Julia Ward Howe’s daughter tells how the hymn came to be: the anti-slavery circle her parents moved in, the troubles in Kansas, a visit to the Army of the Potomac in 1861, and the night in a Washington hotel when the verses came to her. She then follows the song through camps, prisons and great public occasions, with Howe’s lesser war poems.
An intimate account of the making of an American anthem, told by someone who heard it from the author. Download the free EPUB.