Battle Hymn of the Republic

Author:   Julia Ward Howe
Date:1861

Annotation: This is the text of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Julia Ward Howe wrote this original version of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” in 1861. This well-known Civil War song has become an American patriotic anthem.

Some of the words in later versions were rewritten:

The line referring to the soldiers in the Civil War “As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free” has been changed to “As he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free.”

The word “succor” has been changed to “honor.”

The “soul of Time” has been changed to “soul of wrong.”

References to God have been capitalized.

Document:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the wine press, where the grapes of wrath are stored, He hath loosed the fateful lightnings of his terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on.I have seen him in the watchfires of an 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 burning Gospel writ in fiery rows of steel, As ye deal with my condemners, so with you my grace shall deal, Let the hero born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, Our God is marching on.

He has sounded out the trumpet that shall never call retreat, He has waked the earth’s dull sorrow with a high ecstatic beat, Oh! Be swift my soul to answer him, be jubilant my feet! Our God is marching on.

In the whiteness of the lilies he was born across the sea, With a glory in his bosom that shines out on you and me, As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, Our God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave, He is wisdom to the mighty; he is succor to the brave, So the world shall be his footstool, and the soul of Time his slave, Our God is marching on.