[Illustration: _Julia Ward Howe._ From her last photograph, taken at Smith College a fortnight before her death] THE STORY OF THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC BY FLORENCE HOWE HALL DAUGHTER OF JULIA WARD HOWE [Illustration] HARPER & BROTHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON THE STORY OF THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC Copyright, 1916, by Harper & Brothers Printed in the United States of America Published October, 1916 ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author wishes to express her cordial thanks to Messrs. Houghton & Mifflin for their courtesy in allowing her to quote a number of passages from the _Reminiscences_ of Julia Ward Howe (published by them in 1899) and several from _Julia Ward Howe_ (published by them in 1916). CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. THE ANTI-SLAVERY PRELUDE TO THE GREAT TRAGEDY OF THE CIVIL WAR 3 II. THE CRIME AGAINST KANSAS 21 III. MRS. HOWE VISITS THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC 38 IV. “THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC” 49 V. THE ARMY TAKES IT UP 64 VI. NOTABLE OCCASIONS WHERE IT HAS BEEN SUNG 73 VII. HOW AND WHERE THE AUTHOR RECITED IT 88 VIII. TRIBUTES TO “THE BATTLE HYMN” 96 IX. MRS. HOWE’S LESSER POEMS OF THE CIVIL WAR 107 X. MRS. HOWE’S LOVE OF FREEDOM AN INHERITANCE 121 _THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC_ _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._ _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._ _I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel: “As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal; Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, Since God is marching on.”_ _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._ _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._ THE STORY OF “THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC” I THE ANTI-SLAVERY PRELUDE TO THE GREAT TRAGEDY OF THE CIVIL WAR