In 1862, Julia Ward Howe...
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In 1862, Julia Ward Howe wrote the words of the beloved "Battle Hymn Of The Republic." She wrote them in the darkest days of the Civil War, when it seemed that all hope for our nation's unity was sputtering out like a spent candle.
Julia Howe looked out one evening over an encampment of Union soldiers. As the grim and gritty life of the army camp was swallowed by the gathering night, she thought of what the war meant. For the soldiers, it was an unremitting struggle of mud-slogging persistence -- of trench warfare, of short rations, of shocking injuries from artillery shells. More men died in the Civil War of disease and of gangrenous wounds than ever died on a battlefield.
Yet, Howe was an ardent abolitionist. She thought also of the meaning of the war for the African slaves. For them, this struggle meant freedom. For them, the sacrifices of the battlefield were not in vain. Suddenly, as the campfires flickered into life, Howe saw the camp transformed into a starry firmament, the lesser lights of the campfires pointing the way to a greater light.
For her, that greater light was Jesus Christ: "I have seen him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps."
Julia Howe looked out one evening over an encampment of Union soldiers. As the grim and gritty life of the army camp was swallowed by the gathering night, she thought of what the war meant. For the soldiers, it was an unremitting struggle of mud-slogging persistence -- of trench warfare, of short rations, of shocking injuries from artillery shells. More men died in the Civil War of disease and of gangrenous wounds than ever died on a battlefield.
Yet, Howe was an ardent abolitionist. She thought also of the meaning of the war for the African slaves. For them, this struggle meant freedom. For them, the sacrifices of the battlefield were not in vain. Suddenly, as the campfires flickered into life, Howe saw the camp transformed into a starry firmament, the lesser lights of the campfires pointing the way to a greater light.
For her, that greater light was Jesus Christ: "I have seen him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps."
