The Story of the Battle Hymn of the Republic/Chapter 3
"THE years between 1850 and 1857, eventful as they were, appear to me almost a period of play when compared with the time of trial which was to follow. It might have been likened to the tuning of instruments before some great musical solemnity. The theme was already suggested, but of its wild and terrible development who could have had any foreknowledge?"
In her Reminiscences my mother thus compares the Civil War and its prelude. Again she says of the former:
"Its cruel fangs fastened upon the very heart of Boston and took from us our best and bravest. From many a stately mansion father or son went forth, followed by weeping, to be brought back for bitterer sorrow."
Mercifully she was spared this last. My father was too old for military service and no longer in vigorous health, being in his sixtieth year when the war broke out; my eldest brother was just thirteen years of age. Nevertheless she was brought into close touch with the activities of the great struggle from the beginning.
On the day when the news of the attack on Fort Sumter was received Dr. Howe wrote to Governor Andrew, offering his services:
"Since they will have it so—in the name of God, Amen! Now let all the governors and chief men of the people see to it that war shall not cease until emancipation is secure. If I can be of any use, anywhere, in any capacity (save that of spy), command me."[1]
With what swiftness the "Great War Governor of Massachusetts" acted at this time is matter of history. Two days after the President issued a call for troops, three regiments started for Washington. Massachusetts was thus the first State to come to the aid of the Union—the first, alas! to have her sons struck down and slain.
Governor Andrew was glad to avail himself of Dr. Howe's offer of aid. The latter's early experiences in Greece made his help and counsel valuable both to the State and to the nation. Gen. Winfield Scott, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and Governor Andrew requested him, on May 2, 1861, to make a sanitary survey of the Massachusetts troops in the field at and near the national capital. Before the end of the month the Sanitary Commission was created, Dr. Howe being one of the original members appointed by Abraham Lincoln.
Governor Andrew was almost overwhelmed with the manifold cares and duties of his office. Our house was one of the places where he took refuge when he greatly needed rest. He was obliged to give up going to church early in the war because many people followed him there, importuning him with requests of all sorts.
Thus the questions of the Civil War were brought urgently to my mother's mind in her own home, just as those of the anti-slavery period had been a year or two before.
To quote her Reminiscences again:
"The record of our State during the war was a proud one. The repeated calls for men and for money were always promptly and generously answered. And this promptness was greatly forwarded by the energy and patriotic vigilance of the Governor. I heard much of this at the time, especially from my husband, who was greatly attached to the Governor and who himself took an intense interest in all the operations of the war. . . . I seemed to live in and along with the war, while it was in progress, and to follow all its ups and downs, its good and ill fortune with these two brave men, Dr. Howe and Governor Andrew. Neither of them for a moment doubted the final result of the struggle, but both they and I were often very sad and much discouraged."
Governor Andrew was often summoned to Washington. Dr. Howe's duties as a member of the Sanitary Commission also took him there. Thus it happened that my mother went to the national capital in their company in the late autumn of 1861. Mrs. Andrew, the Governor's wife, Rev. James Freeman Clarke, and Mr. and Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple were also of the party.
As they drew near Washington they saw ominous signs of the dangers encompassing the city. Mrs. Howe noticed little groups of armed men sitting near a fire—pickets guarding the railroad, her husband told her. For the Confederate Army was not far off, the Army of the Potomac lying like a steel girdle about Washington, to protect it.
This was my mother's first glimpse of the Union Army which later made such a deep impression upon her mind and heart. I have always fancied, though she does not say so, that some of the vivid images of the "Battle Hymn" were suggested by the scenes of this journey.
Arrived at Washington, the party established themselves at Willard's Hotel. Evidences of the war were to be seen on all sides. Soldiers on horseback galloped about the streets, while ambulances with four horses passed by the windows and sometimes stopped before the hotel itself. Near at hand, my mother saw "The ghastly advertisement of an agency for embalming and forwarding the bodies of those who had fallen in the fight or who had perished by fever."[2] In the vicinity of this establishment was the office of the New York Herald.
Governor Andrew and Dr. Howe were busy with their official duties; indeed, the former was under such a tremendous pressure of work and care that he died soon after the close of the war. The latter "carried his restless energy and indomitable will from camp to hospital, from battle-field to bureau." His reports and letters show how deeply he was troubled by the lack of proper sanitation among the troops.
My mother again came in touch with the Army, visiting the camps and hospitals in the company of Mr. Clarke and the Rev. William Henry Channing. It need hardly be said that these excursions were made in no spirit of idle curiosity.
In ordinary times she would not look at a cut finger if she could help it. I remember her telling us of one dreadful woman who asked to be shown the worst wound in the hospital. As a result this morbid person was so overcome with the horror of it that the surgeon was obliged to leave his patient and attend to the visitor, while she went from one fainting fit into another!
Up to this time my mother had never spoken in public. It was from the Army of the Potomac that she first received the inspiration to do so. In company with her party of friends she had made "a reconnoitering expedition," visiting, among other places, the headquarters of Col. William B. Greene, of the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. The colonel, who was an old friend, warmly welcomed his visitors. Soon he said to my mother, "Mrs. Howe, you must speak to my men." What did he see in her face that prompted him to make such a startling request?
It must be remembered that in 1861 the women of our country were, with some notable exceptions, entirely unaccustomed to speaking in public. A few suffragists and anti-slavery leaders addressed audiences, but my mother had not at this time joined their ranks.
Yet she doubtless then possessed, although she did not know it, the power of thus expressing herself. Colonel Greene must have read in her face something of the emotion which poured itself out in the "Battle Hymn." He must have known, too, that she had already written stirring verses. So he not only asked, but insisted that she should address the men under his command.
"Feeling my utter inability to do this, I ran away and tried to hide myself in one of the hospital tents. Colonel Greene twice found me and brought me back to his piazza, where at last I stood and told as well as I could how glad I was to meet the brave defenders of our cause and how constantly they were in my thoughts."[3]
I fear there is no record of this, her maiden speech.
Throughout her long life church-going was a comfort, one might almost say a delight, to her. During this visit to Washington, where the weeks brought so many sad sights, she had the pleasure of listening on Sunday to the Rev. William Henry Channing. Love of his native land induced him to leave his pulpit in England and to return to this country in her hour of darkness and danger.
My mother tells us that this nephew of the great Dr. Channing was heir to the latter's spiritual distinction and deeply stirred by enthusiasm in a noble cause. "On Sundays his voice rang out, clear and musical as a bell, within the walls of the Unitarian church"[4]—her own church. Thus she listened both in Washington and in Boston, her home city, to men who were patriots as well as priests.
As she tells the story, one sees how almost all the circumstances of her environment tended to promote her love of country and to stir the emotions of her deeply religious nature. It was by no accident that the national song which bears her name is a hymn. Written at that time and amid those surroundings, it could not have been anything else.
Among her cherished memories of this visit was an interview with Abraham Lincoln, arranged for the party by Governor Andrew. "I remember well the sad expression of Mr. Lincoln's deep blue eyes, the only feature of his face which could be called other than plain. . . . The President was laboring at this time under a terrible pressure of doubt and anxiety."[5]
The culminating event of her stay in Washington was the visit to the Army of the Potomac on the occasion of a review of troops. As the writing of the "Battle Hymn" was the immediate result of the memorable experiences of that day, I shall defer their consideration till the next chapter.
I have thus sketched briefly the train of events and experiences both before and during the Civil War which led up to the composition of this national hymn. The seed had lain germinating for years—at the last it sprang suddenly into being. My mother's mind often worked in this way. It had a strongly philosophic tendency which made her think long and study deeply. But she possessed, also, the fervor of the poet. Her mental processes were often extremely rapid, especially under the stress of strong emotion. She herself thought the quick action of her mind was due to her red-haired temperament. The two opposing characteristics of her intellect, deliberation and speed, were perhaps the result of the mixed strains of her blood inherited from English and French ancestors.
The student of her life will note a number of sudden inspirations, or visions, as we may call them. Before these we can usually trace a long period of meditation and reflection. Her peace crusade, her conversion to the cause of woman suffrage, her dream of a golden time when men and women should work together for the betterment of the world, were all of this description.
The "Battle Hymn" was the most notable of these inspirations. In her Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Struggle she ascribes its composition to two causes—the religion of humanity and the passion of patriotism. The former was a plant of slow growth. In her tribute to Theodore Parker,[6] she tells us how this developed under his preaching, and how he prepared his hearers for the war of blood and iron that soon followed.
My mother had long cherished love for her country, but it burned more intensely when the war came, bursting into sudden flame after that memorable day with the soldiers.
"When the war broke out, the passion of patriotism lent its color to the religion of humanity in my own mind, as in many others, and a moment came in which I could say:
—and the echo which my words awoke in many hearts made me sure that many other people had seen it also."[7]
- ↑ From Journals and Letters of Samuel Gridley Howe. Dana, Estes & Co.
- ↑ Reminiscences.
- ↑ Reminiscenes.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Reminiscences.
- ↑ See Chap. ii, page 33.
- ↑ Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Struggle.