Almost beyond hearing, a church bell clamored faintly in the distance. From the isolation of its steeple, snowflakes swirled and descended on the hillside against a barren ground. Shadowy figures lay heavy in the cold, blankets wrapped and curled around their bodies in the fallen snow. Immense oaks and sycamores animated the scene, their skeleton-like branches hovering as Julia’s eyes gazed across the countryside with its hundreds of glowing fires. It was December, 1861. Everything in Washington was changing. Only days before, an attack by the Confederates had caused much excitement. Now, the Federals guarded the railroads and the streets were filled with thousands of marching soldiers.

(Note: Decades of growing strife between North and South erupted in civil war on April 12, 1861, when Confederate artillery opened fire on this Federal fort in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina.)

For nearly 20 years, Julia Ward Howe had experienced a personal battle of her own. Her tumultuous marriage to Samuel Gridley Howe was plagued by forces out of her control—infidelity and violence, including both physical and verbal abuse. Her husband’s controlling behavior and threats of taking the children away kept her locked in this abusive relationship, one which was commonplace for a 19th-century woman.

Julia herself had not been patient or kind. Many times, she could hardly restrain herself from hurling venomous accusations. No doubt her emotional pain caused her to respond in hurtful ways. Nevertheless, Julia and Sam agreed to retreat from the hostility, call a truce, and stay in the marriage. Although they remained in the union, the two became antagonistic foes victimized by their own inability to find healthy ways to cope and build a loving relationship.

Now, along with a party of friends—other abolitionists who had come to review the situation—Julia found herself walking alongside her husband at a transformative time in American history. Fort Sumter had changed a united country into enemies. Families were divided—brother against brother, father against son. She nervously pulled her plaid shawl around her as this compelling scene gave way to clusters of young Yankee soldiers camped in the cold. Under the snow-laden landscape, heaps of dried, brown, November leaves were crushed by her footsteps.

Long ago, she, too, had been crushed, defeated by the pain of her hopeless situation. Perhaps in haste to leave home, and against her family’s wishes, Julia married Samuel. After all, he had admired her ideas, her quick mind, her wit, her active commitment to the causes he also shared. But Samuel believed that married women should not have a life outside the home, that they should support their husbands and that they should not speak publicly or be active themselves in the causes of the day. This was counter to Julia’s temperament and personality.

As director at Perkins Institute for the Blind, Samuel Howe lived with his family on campus in a small house. Julia and Samuel had their six children there. Julia, respecting her husband’s wishes, lived in isolation in that home, with little contact with the wider community of Perkins Institute or Boston. Julia attended church and wrote poetry, yet it became harder for her to maintain her isolation. The marriage was increasingly stifling to her. Her personality was not one which adjusted to being subsumed by the campus and professional life of her husband, nor was she the most patient person. Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote much later of her in this period: Bright things always came readily to her lips, and a second thought sometimes came too late to withhold a bit of a sting.

Julia wanted to immediately forget what she had witnessed, but it became embedded in her mind and stirred her to action, as had happened so many times before. A relentless pounding in her chest . . . she had to respond the only way she knew . . . she must write!

Something remarkable was happening! Without hesitation, this gritty woman was empowered, inspired and driven. Her inspirational words were precious freedom not only to her soul, but somehow resonated hope for the countless generations that would follow.

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 lightening of His terrible swift sword / His truth is marching on / Glory, glory, hallelujah

Years later she described how the song was written,

In spite of the excitement of the day I went to bed and slept as usual, but awoke the next morning in the gray of the early dawn, and to my astonishment found that the wished-for lines were arranging themselves in my brain. I lay quite still until the last verse had completed itself in my thoughts, then hastily arose, saying to myself, I shall lose this if I don’t write it down immediately. I searched for an old sheet of paper and an old stub of a pen which I had had the night before, and began to scrawl the lines almost without looking, as I learned to do by often scratching down verses in the darkened room when my little children were sleeping. Having completed this, I lied down again and fell asleep, but not before feeling that something of importance had happened to me.

“The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” the great Civil War song, became an American anthem of righteousness and power, in December of 1861. Composed in a flash of inspiration to the tune of the marching song “John Brown’s Body,” the poem was published in The Atlantic Monthly in February of 1862. However, “Battle Hymn” was popularized as a song by Union chaplain Charles Cardwell McCabe, who often included it in his lectures and sang it on important occasions. The hymn was also a favorite of Abraham Lincoln, who reportedly cried when he first heard it. Knowingly, Howe wanted Lincoln to be moved by the sentiment of the song and free the slaves. Although slow to embrace abolitionism, Howe had become caught up in the drama of John Brown’s martyrdom for his failed attack on Harpers Ferry. Her powerful Biblical imagery linking the Old Testament prophesies in Isaiah of vengeance and redemption framed the Civil War as a Christian crusade, and her lyrics became the battle cry for freedom.

The music to “John Brown’s Body” and “Battle Hymn” is based on an old Protestant hymn sung across the frontier by the settlers. The folk tunes from oral tradition were a part of a collection of songs sung at camp meetings at the turn of the 19th century during the Second Great Awakening. Up until the Civil War, these tunes and texts were interspersed through camp meeting songbooks throughout America, consequently having an influence on Howe’s inspiration for “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”Held by the Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians for worship, preaching, and communion, camp meetings were a part of the religious experience during the Second Great Awakening at the turn of the 19th century in America. Many camp meetings were held here in Rutherford County. One of the most popular and enduring was the Windrow Camp Revival, held near the Rockvale community. A song which inspired “Battle Hymn,” “Glory Hallelujah,” was perhaps sung at a Windrow camp meeting. These highly energy-charged meetings became a persuasive atmosphere and the moral climate for social and cultural change regarding slavery in all of America.

For over 150 years, from 1812 until 1968, the Windrow Camp Revival hosted tens of thousands with its traveling circuits. The event was responsible for 3,000 to 4,000 conversions. There is no doubt that this homespun, “holy fair” camp at Windrow was one of the most remarkable ever held in the state. Not only did it play a vital role in the spiritual and social life of Rutherford County, the camp meeting revivals inspired cultural and social reform, challenging institution of slavery all across America.

According to historian David Blight, “There had never been anything like it. Here’s a meeting of 3,000 people out in a field, blacks and whites together, listening to a preacher who says, ‘Here in my message is a new life for you, here’s a new chance for you.’”

From her inspired camp-meeting song, Julia Ward Howe’s powerful, brush-stroked verses in “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” would encourage and touch others in a manner that few songs have ever done in American history. “The Star Spangled Banner” wasn’t officially adopted as the United States’ national anthem until 1931. Shortly after this song was written in 1861, it was effectively the national anthem. As the United States did not have an official anthem until the “Star Spangled Banner,” “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” became the most important song of the Northern side of the American Civil War.

Later, this woman patriot became one of the most popular women in America, leading the suffrage movement, becoming an influential force behind the national adoption of Mother’s Day and continuing to write all types of literature (she spoke several languages). In her day, many Americans referred to Julia Ward Howe as the “Queen of America.”

Could it be that the “King of the Ages” is sending a message today that is eternal and relevant for us through these lyrics? We can emerge victoriously through our circumstances, whether personal or public, if we just believe! “His truth is marching on . . . glory, glory, hallelujah!”

“The Battle Hymn of the Republic”