Debbi forwarded this moving rendition of a classic hymn. It’s purportedly a performance by four combined High School choirs and a group of grade school children, with the recording and presentation made by the father of one of the students. The song, of course, is Battle Hymn of the Republic. I grew up singing this hymn and hearing it always makes me proud to be an American.

The hymn was born during the American Civil War when Julia Ward Howe visited a Union Army camp on the Potomac River near Washington, D. C. She heard the soldiers singing the song “John Brown’s Body” and was taken with the strong marching beat. She wrote the words the next day:

“I awoke in the grey of the morning, and as I lay waiting for dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to entwine themselves in my mind, and I said to myself, ‘I must get up and write these verses, lest I fall asleep and forget them!’ So I sprang out of bed and in the dimness found an old stump of a pen, which I remembered using the day before. I scrawled the verses almost without looking at the paper.”

First appearing in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862, the hymn was sung at the funerals of British statesman Winston Churchill, American senator Robert Kennedy, and American presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. (Requires Flash Player)

This is a Patriot’s Journey post. Remember to check out the other Patriotic Journeyers: Drumwaster, The Bastage, the folks at The Line Is Here and Shortbus from The Edge of Reason…