JULIA WARD HOWE

JULIA WARD HOWE

Julia Howe wrote the one most powerful line of poetry I've ever come across. As a forty something woman, she visited a Union army encampment during the early days of our Civil War. She heard the soldiers singing the song "John Brown's Body" around the camp fires at night. She sat down and wrote new words for the melody that fit the current situation. Her song was a favorite of the Union soldiers. It is now sung at innaugarations as well as funerals of presidents and everywhere at celebrations of our independence. One line from her Battle Hymn of the Republic always takes me back: As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.