Battle Hymn of the Republic is an American patriotic song that was a popular Union rallying song during the Civil War (1861-1865). The melody comes from a hymn, “Say, brothers, will you meet us?” (also known as “Glory, hallelujah”), which was written by William Steffe, a Southerner, at least as early as 1856.
Civil War soldiers liked to create their own marching songs by singing humorous lyrics to familiar tunes. Early in the war, Union soldiers began to sing the words “John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave” to the tune of Steffe’s hymn. In 1861, American poet and reformer Julia Ward Howe heard an obscene version of the “John Brown” song at a Union army camp. She decided to write more appropriate lyrics and composed “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” It was published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862 and soon appeared in all the Union army hymnbooks.
