The Battle Hymn of the Republic

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I cannot say for certain why, but the most moving moment of the week for me was during the service Thursday at the National Cathedral when “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” was sung. It must have hurt some of the southern Senators/Representatives who were present to sing this, but they did, full-throated.

I am not a vindictive person, nor prone to religious zealotry or patriotic fervor, but this moved me.

Although this is clearly a religious song, it is about the motivations of people in battle. Specifically those who believe unequivocally that they are right vs. those they (and most others) see as evil. It is a call to arms of the good people in the world.

Somewhere in this world, some very guilty people became very afraid when this happened, I think.
"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.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous 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 judgment-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 died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on."

Words: Julia Ward Howe, 1861, alt. This hymn was born dur­ing the American ci­vil war, when Howe vis­it­ed a Union Army camp on the Potomac River near Wash­ing­ton, D. C. She heard the sol­diers sing­ing the song “John Brown’s Body,” and was tak­en with the strong march­ing beat. She wrote the words the next day:

I awoke in the grey of the morning, and as I lay wait­ing for dawn, the long lines of the de­sired po­em began to en­twine them­selves in my mind, and I said to my­self, “I must get up and write these verses, lest I fall asleep and for­get them!” So I sprang out of bed and in the dim­ness found an old stump of a pen, which I re­mem­bered us­ing the day before. I scrawled the verses al­most with­out look­ing at the p­aper.

2

As neither an American nor a Christian, I have to say that that is one of the most beautiful and stirring pieces of music ever written.

3

And I can tell you that, when done properly, it’ll make the hairs on your arms stand up. It’s that powerful a piece of music.

4

Yeah, it will. My church choir used to sing it and another soprano and I used to do this really interesting descant that made it even shivery-er. (I usually sing alto, but on that song, I did soprano.)

5

It’s definitely a rousing piece, I’ll give it that. Very well written, and I found myself humming bars of it for a day or two after the ceremony.

That said, I had mixed feelings about hearing it performed at the funeral service.

6

What the hell is that supposed to mean? Do you reckon that we Southerners have to choke out the lyrics to “The Star Spangled Banner” as well? Believe it or not, even us poor Southern folk know that “Dixie” is not really the national anthem. How about the Legislators who are Jewish, Muslim, athiest, etc. but sung anyway? Gonna bash them, too? Maybe we should quit singing this song in my Southern Baptist Church since we apparently offend ourselves when we do.

America is a melting pot of cultures, religions, and ideas. Patriotic songs like “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” help to remind us that, whatever our differences, we are all in this together. It reminds us that freedom, while often taken for granted, has a terrible price. It reminds us that the price, for which the currency is blood, has been and will continue to be paid in installments as long as freedom is to exist. It reminds us that “We must all hang together, or surely we will all hang separately”. It reminds us that there is a Supreme Being who will protect us if we honor Him. Of course, that’s just one dumb Southerner’s impression of the song. Apparently there are different interpretations. If there are, then this Johhny Reb is willing to die for your right to hold them.

7

Take a sedative, Dr. J. It’s a political reality that I was referring to. It has nothing to do with patriotism. It’s closer to what the Brits did playing the Star Spangled Banner at the changing of the guard, only this is a bit fresher. Just look at the controversy generated by the rebel flag and the reluctance of many politicos to get involved in that, and here they are singing the fight song of the north. Anyway, I thought it was moving and it definately stirred me. I certainly didn’t mean to impugn the patriotism of the south. That is unquestioned.

8

Lamar - You picked the wrong song and the wrong time to impugn any culture, even accidentally. I have never met a Southerner who objected to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” on any grounds other than religious. As I said before, we sing the song in church on a regular basis. It is the grand finale of the nightly laser show at Stone Mountain park here in Georgia. Stone Mountain is, as you may know, the largest outcropping of granite in the US and is a Confederate war memorial. The huge bas relief sculpture on the side of the mountain is of three Confederate generals on horseback. If this song were an affront to Southerners I doubt it would be played at Stone Mountain.

Draw your irony from the fact that Muslims, Jews and Atheists were moved enough by this tragedy to sing a Christian song, not that Southeners would sing a patriotic song.

Great Britan is a sovereign country. The American South is just that, a part of the United States of America. Your analogy is horribly flawed.

That issue, which has been debated here in depth, was a political issue. It had nothing to do with allegiance to the United States. Even the people who supported flying the Confederate flag never said they wanted to secede from the Union. Nobody wanted to fly the Confederate flag over Old Glory. I agree that the hoopla made some Southern states look backwards (mine included), but not from a patriotic standpoint.

You hit a nerve, Lamar. I’ll go take my sedative now.

9

I’ll second what Doctor Jackson said. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” is a popular song here in the south. I understand that you were touched by it, Lamar, but you were mistaken when you though southerners find it offensive.

When I was a child in the 70’s we sang it in school and in church.

Even though you consider it specifically a “fighting song of the north” it is not. It is about much more than that. It is about “trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.” The song says nothing specific about the North or the South. When I was a child I thought it was a Confederate song!