BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC.
Reading edition
[Listen] [Notation]
(By Mrs. Julia Ward Howe.)
Air—“John Brown.”
As sung by Chaplain C.C. McCabe while a prisoner in Libby, after hearing Old Ben (the colored paper-seller in Richmond) cry out, “Great news by the telegraph! Great battles at Gettysburg! Union soldiers gain the day!” Upon hearing such glorious news Chaplain McCabe sung this soul-stirring hymn, all the prisoners joining heartily in the chorus, making the old prison walls ring—“Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!”
SIXTEENTH CORPS. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible quick sword; His truth is marching on. Chorus.—Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! 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 have read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps; His day is marching on. Chorus.—Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!
I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel, “As ye deal with my contemners, so with my grace shall deal; Let the hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel, Since God is marching on.” Chorus.—Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! 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. Chorus.—Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! In the beauties of the lillies 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. Chorus.—Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!