of the "Battle
Hymn." The record would be incomplete with-
out them. I give a few which will serve as
samples.
In New York City there was a good deal of dis-
loyal sentiment during the Civil War. Here the
draft riots took place in the summer of 1863, when
the guns from the battle of Gettysburg were rushed
to the metropolis. Here the cannon, their wheels
still deeply incrusted with mud, were drawn up,
a grim reminder to the rioters of the actual
meaning of war. To these the sight of a uniform
was odious. My husband, David Prescott Hall,
then a young lad returning from a summer camp-
ing trip, was chased through the streets by some
excited individuals. As he had a knapsack on his
back, they mistook him for a soldier.
It need scarcely be said that New York City
had also a large loyal population. In the early
days of the war men suspected of secession sym-
pathies were visited by deputations of citizens who
insisted upon their displaying the flag. They
74
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
found it wiser to do so. After one of the final
victories of the war, perhaps the taking of Rich-
mond, a great crowd gathered before the bulletin-
board of a New York newspaper. Some one
started to sing the "Battle Hymn" and the
whole mass of people took it up, "Glory, Glory,
Hallelujah!" What else could so well have ex-
pressed the joy and thanksgiving of our people,
weary of four long years of fratricidal war! My
husband, who was present, described the scene as
being most impressive.
F. B. Sanborn in his Early History of Kansas
tells us an interesting story of the singing of the
"Battle Hymn" on a very different occasion.
"People were gathered together to hear a ser-
mon from Col. James Montgomery, a man of un-
daunted courage and a veteran both of the Civil
War and of the Kansas struggle. The place was
Trading Post, where, during the Kansas troubles,
some fourteen years before this time, a massacre
had been perpetrated. Among his audience were
survivors and relatives of the slain. There were
present, too, a score of men who had * shouted
amen when then* renowned leader registered his
vow that the blood of the dead and the tears of
the widows and children should not be shed in
6 75
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
vain.' Montgomery was of the indomitable
Scotch-Irish blood, tall and slender, with a shaggy
shock of long black hair and even shaggier whis-
kers.
"As he arose to begin the services and fixed his
gaze on the familiar faces of those who had suf-
fered and whose sufferings he had so fully avenged,
a gleam of joy and satisfaction seemed to blaze
from his penetrating eyes and thrilled the au-
dience into perfect accord. He hesitated a mo-
ment, and then requested all to arise and sing
4 The Battle Hymn of the Republic.' The noble
thought of that grand hymn stirred the crowd to
the deepest depths of feeling. The text was in
keeping with the occasion:
"'Be not deceived. God is not mocked, for
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap.'
"The discourse was powerful and impressive.
He reminded his hearers of his prophecy that the
remaining years of slavery could be numbered
on the fingers of one hand, and that he should
lead a host of negro soldiers, arrayed in the
national uniform, in the redemption of the country
from the curse of slavery. A few days afterward
the old Covenanter was dead!"
76
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
To the Grand Army of the Republic Julia Ward
Howe was especially dear. On Memorial Day a
detachment always visits and decorates her grave,
with simple but impressive ceremonies. Upon
that of her husband, which lies next to hers, the
Greeks always lay flowers. This festival of re-
membrance comes only three days after my
mother's birthday, May 27th. In 1899, when she
was eighty years of age, the ceremonies in Boston
were of unusual interest.
The Grand Army of the Republic held a cele-
bration in Boston Theater, Major-General Joseph
Wheeler, formerly an officer in the Confederate
Army, having been invited to deliver the address.
Mrs. Howe rode thither in an open carriage with
the general's two daughters, "very pleasant girls."
The Philadelphia Press thus describes the oc-
casion:
"BOSTON WARMED UP
"The major has just returned from Boston,
where he was present at the Memorial Day
services held in Boston Theater.
"It was the real thing. I never imagined pos-
sible such a genuine sweeping emotion as when
that audience began to sing the 'Battle Hymn/
If Boston was cold, it was thawed by the demon-
77
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
stration on Tuesday. Myron W. Whitney started
to sing. He bowed to a box, in which we first
recognized Mrs. Howe, sitting with the Misses
Wheeler. You should have heard the yell. We
could see the splendid white head trembling;
then her voice joined in, as Whitney sang, 'In
the beauty of the lilies,' and by the time he had
reached the words, 'As He died to make men
holy, let us die to make men free,' the whole
vast audience was on its feet, sobbing and singing
at the top of its thousands of lungs. If volunteers
were really needed for the Philippines, McKinley
could have had us all right there."
This was in her adopted city of Boston, where
she had lived for more than half a century. The
Grand Army men of California gave her a similar
reception on Memorial Day, 1888.
We quote extracts from the San Francisco pa-
pers describing it:
"The Grand Opera House never contained a
larger audience. Not only were all the chairs
taken up but every inch of standing-room was pre-
empted. There were many persons who could not
gain an entrance. . . . Mr. Dibble next called the
attention of the audience to the fact that Mrs.
Julia Ward Howe, the author of 'The Battle
78
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
Hymn of the Republic,' was among the guests of
the evening.
"At this juncture an enthusiastic gentleman in
one of the front seats sprang up and called for
three cheers for Mrs. Howe. They were given
with a vim, Mrs. Howe acknowledging the com-
pliment by rising and bowing. . . . The next event
upon the program was the singing of 'The
Battle Hymn of the "Republic' by J. C. Hughes.
The singing was preceded by a scene rarely wit-
nessed and which was not on the printed pro-
gram. General Salomon introduced Mrs. Howe
to the audience in an appreciative speech.
"A beautiful floral piece was then presented to
Mrs. Howe, which she acknowledged in fitting
terms, while the audience gave three cheers and
a tiger for the author of 'The Battle Hymn of the
Republic.'
"Mrs. Howe advanced to the footlights, beam-
ing with pleasure. She then said:
"'My dear friends, I cannot, with my weak
voice, reach this vast assemblage; but I will en-
deavor to have some of you hear me. I join in
this celebration with thrilled and uplifted heart.
I remember those camp-fires, I remember those
dreadful battles. It was a question with us
79
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
women, "Will our men prevail? Until they do,
they will not come home." How we blessed them
when they did; how we blessed them with our
prayers when they were on the battle-field. Those
were times of sorrow; this is one of joy. Let us
thank God who has given us these victories.'
"As Mrs. Howe was about to resume her seat
the audience rose en masse, and from the dress-
circle to the upper gallery rung a round of cheers.
"The audience remained standing while Mr.
Hughes sang the stirring words of the hymn, and
joined heartily in the chorus as by request. At
the last chorus Mrs. Howe stepped forward and
joined in the song, closing with a general flutter
of handkerchiefs."
My mother visited the Pacific coast twice in
the latter years of her life, as her beloved sister,
Mrs. Adolphe Mailliard, then lived there. She
was received in a way that was very gratifying to
her and her family.
One of the most dearly prized privileges of a self-
governing people is that of constant grumbling
over the administration of affairs and of finding
fault with our rulers who, in the last analysis,
are ourselves. In England men write to the Times;
in America we write to many papers and we com-
80
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
plain endlessly. This would evidently be im-
possible under a despotic Government, and it
sometimes seems as if we indulged too freely in
depreciating our own country and its institutions.
Yet deep down in the hearts of our people is a love
of our native land which flames forth brightly on
great occasions. The country which produced the
"Battle Hymn" is not lacking in true patriotism.
So long as our people use it to express their deepest
emotions we need fear no serious treason to the
Republic. The danger of our frequent fault-
finding is that we thus allow our righteous indigna-
tion to evaporate in mere words.
Supineness in politics, an indolence which permits
unworthy men to usurp the reins of government,
is one of our great sins as a nation. Yet the cor-
rupt manipulator who goes too far meets an up-
rising of popular indignation which thoroughly
surprises him. From the New York Sun we quote
the story of such a day of retribution.
At the downfall of Boss Croker "a throng
gathered in Madison Square. Not even in a
Presidential election in recent years have there
been such innumerable hosts as gathered in front
of the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the Hoffman House
last night to hear of the doom of Croker and his
81
~"ME~ fcAWLE "HYMN OF THE REWBLIC*
cronies. Cheer upon cheer ascended when the
mighty army read that Low was far ahead and
would win in the great battle." Some one struck
up the "Battle Hymn." "All over the square
were heard the thousands singing this great hymn.
. . . There has not been such a scene in New York
City since war days."
Among the notable occasions we must certainly
count the unveiling of the Shaw Monument.
Here the art of St.-Gaudens has preserved in im-
memorial stone the story of Robert Gould Shaw
and his colored soldiers, the heroes of Fort Wagner.
The monument stands just within old Boston
Common, facing the State House. The cere-
monies of dedication included a procession and a
meeting in Music Hall, where Prof. William James
and Booker Washington made the principal ad-
dresses, and the "Battle Hymn" was sung.
My mother is best known as the author of the
" Battle Hymn. ' ' Soon after the war she began her
efforts in behalf of the woman's cause, which
eventually won for her the great affection of her
countrywomen as well as a reputation extending
to foreign shores. She was deeply interested both
in the club and in the suffrage movement. She
lived to see the full flowering of the former and the
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC'*
partial success of the latter. Despite the many
weary trials and delays she never lost faith in the
ultimate victory of the suffrage cause. " I shall live
to see women win the franchise in New York State,"
she declared, not many years before her death.
In the early days of the club movement my
mother, like most of her fellow-suffragists, thought
it best not to mingle the two issues. While the
more advanced thinkers among the club women
believed in the enfranchisement of their sex, the
majority did not.
At last the two movements like two rapidly
flowing streams that have long been drawing
nearer together joined in one mighty river. I
have often wished my mother could have lived to
see that wonderful day at Chicago when the
General Federation of Women's Clubs an as-
sociation comprising more than one amd a half
million women declared themselves, amid cheers
and tears, in favor of votes for women. Every
one was deeply moved; the delegates embraced
one another, and the "Battle Hymn" was sung a
hymn this time of joyous thanksgiving for the
victory obtained, yet of solemn dedication, too, to
the hard labor still to be performed before the
good fight could be fully won.
83
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
My mother describes one occasion where the
"Battle Hymn" was given in dumb show before
the Association for the Advancement of Women.
She was very much attached to this pioneer so-
ciety, of which she was the president during many
years. The association held annual congresses in
different parts of the United States, the proceed-
ings eliciting much interest. When they were at
X one of the members invited the society
to visit a school for young girls of which she was
the principal.
"After witnessing some interesting exercises we
assemble in the large hall, where a novel enter-
tainment has been provided for us. A band of
twelve young ladies appear upon the platform.
They wear the colors of 'Old Glory,' but after a
new fashion, four of them being arrayed from head
to foot in red, four in blue, and four in white.
While the 'John Brown' tune is heard from the
piano, they proceed to act in graceful dumb show
the stanzas of my 'Battle Hymn.' How they did
it I cannot tell, but it was a most lovely per-
formance." *
In the early days of the woman movement a
hard struggle was necessary in order to secure for
1 Reminiscences by Julia Ward Howe.
84
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
girls the advantages of the higher education. Into
this my mother threw herself with her accustomed
zeal. A lifelong student and lover of books, she
ardently desired to secure for other women the ad-
vantages she herself so highly prized. Enjoying
robust health, and accustomed to prolonged mental
labor, she never doubted the capacity of her sex
for serious study. So, despite the gloomy prog-
nostications of learned doctors (all men), she and
her fellow-suffragists persevered until the battle
was won. Thus it was very fitting that the three
institutions which bestowed honorary degrees
upon her Tufts College, Brown University, and
Smith College all counted women among their
students. Her youngest daughter, Maud Howe
Elliott, thus describes the scene at Providence: 1
"On June 16th (1909) Brown University, her
husband's alma mater and her grandfather's,
conferred upon her the degree of Doctor of Laws.
. . . Her name was called last. With the delib-
erate step of age, she walked forward, wearing her
son's college gown over her white dress, his mortar-
board cap over her lace veil. She seemed less
moved than any person present; she could not see
1 Julia Ward Howe. By Laura E. Richards and Maud Howe
Elliott.
85
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
what we saw, the tiny gallant figure bent with
four score and ten years of study and hard labor.
As she moved between the girl students who
stood up to let her pass, she whispered: 'How tall
they are! It seems to me the girls are much taller
than they used to be.' Did she realize how much
shorter she was than she once had been? I think
not. Then, her eyes sparkling with fun while all
other eyes were wet, she shook her hard-earned
diploma with a gay gesture in the faces of those
girls, cast on them a keen glance that somehow
was a challenge, 'Catch up with me if you can!'"
The band played the air of the "Battle Hymn"
and applause followed her as she went back to her
seat.
"She had labored long for the higher education
of women, suffered estrangement, borne ridicule
for it the sight of those girl graduates, starting
on their life voyage equipped with a good educa-
tion, was like a sudden realization of a lifelong
dream, uplifted her, gave her strength for the
fatigues of the day."
A similar scene was enacted in October, 1910,
shortly before her death, when Smith College con-
ferred the same degree upon her.
"Opposite the platform, as if hung in air, a
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
curving gallery was filled with white-clad girls,
some two thousand of them; as she entered they
rose like a flock of doves, and with them the
whole audience. They rose once more when her
name was called, last in the list of those honored
with degrees, and as she came forward, the organ
pealed, and the great chorus of fresh young voices
broke out with
" 'Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord/
"It was the last time." *
1 Life of Julia Ward Howe.
VII
HOW AND WHERE THE AUTHOR RECITED IT
The simplicity and deep earnestness of her manner Her clear and
musical voice which never grew old How Susan B. Anthony
"mixed up" two songs Gladdened by the love and honor which
it brought her, Mrs. Howe repeats the "Battle Hymn" in all
parts of the country before all sorts of audiences, small and great
Why its appeal to the human heart is universal.
IT may be imagined that the heart of the woman
who wrote the "Battle Hymn" was greatly
gladdened by the love and honor which it brought
her. She enjoyed to the full the beautiful affec-
tion shown her by her countrymen and country-
women, and, in my opinion, her happy and sym-
pathetic relations with them prolonged her life.
She was glad to live, despite the physical weakness
of old age, because she knew that she was widely
beloved and could still be of use. Her mind re-
mained clear and brilliant to the very last.
The honors paid her she received with the
humility that dreads over-praise. In her journal
she questions her worthiness to be made so much
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
of, and hopes to the end that she may be able to do
something of value to mankind.
The recital of her "Battle Hymn" gave so much
pleasure that she was very willing to repeat it,
under suitable circumstances. She was asked
to do so at all times and seasons and in all sorts of
places. People who requested her to recite her
war lyric at the close of a lecture did not realize
the fatigue that it entailed upon a person no longer
young and already weary with speaking. Yet I
doubt if she ever refused, when it was possible for
her to comply with the request. Not long before
her death, some ladies, calling upon her at her
summer home near Newport, begged her to recite
then and there the "Battle Hymn." She was
loth to do so, feeling the solemn words were not
at all in keeping with the light and pleasant chat
of a morning visit. As one of the callers was
frankly an old lady, my mother at length con-
sented. According to her custom when asked to
recite under such circumstances, she withdrew for
a few minutes before beginning.
There are thousands of people now living, I sup-
pose, who have heard the author's recitation of
the "Battle Hymn." Yet because there are
thousands who never did hear it, and because
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
these things slip so easily out of mind, it is well to
give some description of it "Lest we forget "
My mother repeated the verses of the hymn
simply, yet with a solemnity that was all the more
impressive because there was no effort at elo-
cutionary or dramatic effect. Yet there was suf-
ficient variety in the recitation to avoid any ap-
proach to monotony. Thus she repeated the lines
"0 be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet!"
with uplifted hands, a downward glance at her
feet, and voice slightly raised. Her distinct enun-
ciation and the clear, musical tones of a voice that
never grew old, made the words audible even in a
large auditorium.
Her deeply serious manner, corresponding so
well as it did with the solemn, prophetic words of
the "Battle Hymn," made the recitation very
impressive.
We saw before us the woman who had been
privileged to speak the word for the hour, in the
dark days of her country's history. It was like
seeing some priestess of old delivering the sacred
oracle to her people. Though the message was
repeated so many times, it never lost its power to
stir the souls of those who heard it.
QO
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
It should be said that the habit of speaking very
carefully, my mother formed early in life. Having
a brother who stammered, she was very anxious
to avoid that defect of speech. The beauty of
her voice was due to its careful training in the
Italian school of singing in her youth. Doubtless
the habit of public speaking also tended to pre-
serve it.
She occasionally repeated "The Flag," a more
dramatic and more personal poem than the "Bat-
tle Hymn." Her rendering of it, accordingly, was
more dramatic.
On public occasions my mother was often intro-
duced as "The author of 'The Battle Hymn of the
Republic.' " Sometimes the introducer would, by
mistake, substitute the name of another war song,
good of its kind, but hardly to be compared with
my mother's hymn. She used to say, rather
plaintively, that Miss Susan B. Anthony (the well-
known suffrage leader) would mix up the two songs,
introducing her as " The author of the * Battle Cry of
Freedom.'"
It was a joy to her to be associated with the
"Battle Hymn," yet she sometimes grieved a
little because this so greatly overshadowed all her
other literary productions. She had labored long
7 91
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
and earnestly with pen and voice, writing both
prose and poetry which won commendation from
her comrades in the world of letters. Hence she
was glad to be remembered as the author, not only
of her war lyric, but of other compositions as well.
My mother was asked to repeat this more and
more often as its fame increased and as she herself
became ever dearer to her countrymen. As early
as 1865 we find that she was urged to recite it at
Newport at the close of her lecture in Mr. Richard
Hunt's studio. Among those in the audience was
George Bancroft, the historian, a prominent figure
in Newport society of the olden days. Mr. Ban-
croft had held various offices under the Federal
Government, that of Secretary of the Navy among
others. When the Civil War broke out there was
a good deal of secession feeling among the summer
residents of the watering-place, but Mr. and Mrs.
Bancroft were steadfastly loyal to the Union.
It is interesting to note that among the many
places where its author recited the "Battle
Hymn," at least one city in the heart of the South
is included. Mrs. Howe spent the winter of 1884-
85 in New Orleans, having been invited to preside
over the woman's department of the exposition
held there in that year.
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
The experience involved much hard work, but
also much pleasure. She made many friends in
the Crescent City, whither she and I returned
eleven years later for a congress of the Association
for the Advancement of Women. We were the
guests of her old friend, Mrs. King, the mother of
Grace King, the novelist, and were entertained by
mother and daughters with charming hospitality.
I confess that it surprised me when, at an
afternoon reception in the King drawing-room, my
mother was asked to repeat the "Battle Hymn,"
and did so. This showed us how much the old
ill-feeling between North and South had died out.
It demonstrated also the universal and therefore
non-sectional quality of the poem, of which more
will be said in the folio whig chapter.
The "Battle Hymn" may be called universal
in still another sense, since it appeals to men and
women of all religious creeds. When Mrs. Howe
was especially requested to recite it before a
council of Jewish women, it gave her "an un-
expected thrill of satisfaction." She was warmly
received and welcomed, but felt some anxiety
lest the verse beginning "In the beauty of the
lilies Christ was born across the sea" might dis-
turb her hearers. The president assured her,
s
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
however, that there was nothing in it to hurt
their feelings.
My mother was so intimately associated with the
woman movement that she was called upon to
repeat her war lyric before many feminine au-
diences. We have spoken of her interest in
women's clubs. She was also interested in the
patriotic societies, being a member of the D. A. R.
and of the Colonial Dames of Rhode Island.
One of the Boston chapters of the former is named
in honor of the Old South Meeting-house, a vener-
ated landmark of the city. When the congrega-
tion left their old place of worship and moved to
the Back Bay, it required a tremendous effort
on the part of the women of Boston to raise the
necessary funds and to save the historic building
from destruction. Here, in December, 1906, the
Old South Chapter had a meeting where there
was "much good speaking." My mother recited
her "Battle Hymn" and told them something of
her Revolutionary ancestors. She remembered
her forebears with affectionate pride as noble men
and women whose example she strove to imitate.
A long life brings its penalties as well as its
pleasures. Living to the age of nearly ninety-
two years, my mother survived all the friends of
91
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
her youth and most, if not all, of her contem-
poraries. Hence she was called upon to attend
many funerals, considering this a duty, in ac-
cordance with old-fashioned ideas. A temporary
lameness prevented her attending the obsequies
of the poet Longfellow, an early friend of her hus-
band's, whom she also had known well for many
years. She was able, however, to testify to her
friendship for the gentle poet by giving her services
for the Longfellow Memorial held at the Boston
Museum. Here she took part in an authors' read-
ing, reciting the "Battle Hymn," as well as some
verses composed in honor of the poet.
That she should be invited to do so shows a
great change in public opinion since the early
years of their acquaintance. In the 'forties and
'fifties it was not thought fitting that a lady should
even sign her name to a poem or a novel, much
less read it in public. When my mother pub-
lished some verses in a volume edited by Mr.
Longfellow in those early days, they appeared as
anonymous. By his advice, her first book of
poems, Passion Flowers, bore no name upon the
title-page.
VIII
TRIBUTES TO "THE BATTLE HYMN*'
From Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Conan Doyle, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, William Dean Howells, 1 U. S. Senator George
F. Hoar, Thomas Starr King, Ina Coolbrith, and others The
"Battle Hymn " and the " Marseillaise "What Rudyard Kip-
ling said of it in "The Light that Failed " English reprints dis-
tributed among the soldiers of the present war.
THE appeal of 'The Battle Hymn of the
Republic" is so wide that it takes in all
classes of mankind, all, at least, who love freedom.
Wherever rise the peoples,
Wherever sinks a throne,
The throbbing heart of freedom
Finds an answer in his own.
So wrote the poet Whittier of Samuel Gridley
Howe, remembering his services to the Greeks,
to the Poles and others. The lines are equally
true of his wife, Julia Ward Howe, and of the
spirit animating her war lyric. Although written
in the midst of the greatest civil war that was
ever fought and won, there is no word of North
1 See Chapter IX.
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
or South, no appeal to local pride or patriotism,
no word of sectional strife or bitterness. The God
to whom appeal is made is the God of freedom.
The enemy to be overcome, the serpent who is to
be crushed beneath the heel of the hero, is slavery.
It is amusing and yet sad to find that some
literal souls have fancied that my mother intended
to designate the Southerners by "the grapes of
wrath." Needless to say that the writer in-
tended no such narrow and prosaic meaning.
The "Battle Hymn" may well be compared to
the "Marseillaise." The man is to be pitied who
can hear either of them without a thrill of an-
swering emotion. Both have the power to move
their hearers profoundly, yet they are as dif-
ferent as the two nationalities which gave them
birth. The French national hymn appeals to us
by its wonderfully stirring music more than by the
words. We can imagine how the latter aroused
to a frenzy of feeling the men of the French Revo-
lution, when they rose to throw off the yoke of
centuries of oppression and misrule. Feudalism
perished in France to the fiery music of the
"Marseillaise." Slavery died in America to the
old "John Brown" tune, as slow and steadfast in
movement as the Northern race who sang it.
97
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
In our war lyric we seem to hear an echo
of the old cry, "The sword of the Lord and of
Gideon." Yet we did not fully recognize its
tremendous power until Kipling christened it
" The terrible Battle Hymn of the Republic."
In the closing scene of The Light that Failed 1
we are shown a group of English newspaper corre-
spondents about to start for a war in the Soudan.
They are met together for a last evening of song
and merrymaking, yet one of their number "by
the instinct of association began to hum the ter-
rible Battle Hymn of the Republic. Man after
man caught it up it was a tune they knew well,
till the windows shook to the clang, the Nilghai's
deep voice leading:
'"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.'"
Sir A. Conan Doyle pays a similar tribute to
its power in Through the Magic Door:
"Take the songs which they sang during the
most bloody war which the Anglo-Celtic race has
ever waged the only war in which it could have
been said that they were stretched to their utter-
most and showed their true form ... all had a
1 In the later editions of the novel another scene is substituted for
this.
98
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
playful humor running through them. Only one
exception do I know, and that is the most tre-
mendous war song I can recall; even an outsider
in time of peace can hardly read it without emo-
tion. I mean, of course, Julia Ward Howe's war
song of the Republic, with the choral opening line,
'Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.'
If that were ever sung upon a battle-field the
effect must have been terrific."
During the present war in Europe, an English
lady has had a large number of copies of the
"Hymn" printed and distributed, through the
Young Men's Christian Association, to the soldiers.
They contain the following explanation: "This
magnificent 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' was
written in 1861 by a famous American lady,
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, for the Army of the
Northern States of America, which were then
engaged in a 'Holy War' to rid the South of
slavery and to preserve the Union of the States.
It is said to have done more to awaken the spirit
of patriotism and to have inspired more deeds of
heroism than any other event of the American
Civil War."
It is pleasant and heartening to read these
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
tributes of praise from distinguished Englishmen.
That our "Battle Hymn of the Republic" should
so strongly appeal to them shows us the essential
unity of the two great branches of the Anglo-
Saxon race, even though oceans roll between
Great Britain and America.
The strange glory that came over the face of
Abraham Lincoln and the tears he shed on hear-
ing the "Battle Hymn" will always be, for his
countrymen, the most precious tribute to its power.
"The chaplain afterward stated that in his
conversation with Mr. Lincoln at his reception, the
President said to him, 'Take it all in all, the
song and the singing, that was the best I ever
heard.'" 1
To the steadfast and courageous soul of another
great American, who also has held the high office
of President of these United States, Theodore
Roosevelt, this war hymn strongly appealed. His
book, Fear God and Take Your Own Part, is
prefaced by "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"
and by the following dedication:
"This book is dedicated to the memory of
JULIA WARD HOWE
1 Life of Chaplain McCabe "the singing chaplain."
JOO
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
because in the vital matters fundamentally af-
fecting the life of the Republic she was as good a
citizen of the Republic as Washington and Lincoln
themselves. She was in the highest sense a good
wife and a good mother, and therefore she fulfilled
the primary law of our being. She brought up
with devoted care and wisdom her sons and her
daughters. At the same time she fulfilled her
full duty to the commonwealth from the public
standpoint. She preached righteousness and she
practised righteousness. She sought the peace
that comes as the handmaiden of well-doing.
She preached that stern and lofty courage of soul
which shrinks neither from war nor from any
other form of suffering and hardship and danger
if it is only thereby that justice can be served.
She embodied that trait more essential than any
other in the make-up of the men and women of
this Republic the valor of righteousness."
In the letter given below, Hon. George F. Hoar,
United States Senator from Massachusetts, com-
pares "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" with
the "Marseillaise" and with the "British Na-
tional Anthem."
WORCESTER MASS., May 22, 1903.
I was thinking, just as I got your letter asking me to send
a greeting to your meeting and to Mrs. Howe, of the great
101
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
power, in framing the character of nations, of their National
Anthems. Fletcher of Saltoun said, as every child knows,
"Let me make the songs of a people, and I care not who
make their laws." No single influence has had so much to
do with shaping the destiny of a nation, as nothing more
surely expresses national character, than what is known
as the National Anthem. France adopted for hers the
"Marseillaise." Its stirring appeal
Sons of France, awake to glory!
led the youth of France to march through Europe, subduing
kingdoms and overthrowing dynasties, till "forty centuries
looked down on them from the pyramids." At last the
ambition of France perished and came to grief, as every
unholy ambition is destined to perish and come to grief,
and her great Emperor died in exile at St. Helena.
Is there anything more cheap and vulgar than the National
Anthem of our English brethren, "God Save the King"?
O Lord our God, arise!
Scatter his enemies
And make them fall.
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks;
On him our hopes we fix;
God save us all!
England, I hope, knows better now. But she has acted
on that motto for a thousand years.
New England's Anthem,
The breaking waves dashed high,
one of the noblest poems in all literature, was written by a
woman.
102
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
We waited eighty years for our American National Anthem.
At last God inspired an illustrious and noble woman to utter
in undying verse the thought which we hope is forever to
animate the soldier of the Republic.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom which transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on!
Julia Ward Howe cannot yet vote in America. But her
words will be an inspiration to the youth of America on many
a hard-fought field for liberty many a century after her suc-
cessors will vote.
I am faithfully yours,
GEORGE F. HOAR.
Miss ALICE STONE BLACKWELL.
In the journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson we
find this tribute to his friend, Julia Ward Howe:
"I honour the author of the 'Battle Hymn' and
of 'The Flag.' She was bora in the city of New
York. I could well wish she were a native of
Massachusetts. We have had no such poetess in
New England."
The little bit of State pride voiced in the regret
that my mother was not a native of the old Bay
State, surprises us in a man of such wide sympa-
thies as Mr. Emerson. In Whittier's early poems
also the local feeling is strongly pronounced. We
should remember, however, that during the nine-
103
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
teenth century a good deal of sectional feeling
still existed in the different States. The twentieth
century finds us more closely united as a people
than we have ever been before.
Edmund Clarence Stedman happily charac-
terizes the war hymn in the following passage.
It occurs in a letter to me, asking that my mother
would copy it for him.
"I can well understand what a Frankenstein's
monster such a creation grows to be such a poem
as the 'Battle Hymn' when it has become the
sacred scroll of millions, each one of whom would
fain obtain a copy of it." 1
Those who have visited the White Mountains
will remember that one of the peaks is called
"Starr King." It was named for Thomas Starr
King, a noted Unitarian preacher in the middle
of the nineteenth century. Shortly before the
Civil War he accepted a call to San Francisco.
In addition to officiating in the church there he
soon took upon his shoulders a task that was too
heavy for his somewhat frail physique. This was
nothing less than persuading the people of Cali-
fornia to remain loyal to the Union. There was a
good deal of secession sentiment on the Pacific
1 Julia Ward Howe. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
104
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
coast in 1861. Starr King and his fellow-Union-
ists succeeded in their undertaking, but he paid
the penalty of overwork with his life. Hence his
memory is beloved and revered on the shores of
the Pacific as well as on those of the Atlantic.
One can imagine what the "Battle Hymn" must
have meant to him, weary as he was with his
strenuous labors. He pronounced it "a miracu-
lously perfect poem."
Another "Spray of Western Pine" was con-
tributed to the garland of praise by Ina Coolbrith,
one of the last survivors of the golden age of
California literature.
JULIA WARD HOWE
When with the awful lightning of His glance,
Jehovah, thro' the mighty walls of sea
His people led from their long bondage free,
A Woman's hand, too light to lift the lance,
Miriam, the Prophetess, with song and dance,
With timbrel, and with harp and psaltery,
Struck the proud notes of triumphs yet to be,
And voiced her Israel's deliverance.
So in our own dear Land, in strife to save
Another race oppressed, when light grew dim,
And the Red Sea of blood loomed fatefully
To overwhelm, the God of freedom gave
Thro' Woman's lips His sacred battle hymn
That rang thro' combat on to victory!
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"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
When memorial services were held in honor of
my mother, Boston's great Symphony Hall was
crowded to its utmost capacity. Many were the
beautiful tributes to her given by men and women
of national reputation. None, however, equaled
in heartfelt eloquence the speech of Lewis, the
distinguished negro lawyer. As he poured out
the gratitude of his race to the woman who had
written "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," I
suddenly realized for the first time what the words
meant to the colored people.
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.
"To make us, black men and black women, free!"
The appeal was to the white men of our country,
bidding them share the freedom they so dearly
prized with the despised slave. And this triumph-
ant gospel of liberty with its stirring chorus of
"Glory, glory, hallelujah" was sung wherever the
Northern army went. It was the first proclama-
tion of emancipation. If it moves us, how must
it have affected the people to whom it was a
prophecy of the longed-for deliverance from
bondage.
IX
MRS. HOWE'S LESSER POEMS OF THE CIVIL WAR
Her poetic tribute to Frederick Douglass " Left Behind," "Our
Orders," "April 19" "The Flag" followed the second battle
of Bull Run "The Secesh" in the Newport churches "The
First Martyr," "Our Country," "Harvard Student's Song,"
"Return" How " Our Country " lost its musical setting "The
Parricide " written on the day of Lincoln's funeral to express
her reverence.
MY mother's natural mode of expressing her-
self was by poetry rather than by prose.
She wrote verses from her earliest years up to the
time of her death. It is true that some of her
best work took the form of prose in her essays,
lectures, and speeches, 1 yet whenever her feelings
were deeply moved she turned to verse as the fit-
test vehicle for her use.
We have seen that she began to write poems
protesting against human slavery at an early
period of her career. Thus her first published
1 Mr. Howells writes in his Literary Boston Thirty Years Ago:
"I heard Mrs. Howe speak in public and it seemed to me that she
made one of the best speeches I had ever heard."
8 107
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
"On the Death of the Slave Lewis." In Words
for the Hour we find several poems dealing with
slavery, the struggle in Kansas, the attack on
Sumner, and kindred subjects. The titles of these
and some quotations from them are given in
Chapter I. The verses on "Tremont Temple"
contain tributes to Sumner and Frederick Doug-
lass, the negro orator. The first two are as follows :
volume, Passion Flowers (1853), contained verses
Two figures fill this temple to my sight,
Whoe'er shall speak, their forms behind him stand;
One has the beauty of our Northern blood,
And wields Jove's thunder in his lifted hand.
The other wears the solemn hue of Night
Drawn darker in the blazonry of pain,
Blotting the gaslight's mimic day, he slings
A dangerous weapon, too, a broken chain.
When the Civil War broke out, she poured forth
the feelings that so deeply moved her in a number
of poems. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"
is the best known of these, as it deserves to be.
The others, however, while varying as to merit,
show the same patriotism, indignation against
wrong, and elevation of spirit. The woman's ten-
derness of heart breathes through them, too, as
in the story of the dying soldier:
108
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
LEFT BEHIND
The foe is retreating, the field is clear;
My thoughts fly like lightning, my steps stay here;
I'm bleeding to faintness, no help is near:
What, ho! comrades; what, ho!
The battle was deadly, the shots fell thick;
We leaped from our trenches, and charged them quick;
I knew not my wound till my heart grew sick:
So there, comrades; so there.
We charged the left column, that broke and fled;
Poured powder for powder, and lead for lead:
So they must surrender, what matter who's dead?
WTio cares, comrades? who cares?
My soul rises up on the wings of the slain,
A triumph thrills through me that quiets the pain:
If it were yet to do, I would do it again!
Farewell, comrades, farewell!
It will be remembered that the first blood shed
in the Civil War was in Baltimore. There the
Massachusetts troops, while on their way to de-
fend the national capital, were attacked by "Plug-
Uglies" and several soldiers were killed. My
mother thus describes the funeral in Boston: 1
1 Reminiscences, p. 261.
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
"We were present when these bodies were re-
ceived at King's Chapel burial-ground, and could
easily see how deeply the Governor was moved
at the sad sight of the coffins draped with the
national flag. This occasion drew from me the
poem:
"OUR ORDERS
"Weave no more silks, ye Lyons Looms;
To deck our girls for gay delights!
The crimson flower of battle blooms,
And solemn marches fill the night.
"Weave but the flag whose bars to-day
Drooped heavy o'er our early dead,
And homely garments, coarse and gray,
For orphans that must earn their bread!"
(We give the first two of the six verses.)
Other verses published in Later Lyrics under the
title "April 19" commemorate the same event.
They were evidently written in the first heat of
indignation at the breaking out of the rebellion,
yet her righteous wrath always gave way to a
second thought, tenderer and more merciful than
the first. We see this in the last verse of the
"Battle Hymn" and in various other poems of
hers. The opening verses of "April 19" are:
no
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
A spasm o'er my heart
Sweeps like a burning flood;
A sentence rings upon mine ears,
Avenge the guiltless blood!
Sit not in health and ease,
Nor reckon loss nor gain,
When men who bear our Country's flag
Are set upon and slain.
Of her "Poems of the War" "The Flag" ranks
second in popular esteem and has a place in many
anthologies. She thus describes the circumstances
under which it was composed: 1
"Even in gay Newport there were sad rever-
berations of the strife. I shall never forget an
afternoon on which I drove into town with my
son, by this time a lad of fourteen, and found
the main street lined with carriages, and the car-
riages filled with white-faced people, intent on I
knew not what. Meeting a friend, I asked:
' Why are these people here? What are they wait-
ing for and why do they look as they do?'
"They are waiting for the mail. Don't you
know that we have had a dreadful reverse?' Alas!
this was the second battle of Bull Run. I have
1 Reminiscences, p. 258.
Ill
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
made some record of it in a poem entitled 'The
Flag/ which I dare mention here because Mr.
Emerson, on hearing it, said to me, 'I like the
architecture of that poem.' "
The opening verse is as follows:
There's a flag hangs over my threshold, whose folds are
more dear to me
Than the blood that thrills in my bosom its earnest of liberty;
And dear are the stars it harbors in its sunny field of blue
As the hope of a further heaven, that lights all our dim
lives through.
Before the war, Newport had been a favorite
resort for Southerners. During the summer of
1861 a number were still there, and it must be
confessed some of them behaved with very little
tact. According to reports current at the time,
these individuals carried politics inside the church
doors. When the prayer for the President of the
United States was read, they arose from their knees
in order to show their disapproval. At its con-
clusion they again knelt. Women would draw
aside the voluminous skirts then in fashion, to
prevent their coming in contact with the United
States flag. I have always fancied that the lines
in "The Flag,"
112
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Salute the flag in its virtue, or pass on where others rule,
were inspired by this behavior of "The Secesh,"
as we then called them. Some of these persons,
although belonging to good society, had the bad
taste to boast in our presence of how the South
was going to "whip" the North. At a certain
picnic among the Paradise Rocks, my mother re-
solved to give these people a lesson in patriotism.
One of our number,, a quiet, elderly lady, was
selected to act as America, the queen of the oc-
casion. She was crowned with flowers, and we all
saluted her with patriotic songs.
"The First Martyr" tells the story of a visit
to the wife of John Brown before the latter's
execution:
My five-years' darling, on my knee,
Chattered and toyed and laughed with me;
"Now tell me, mother mine," quoth she,
"Where you went i' the afternoon."
"Alas! my pretty little life,
I went to see a sorrowing wife,
Who will be widowed soon."
Child! It is fit that thou shouldst weep;
The very babe unborn would leap
To rescue such as he.
113
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
"Our Country" contains no word about the
civil strife, although it is classed with "Poems of
the War" in her volume entitled Later Lyrics.
A prize was offered for a national song while the
war was in progress, and Mrs. Howe sent in this
poem, Otto Dresel composing the music. Mr.
Dresel was a prominent figure in the musical world
of Boston for many years and wrote a number of
charming songs.
The prize which had been offered for the national
song was never awarded, if I remember aright, and
Mr. Dresel decided to use the tune he had com-
posed, for the "Army Hymn" of Oliver Wendell
Holmes. This was "superbly sung by L. C.
Campbell, assisted by the choir and band" at
the opening exercises of the Great Metropolitan
Fair held in New York during the Civil War, for
the benefit of the Sanitary Commission.
"Our Country" thus lost its musical setting, to
my mother's regret.
OUR COUNTRY
On primal rocks she wrote her name,
Her towers were reared on holy graves,
The golden seed that bore her came
Swift-winged with prayer o'er ocean waves.
114
'THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
The Forest bowed his solemn crest,
And open flung his sylvan doors;
Meek Rivers led the appointed Guest
To clasp the wide-embracing shores;
Till, fold by fold, the broidered Land
To swell her virgin vestments grew,
While Sages, strong in heart and hand,
Her virtue's fiery girdle drew.
O Exile of the wrath of Kings!
O Pilgrim Ark of Liberty!
The refuge of divinest things,
Their record must abide in thee.
First in the glories of thy front
Let the crown jewel Truth be found;
Thy right hand fling with generous wont
Love's happy chain to furthest bound.
Let Justice with the faultless scales
Hold fast the worship of thy sons,
Thy commerce spread her shining saila
Where no dark tide of rapine runs.
So link thy ways to those of God,
So follow firm the heavenly laws,
That stars may greet thee, warrior-browed,
And storm-sped angels hail thy cause.
115
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
O Land, the measure of our prayers,
Hope of the world, in grief and wrong!
Be thine the blessing of the years,
The gift of faith, the crown of song.
The news of Lincoln's assassination dealt a
stunning blow to our people. The rejoicings over
the end of the Civil War were suddenly changed
to deep sorrow, indignation, and fear. How
widely the conspiracy spread we did not know.
It will be remembered that other officers of the
Federal Government were attacked. My mother
wrote that nothing since the death of her little
boy l had given her so much personal pain. As
usual, she sought relief for her feelings in verse.
"The Parricide," written on the day of Lincoln's
funeral, expresses her love and reverence for the
great man, her horror of the "Fair assassin,
murder white," whom she bids:
With thy serpent speed avoid
Each unsullied household light,
Every conscience unalloyed.
As usual, compassion followed anger. "Pardon,"
written a few days later, after the death of Wilkes
Booth, is the better poem of the two.
1 Samuel Gridley Howe, Jr., who died in May, 1863, aged three
and a half years.
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC'*
PARDON
WILKES BOOTH APRIL 26, 1865
Pains the sharp sentence the heart in whose wrath it was
uttered,
Now thou art cold;
Vengeance, the headlong, and Justice, with purpose close
muttered,
Loosen their hold.
Death brings atonement; he did that whereof ye accuse
him,
Murder accurst;
But, from that crisis of crime in which Satan did lose him,
Suffered the worst.
Back to the cross, where the Saviour uplifted in dying
Bade all souls live,
Turns the reft bosom of Nature, his mother, low sighing,
Greatest, forgive!
On July 21, 1865, Harvard University held
memorial exercises in honor of her sons who had
given their lives for their country. The living
graduates of that day numbered only twenty-four
hundred, including the aged, sick, and absent.
Of these more than five hundred went out to fight
in behalf of the Union, many of them to return no
more. Their names may be seen engraved on the
117
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marble tablets of Memorial Hall, Cambridge, a
daily lesson in patriotism to the undergraduates
who frequent it. Full of fun and nonsense as the
latter are, they will permit no disrespect to the
memory of the heroes of the Civil War. If
visitors enter without removing their hats, an in-
stant clamor arises, forcing them to do so.
On this Commencement day of 1865 a notable
assemblage gathered at Harvard. In addition to
other distinguished people there were present, as
Governor Andrew said in his address, a "cloud of
living witnesses who have come back laden with
glory from the fields where their comrades fell."
Phillips Brooks made a prayer, Ralph Waldo
Emerson and others spoke. Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Rev. Charles T. Brooks, James Russell
Lowell, his brother Robert, John S. Dwight, and
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe contributed poems. The
verses of the latter were read by her friend, Mr.
Samuel Eliot. The opening ones are as follows:
RETURN
They are coming, oh my Brothers, they are coming!
From the formless distance creeps the growing sound,
Like a rill-fed forest, in whose rapid summing,
Stream doth follow stream, till waves of joy abound.
118
"THE BATTLE IYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
These have languished in the shadow of the prison,
Long with hunger pains and bitter fever low;
Welcome back our lost, from living graves arisen,
From the wild despite and malice of the foe.
Another of her war poems speaks in the name
of the sons of the old university. When it was
published in the newspapers, a careless type-
setter made some errors in setting it up. I re-
member how troubled she was when the line
O give them back, thou bloody breast of Treason
was printed "beast" of Treason.
We give a single verse of the "Harvard Student's
Song":
Remember ye how, out of boyhood leaping,
Our gallant mates stood ready for the fray,
As new-fledged eaglets rise, with sudden sweeping,
And meet unscared the dazzling front of day?
Our classic toil became inglorious leisure,
We praised the calm Horatian ode no more,
But answered back with song the martial measure,
That held its throb above the cannon's roar.
The other "Poems of the War" published in
Later Lyrics are entitled "Requital," "The Ques-
tion," "One and Many," "Hymn for a Spring
119
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
Festival," "The Jeweller's Shop in War-time,"
and "The Battle Eucharist."
In these we see how deeply the writer's soul was
oppressed by the sorrow of the war and the hor-
rors of the battle-field. We see, too, how it
turned ever for comfort and encouragement to the
Cross and to the Lord of Hosts.
MRS. HOWE'S LOVE OF FREEDOM AN INHERITANCE
Stories of Gen. Francis Marion Mrs. Howe's kinship with the
"Swamp Fox" The episode that saved " Marion's Men" The
splendid sword that rusted in its scabbard John Ward, one of
Oliver Cromwell's Ironsides Samuel Ward, the only Colonial
governor who refused to enforce the Stamp Act Roger Williams,
founder of Rhode Island and champion of religious liberty.
WE have seen that my mother's love of
freedom was in part the result of environ-
ment. It was also an inheritance from men who
had fought for civil and religious liberty, with the
sword and with the pen, on both sides of the
Atlantic. Of the founder of the Ward family in
America, we know that he fought for the English
Commonwealth and against "Charles First, tyrant
of England." He was one of Oliver Cromwell's
Ironsides, serving as an officer in a cavalry regi-
ment. After the republic perished and the Stuart
line in the person of Charles II. returned to the
throne, doughty old John Ward came to America,
121
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
bringing his good sword with him. Whether it
was ever used on this side of the water, the record
does not say, but it was preserved in the family
for nearly a century.
His descendants held positions of trust and re-
sponsibility under the State, his grandson and
great-grandson being each in his turn governor of
Rhode Island. The latter, Gov. Samuel Ward, has
the distinction of being the only Colonial governor
who refused to take the oath to enforce the Stamp
Act. As the Chief Executive of "little Rhody"
was chosen by the people, his views were naturally
more democratic than those of governors appointed
by the crown. Still, it took courage to refuse
to obey the royal mandate. He early foresaw the
separation from Great Britain and wrote to his
son in 1766, "These Colonies are destined to an
early independence, and you will live to see my
words verified." He was a member of the Conti-
nental Congresses of 1774 and 1775. The latter
resolved itself into a committee of the whole
almost every day, and Governor Ward was con-
stantly called to the chair on such occasions, until
he was seized with fatal illness, March 13, 1776,
dying soon afterward.
At this time vaccination had not been dis-
122
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
covered, the only preventive of the terrible scourge
of smallpox being inoculation. Now Governor
Ward could not spare time for the brief illness
which this process involved. In addition to his
duties in Congress he was obliged, owing to the
physical disability of his colleague, Gov. Stephen
Hopkins, to conduct all the official correspondence
of the Rhode Island delegation, with the Govern-
ment and citizens of the colony. His services
were required on many committees, notably on the
secret committee which contracted for arms and
munitions of war. Hence, worn down by over-
work, he fell an easy victim to smallpox. He died
three months before his colleagues signed the
Declaration of Independence. As he early saw
the necessity of separation from the mother
country, he would certainly have affixed his
signature to it had he lived. His descendants may
be pardoned for thinking that he made a great mis-
take in not taking the time required for inocula-
tion.
Many of Governor Ward's letters have been pre-
served. These show his ardent patriotism as well
as the devout religious spirit of the men of 1776.
He writes to his brother: "I have realized with
regard to myself the bullet, the bayonet, and the.
9 123
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
halter; and compared with the immense object
I have in view they are all less than nothing.
No man living, perhaps, is more fond of his chil-
dren than I am, and I am not so old as to be tired
of life; and yet, as far as I can now judge, the
tenderest connections and the most important
private concerns are very minute objects. Heaven
save my country! I was going to say is my first,
my last, and almost my only prayer."
Gov. Samuel Ward was a Seventh-Day Baptist.
The little church in which he worshiped at New-
port has all the charm of the best architecture of
that period. It now forms part of the Historical
Society's rooms.
His son, Lieut.-Col. Samuel Ward, grandfather
of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, joined the Continental
Army when the Revolution broke out. Governor
Ward writes of "the almost unparalleled suffer-
ings of Samuel," and these were indeed severe.
Of the ill-fated expedition to Quebec, Colonel
Ward writes: "We were thirty days in a wilder-
ness that none but savages ever attempted to pass.
We marched one hundred miles upon shore with
only three days* provisions, waded over three rapid
rivers, marched through snow and ice barefoot . . .
moderately speaking, we have waded one hundred
124
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
miles." The result of this exposure was "the
yellow jaundice."
The Americans were overpowered by superior
numbers, Colonel Ward being taken prisoner with
many others. He was also at Valley Forge hi that
terrible winter when the American Army endured
such great privations.
It is interesting to note that Colonel Ward as-
sisted in raising a colored regiment in the spring
of 1778. He commanded this in the engagement
on the island of Rhode Island, near the spot where
his granddaughter and her husband established
their summer home a century later. From the
peaceful windows of "Oak Glen" one sees, hi the
near foreground, the earthworks of the Revolution.
In spite of all the hardships endured during the
Revolutionary War, Colonel Ward lived to be
nearly seventy-six years of age. My mother well
remembered her grandfather with his courtly
manner and mild, but very observing, blue eyes.
With the indulgence characteristic of grandparents,
he permitted the Ward brothers to play cards at his
house, a thing they were forbidden to do at home.
The State of Rhode Island is represented in the
statue-gallery of the national Capitol by Roger
Williams, pioneer of religious liberty and founder
125
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of the State, and by Gen. Nathaniel Greene, who
rendered such important service during the Rev-
olutionary War. My mother was related to both
men, being a direct descendant of the former.
Whether or no Massachusetts was justified in
driving out Roger Williams, we will not attempt to
decide. He was evidently a person who delighted
in controversy in a day when religious toleration
was almost unknown.
To him belongs the honor of being the first to
found a State "upon the distinctive principle of
complete separation of Church and State." Mary-
land followed not long after the example set by the
"State of Rhode Island and Providence Planta-
tions."
Not in Massachusetts alone did people object
to his doctrines. His work, The Bloody Tenent of
Persecution, was burned in England by the com-
mon hangman, by order of Parliament.
George Fox Digged Out of His Burrowe seems
a volume of formidable proportions to the modern
reader. With Quaker doctrines Roger Williams
had small patience, although he permitted members
of the persecuted sect to live in the Colony. It
seems that G.Fox did not avail himself of an offer
of disputation on fourteen proposals. His oppo-
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
nents claimed that he "slily departed" to avoid the
debate. It went on just the same, being "managed
three days at Newport and one day at Providence."
This volume, George Fox, etc. 1 , is dedicated to
Charles II. by "Your Majestyes most loyal and
affectionate Orator at the Throne of Grace."
One can guess how much attention the Merrie
Monarch paid to the fourteen "proposalls" 2 and
the elaboration thereof.
The best testimony to the essential gentleness
and goodness of this eccentric divine is the be-
havior toward him of the Indians. During King
Philip's war they marched on Providence with the
intention of burning it.
"The well-attested tradition is that Roger Will-
iams, now an old man, alone and unarmed, save
with his staff, went out to meet the band of ap-
proaching Indians. His efforts to stay their
course were unavailing, but they allowed him to re-
turn unmolested, such was the love and venera-
tion entertained for him by these savages."
Of my mother's ancestors on the maternal side,
the most interesting was her great-great-uncle,
Gen. Francis Marion, the partisan leader of the
1 George Fox Digged Out of His Burrowe.
2 " Proposalls " I here quote Roger Williams' spelling.
127
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
Revolution. She was descended from his sister
Esther, "The Queen Bee of the Marion Hive," the
general himself having no children.
Many romantic stories are told of him. He was
present at a drinking-party during the siege of
Charleston when the host, determined that no one
should leave the festivities until some particularly
fine Madeira had been disposed of, locked the
door and threw the key out of the window.
Marion had no notion of taking part in any ex-
cesses, so he made his escape by jumping out of
the window. A lame ankle was the result, and
the Huguenot left the city, all officers unfit for
duty being ordered to depart. Marion took
refuge now with one friend, now with another, and
again he was obliged to hide in the woods, while re-
covering from this lameness. The accident was
a most fortunate one, however. If he had re-
mained in Charleston he would have been obliged
to surrender and the brigade of "Marion's Men"
might never have existed.
How he formed it in the darkest hour of the war
in the South is a matter of history. How, like
so many will-o'-the-wisps, they led the British
a weary dance "thoro* bush, thoro' brier," all
through the woods and the swamps of South
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
Carolina, is a tale that delights the heart of every
school-boy.
Well knows the fair and friendly moon
The men that Marion leads,
The glitter of the rifles,
The scamper of their steeds;
'Tis life to guide the fiery barb
Across the moonlit plain:
'Tis life to feel the night-wind
That lifts the tossing mane.
A moment in the British camp,
A moment and away,
Back to the pathless forest
Before the peep of day. 1
The best-known story tells of the British officer
who was brought blindfolded into Marion's camp
and entertained at a dinner consisting solely of
sweet potatoes. Small wonder that he made up his
mind the Americans could not be conquered, since
they were able to subsist on such scanty rations!
Reversing the text of Scripture, General Marion
provided his men with swords made of saws, am-
munition being scanty. He was as well known
for his humanity as for his ingenuity. It is said
that once, wishing to draw his sword, he found it
rusted into the scabbard, so little had it been used.
When my mother, as occasionally happened in
1 William Cullen Bryant's "The Song of Marion's Men."
129
"THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"
her later years, would quietly slip off on some ex-
pedition which her daughters feared was too much
for her strength, we would remember her kinship
with the " Swamp Fox.'*
Of her parents, it should be said that both were
deeply religious. Her mother, Julia Cutler Ward,
a woman of very lovely character and intellectual
tastes, died at the early age of twenty-seven. Her
father, Samuel Ward, one of the "Merchant
Princes of Wall Street," was well known for his
integrity, liberality, and public spirit. He was
especially interested in the causes of temperance
and religion, being " one of the foremost promoters
of church-building in the then distant West.'* He
was also one of the founders of the New York
University, and owned the first private picture-
gallery in New York.
Thus we see that my mother, like so many of
her fellow-Americans, came from a long line of
God-fearing and patriotic men and women. In
the words of the "Battle Hymn" we hear not
only the voice of the Union Army, but an echo
of all the aspiring thoughts and noble deeds of the
builders of our great Republic.
THE END
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
Los Angeles
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.
APR 09 199bobT 13 1999
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