名人轶事39:Julia Ward Howe

By Shelley Gollust

Broadcast: February 27, 2005

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

I'm Ray Freeman.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith with the Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA.

Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United

States.

Today, we tell about Julia Ward Howe. She wrote one of the great songs of the

American Civil War, the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

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VOICE ONE:

Marching soldiers ... no end to the lines of soldiers marching across the

land. They came from the northern states fighting to keep the Union together.

And they came from the southern states fighting for a separate Confederate

government that would protect their right to have slaves. In summer and

winter, the fighting continued. The sun burned like fire. The soldiers

marched on. The cold winter winds blew snow in their faces. The soldiers

marched on.

The United States was a nation cut in two by a bitter struggle over slavery

and a state's right to leave the Union. America's Civil War lasted four

years. It destroyed the land. And it destroyed the young men of the nation.

VOICE TWO:

Many stories have been told about the soldiers of the Civil War. They have

told of the soldiers’ fear and terror. . .their great and heroic acts. .

.how they suffered and died. . .and how they sang before and after battle.

One song, more than any other, caught the spirit of the Union soldiers of the

North. The song is the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Here is the first part

of the song, sung by Odetta:

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The words are religious. They are like a hymn, a song of praise to God. This

is the story of the woman who wrote the song.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The place was Washington, D.C. The year was eighteen sixty-one. It was a wet

winter night. There were thousands of soldiers in the city. The hospitals

were full. The field of battle was just across the Potomac River in the

southern state of Virginia.

A woman lay asleep in her hotel room. She had had a long, hard day. She had

come to Washington to visit the Union troops. The sight and sounds of the

soldiers gave her no rest. Even in her sleep she seemed to hear them. She

heard their sad voices as they sat beside their fires. She heard them

singing. They sang a marching song she knew. It was a song about John Brown,

an activist against slavery. The song told about how his body turned to earth

in the grave. It told about how his spirit lived on.

VOICE ONE:

The woman's name was Julia Ward Howe. She was a writer and social reformer.

She was born in New York City in eighteen nineteen. Her father was a wealthy

banker. Julia married Samuel Gridley Howe. He was a reformer and teacher of

the blind. Julia and Samuel Howe moved to Boston. Missus Howe raised five

children. And she published several books of poetry.

VOICE TWO: