Published July 2, 2022 2:00am EDT
Meet the American who wrote 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic'
Julia Ward Howe's biblical epic inspired soldiers to vanquish slavery and it rallies Americans to this day
By Kerry J. Byrne | Fox News
Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910) gave the United States — and the world — some of the most inspirational words ever written.
She penned "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" in November 1861, during a wartime tour of Washington, D.C., as Americans realized with gloom that the seven-month-old Civil War would be longer, darker and deadlier than anticipated.
Howe's masterpiece has been called America's fight song. Its lyrics inspired the United States to spiritual resolve and sacrifice.
The words tell the biblically heroic story of Union soldiers marching to their death in the name of Christ to vanquish slavery:
As he died to make men holy
Let us die to make men free
His truth is marching on
The lyrics are often altered in modern performances to "let us live to make men free." Yet some 360,000 federal soldiers, according to the American Battlefield Trust, answered the call to martyrdom in the name of human liberty. Their sacrifice freed 4 million Americans from bondage. Hundreds of thousands of Confederate soldiers died in the conflict, too.
The "glory, glory hallelujah" chorus of "The Battle Hymn" is today one of the most familiar refrains in world music.
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