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Editor's Note: The following article was first published in the July/August 2007 issue of Today's Christian magazine. After publication, it came to our attention that the lyrics of the song "Battle Hymn of the Republic," along with the dubious personal history of its author, still stir considerable controversy with some readers, particularly those from the Southern and former Confederate states.

In publishing this short article, it was not our intention to offend any of our readers but simply to tell the history of this well-known song. However, the subject of the Civil War is still a sensitive topic for many readers, as you will see from the letters following the article. A song that suggests justice and deliverance for some evokes violence and brutality in the minds of others. We regret that feelings were hurt in our publication of the article. But perhaps this Story Behind the Song, along with the sampling of feedback from some readers, will help shed needed light on an issue that still simmers below the surface of our nation's soul.

Very seldom do people of the world pick a sacred song, done in a simple yet beautiful way, and make a "hit" of it. But such was the case with Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

During the Civil War the soldiers used the song "John Brown's Body" as a marching tune, favored for its snappy rhythm. Hearing this tune many times, Mrs. Howe often prayed that she might write more suitable words for such a melody.

With her husband and some friends, one day she rode just outside Washington to watch the reviewing of some army troops. During the course of the day, she heard the soldiers singing the song. One of her companions, a clergyman who was aware she wrote poetry, asked why she didn't write new, more inspirational words for the tune.

In recounting the story of her song, she said that she awakened the next morning before dawn, thinking of the tune and framing verses in her mind. She later said, "I sprang out of bed and in the dimness found an old stump of a pen and scrawled the verses almost without looking at the paper."

"Glory, glory, hallelujah! His truth is marching on," declares the legendary refrain. Her lyrics, sung to the marching tune, were received with much enthusiasm and published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862. When the song was performed at a war rally attended by President Abraham Lincoln, tears of emotion glistened in his eyes as he shouted, "Play it again!" The hymn became very dear to Lincoln, and was widely used during his presidency.

In 1965, it was played at the funeral services of Sir Winston Churchill. In more recent times it was often heard in activities surrounding the tragedies of September 11, 2001, in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

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