It was late. 1861. A cold, gray November in Washington D.C. meant damp wool and the smell of campfire smoke everywhere. A woman named Julia Ward Howe sat in the Willard Hotel, unable to sleep because the rhythm of marching feet wouldn't leave her head. Earlier that day, she’d watched Union troops parading nearby, singing a gritty, rough-edged campfire song called "John Brown's Body." It was catchy, sure, but it wasn't exactly what you'd call "high art." Her friend and pastor, James Freeman Clarke, leaned over to her while they watched the soldiers and said, "Julia, why don't you write some good words for that tune?"
She did exactly that. Before the sun even came up, she grabbed a scrap of Sanitary Commission stationery and scribbled down the lines that would define the American Civil War.
If you’ve ever wondered who wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic, the short answer is Howe. But the long answer is a lot more interesting. It’s a story about a woman trapped in a miserable marriage, a stolen melody from a campfire singalong, and a poem that managed to turn a bloody, political conflict into a holy crusade.
The Woman Behind the Words
Julia Ward Howe wasn't some starving artist living in a garret. She was a New York socialite, born into a wealthy family, and she was incredibly well-educated for the mid-19th century. She spoke several languages. she studied philosophy. She wrote plays. Honestly, she was probably the smartest person in almost every room she entered.
But her life wasn't exactly a fairytale. She was married to Samuel Gridley Howe, a famous reformer who did great things for the blind but was, frankly, a bit of a control freak at home. He didn't want his wife to have a public life. He hated that she published poetry. He even tried to manage her inheritance. This tension is important. When you read the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn," you aren't just reading about a war in the South. You’re reading the words of a woman who felt her own internal war—a woman who was desperate for a sense of divine purpose and agency in a world that told her to stay quiet and pour tea.
It All Started with a Different Song
Most people think the "Battle Hymn" was a totally original piece of music. It wasn’t. Not even close. The melody—that famous Glory, Glory, Hallelujah—already existed.
Before Howe got her hands on it, the tune belonged to a song called "Say, Brothers, Will You Meet Us?" It was a simple, repetitive camp-meeting hymn used by Methodists and other denominations during the Second Great Awakening. It was designed to be easy to sing while you were walking or working.
By the time the Civil War broke out, soldiers had hijacked the tune. They turned it into "John Brown’s Body." The lyrics were... let's say "unrefined." They were about the famous abolitionist’s corpse rotting in the grave. It was a protest song, a marching song, and a bit of a joke all rolled into one. When Howe heard the soldiers singing it in 1861, she realized the power of the melody was being wasted on lyrics that felt too small for the moment.
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She wanted something grander. Something that felt like the Bible.
Writing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" in the Dark
The legend says she wrote it in a "twilight of dawn." She woke up in her room at the Willard Hotel, and the verses were just there, vibrating in her mind. She didn't even want to light a lamp because she didn't want to wake her kids or her husband, so she felt her way across the room to a desk.
She used a stub of a pencil. She wrote the words in the dark.
"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..."
These aren't just pretty lines. They are a direct observation of what she saw during her carriage ride through the Union army camps in Virginia. The "watch-fires" weren't a metaphor—they were the literal fires she saw dotting the hillsides at night.
Why the Song Went Viral
In February 1862, the Atlantic Monthly published the poem. They paid her $5 for it. That sounds like a joke today, but back then, it was a decent chunk of change for a single poem. They were the ones who gave it the title "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
It didn't take long to explode.
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Soldiers loved it because it gave their suffering a cosmic meaning. They weren't just fighting over states' rights or even just the legal end of slavery; according to Howe’s lyrics, they were the instrument of God’s "terrible swift sword." It transformed the Union army into an apocalyptic force.
Abraham Lincoln reportedly cried when he first heard it sung. He understood the power of a song to recruit hearts, not just bodies. It gave the North a moral high ground that was desperately needed after several early, embarrassing defeats on the battlefield.
The Controversy You Probably Didn't Hear About
While we treat the song like a secular national anthem now, it was actually pretty controversial in some circles. Some people found the imagery a bit too violent. "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored" is a direct reference to the Book of Revelation. It’s a messy, bloody image of divine judgment.
There’s also the fact that Howe’s husband, Samuel, was part of the "Secret Six"—the group that secretly funded John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. So, while Julia was writing high-minded poetry, her family was deeply embedded in the most radical, violent wing of the abolitionist movement. The song wasn't just "inspired" by the war; it was a weapon used in the war.
How the Song Changed After the War
Once the war ended, you’d think the song would fade away. Nope. It became the soundtrack for almost every American movement for the next 150 years.
- The Suffrage Movement: Julia Ward Howe spent the rest of her life fighting for women’s right to vote. She used her fame from the song to command attention at rallies.
- Labor Unions: Early 20th-century strikers adapted the lyrics to fit the fight for better wages.
- The Civil Rights Movement: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously quoted the lyrics in his final speech in Memphis. "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord" were some of the last words he ever spoke in public.
- Modern Politics: It’s been sung at the funerals of Winston Churchill, Robert Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan.
It’s a song that belongs to everyone and no one. It’s been used by both the left and the right. Why? Because the language is so broad and so powerful that it can be applied to almost any struggle that feels "righteous."
Things People Get Wrong About the Song
A lot of folks think this was the national anthem at some point. It wasn't. It also wasn't written for the troops. It was written as a poem that was eventually set back to the "John Brown" tune.
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Another misconception is that it was always an abolitionist anthem. While Howe was definitely an abolitionist, the lyrics themselves are strangely vague about slavery. She uses words like "the oppressed" and "the captives," but the focus is much more on the glory of God than the specific legal status of Black Americans. This was likely a strategic choice to make the song palatable to a wider audience in the North, some of whom were still hesitant about the idea of total emancipation in 1862.
What You Should Do Now
If you want to really understand the weight of who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic, don't just read the lyrics. You have to hear them in context.
First, go find a recording of "John Brown's Body." Listen to the raw, almost punk-rock energy of the original soldiers' version. It’s messy. It’s loud. Then, immediately listen to a choir performance of Howe's "Battle Hymn." You’ll feel the shift from the mud of the trenches to the high ceilings of a cathedral.
If you're ever in Washington D.C., swing by the Willard Hotel. You can still see where Julia stayed. Standing in that space makes the "watch-fires" feel a lot more real.
Finally, read up on Howe’s work with the woman suffrage movement. Writing the song was just the beginning of her story. She spent decades trying to ensure that the "liberty" she wrote about in her poem actually applied to her own gender. It’s a reminder that the people who write our history are often fighting their own private battles while they’re busy changing the world.
To dive deeper into the history of American folk music or the specific role of women during the Civil War, your best bet is checking out the primary documents at the Library of Congress. They have digital archives of Howe’s original letters that show her creative process in real-time. It’s worth the rabbit hole.