o. 173 in the _Revivalist_,) was written in 1855, by John William
Steffe, of Richmond, Va., for a fire company, and was afterwards
arranged by Franklin H. Lummis. The air of the "John Brown Song" was
caught from this religious melody. The old hymn-tune had the "Glory,
Hallelujah" coda, cadenced off with, "For ever, ever more."

In 1860-61 the garrison of soldiers at work on the half-dismantled
defenses of Fort Warren in Boston Harbor, were fain to lighten labor and
mock fatigue with any species of fun suggested by circumstances or
accident, and, as for music, they sang everything they could remember or
make up. John Brown's memory and fate were fresh in the Northern mind,
and the jollity of the not very reverent army men did not exclude
frequent allusions to the rash old Harper's Ferry hero.

A wag conjured his spirit into the camp with a witticism as to what he
was doing, and a comrade retorted,

"Marchin' on, of course."

A third cried, "Pooh, John Brown's underground."

A serio-comic debate added more words, and in the midst of the banter, a
musical fellow strung a rhythmic sentence and trolled it to the
Methodist tune. "John Brown's body lies a mould'rin' in the ground" was
taken up by others who knew the air, the following line was improvised
almost instantly, and soon, to the accompaniment of pick, shovel and
crowbar,--

His soul goes marching on,

--rounded the couplet with full lung power through all the repetitions,
till the inevitable "glory, glory hallelujah" had the voice of every
soldier in the fort. The song "took," and the marching chorus of the
Federal armies of the Civil War was started on its way. Mrs. Howe gave
it a poem that made its rusticity sublime, and the "Battle Hymn of the
Republic" began a career that promises to run till battle hymns cease to
be sung.

Julia Ward was born in New York city, May 27, 1819. In 1843 she became
the wife of Samuel Gridley Howe, the far-famed philanthropist and
champion of liberty, and with him edited an anti-slavery paper, the
_Boston Commonwealth_, until the Civil War closed its mission. During
the war she was active and influential--and has never ceased to be
so--in the cause of peace and justice, and in every philanthropic
movement. Her great hymn first brought her prominently before the
public, but her many other writings would have made a literary
reputation. Her four surviving children are all eminent in the
scientific and literary world.

K