Julia Ward Howe

Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910) was an abolitionist, writer, and women's rights activist.

Julia was educated by tutors at home and in girls' schools until age 16.

In November 1861, the same year that the Civil War began, Howe was visiting Washington, D.C. with her husband, and observed the Union forces during the day and campfires at night. She had difficulty sleeping. In the early morning hours, as the rest of the nation slept, an inspiration struck her to write the lyrics to the famous song, The Battle Hymn of the Republic. These words were published by the Atlantic Monthly on February 1, 1862, and became the theme song for the Union during the Civil War.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:

His truth is marching on.

Chorus:

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

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.

Chorus

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:

"As ye deal with my condemners, so with you my grace shall deal;

Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,

Since God is marching on."

Chorus

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!

Our God is marching on.

Chorus

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.

Chorus

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,

He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,

So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,

Our God is marching on.

Chorus

This poem was later put to the tune of a campfire spiritual written around 1855 by South Carolinian William Steffe, which had been adapted to many different lyrics.

The title of John Steinbeck's most famous novel, The Grapes of Wrath, was suggested by his wife Elaine, and is from a line of this song.

Historians see the basis for The Battle Hymn of the Republic in a popular song among abolitionists that included these lyrics:

John Brown's body lies amoulding in the grave.

His soul is marching on!

Howe became active in movements for women's rights, helping to found the New England Woman Suffrage Association in 1868.

In 1870, Julia Ward Howe advocated the celebration of a "Mothers' Day for Peace."

---