Soundtrack of the American Civil war

The raid on Harpers Ferry by a group of slavery abolitionists led by John Browne, was one of the incidents which sparked the start of the American Civil War.
Brown had taken abolition of slavery to extremes and had committed many atrocities during the 1850s. He attacked the army arsenal at Harpers Ferry to get more arms for his followers. Ten of his men were killed and the rest captured. Brown was found guilty of treason and hanged. This made him a martyr in parts of the North.
The man who led the army group that captured him was a young colonel who would later come to prominence during the Civil War – Robert E Lee.
It is possible that the song John Brown’s Body refers to that John Brown but there was another of the same name – a Scotsman in the Massachusetts Militia whom some believe to be the origin of the song.
Whichever is true by the time the Civil War was underway the song had become very popular. Both armies – Union and Confederate – had their own versions, each with words adapted to their causes and it was a popular marching song of the time.
Julia Ward was born into a well off New York family and after she married Samuel Howe moved to Boston.
Both favoured the abolition of slavery and even published an anti slavery newspaper. She also became a well-known author of verse and prose. In 1861, Howe and a group of friends were on a visit to Washington and attended a public parade of union troops after the first Battle of Bull Run.
As they marched away from the parade some of the regiments sang John Brown’s Body. Having heard it so much the friends found themselves singing the song as they returned to their hotel.
One of the group, Reverend James Freeman Clarke, felt that such a beautiful old air deserved better and more uplifting lyrics and he challenged Howe to write a song to that air.
Howe answered his challenge and the song she wrote was 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.
The song was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862 for which the editor paid Howe the princely sum of $5. It quickly became as well known as the song that led to it and before long, it was the unofficial song of the Union Army.
It is one of the most enduring of the Civil War songs and is a well-loved American patriotic anthem. Like John Brown’s Body, it too has been adapted to modern use and versions have been written to suit the beliefs of the users.
After the war she was involved in the battle for women’s rights and was a founding member of the organised suffragette movement. She continued to write and was the first ever women elected as a member of the American Academy of Letters.
Julia Ward Howe, composer of the song which lived for generations after her, died on October 17, 1910 – 100 years ago this week.              Michael Torpey