Battle Hymn of the Republic

William Steffe (1830–1890) collected and edited a camp-meeting song with the traditional Glory Hallelujah refrain, in about 1856. It opened with "Say, brothers, will you meet us / on Canaan's happy shore?" The tune became widely known.

Early in the American Civil War, this tune was used to create the Union army marching song John Brown's Body, which begins with the lyrics "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, but his soul goes marching on."

In November 1861, Julia Ward Howe, having heard this version, used the tune as the basis of her new verse, later known as Battle Hymn of the Republic, also known as Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory outside of the United States. Howe's more famous lyrics were written in November 1861 and first published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862. The song links the judgment of the wicked at the end of time (New Testament, Rev. 19) with the American Civil War. Since that time, it has become an extremely popular and well-known American patriotic song.

Program Note from Wikipedia