Battle Hymn of the Republic
By: Julia Ward Howe
of November 18, 1861, when she was visiting Washington, D.C.
She had recently watched Union army troops drilling to the strains of “John Brown’s body,” and a companion suggested she compose new lyrics for the tune. The result was published in the
“Atlantic Monthly a few months later.
It assertion of faith that God was with the North’s cause immediately appealed to the
Union army, which adopted it as its marching song. After the war,
its popularity spread to all parts of the country.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lighting of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
I have seen him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps;
They are building Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His rightness 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 judgement-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 dis to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Source: The Book of Virtues
By: William J. Bennett
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