I have thus sketched briefly the train of events and experiences both before and during the Civil War which led up to the composition of this national hymn. The seed had lain germinating for years--at the last it sprang suddenly into being. My mother’s mind often worked in this way. It had a strongly philosophic tendency which made her think long and study deeply. But she possessed, also, the fervor of the poet. Her mental processes were often extremely rapid, especially under the stress of strong emotion. She herself thought the quick action of her mind was due to her red-haired temperament. The two opposing characteristics of her intellect, deliberation and speed, were perhaps the result of the mixed strains of her blood inherited from English and French ancestors. The student of her life will note a number of sudden inspirations, or visions, as we may call them. Before these we can usually trace a long period of meditation and reflection. Her peace crusade, her conversion to the cause of woman suffrage, her dream of a golden time when men and women should work together for the betterment of the world, were all of this description. The “Battle Hymn” was the most notable of these inspirations. In her _Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Struggle_ she ascribes its composition to two causes--the religion of humanity and the passion of patriotism. The former was a plant of slow growth. In her tribute to Theodore Parker,[22] she tells us how this developed under his preaching, and how he prepared his hearers for the war of blood and iron that soon followed. My mother had long cherished love for her country, but it burned more intensely when the war came, bursting into sudden flame after that memorable day with the soldiers. “When the war broke out, the passion of patriotism lent its color to the religion of humanity in my own mind, as in many others, and a moment came in which I could say: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord! --and the echo which my words awoke in many hearts made me sure that many other people had seen it also.”[23] IV “THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC” “The crimson flower of battle blooms” in a single night--The vision in the gray morning twilight--It is written down in the half-darkness on her husband’s official paper of the U. S. Sanitary Commission--How it was published in the _Atlantic Monthly_ and the price paid for it--The John Brown air derived from a camp-meeting hymn--The simple story in her own words. Over and over again, so many times that she lost count of them, was my mother asked to describe the circumstances under which she composed “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Fortunately she wrote them down, so that we are able to give “the simple story” in her own words.