A wag conjured his spirit into the camp with a witticism as to what he was doing, and a comrade retorted,
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,--
--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.
Naturally the title suggests the authorship of the ode, but fate made Keller a musician rather than a poet and hymnist, and the honors of the fine anthem are divided. At the grand performance which created its reputation, the hymn of Dr. O.W. Holmes was substituted for the composer's words. This is Keller's first stanza:
Speed our republic, O Father on high! Lead us in pathways of justice and right, Rulers, as well as the ruled, one and all, Girdle with virtue the armor of might. Hail! three times hail, to our country and flag! Rulers, as well as the ruled, one and all, Girdle with virtue the armor of might; Hail! three times hail, to our country and flag!