On May 12, 1861, soon after the Civil War had begun, the strains of "John Brown's Body" were heard for the first time at Ft. Warren, near Boston, Massachusetts. Adapted by C.S. Hall from a three-year-old Methodist hymn, "Say, Brothers, Will You Meet Us," the words to the new version referred not to the Harper's Ferry raider but to a Sgt. John Brown, then stationed at the fort. The song became so popular among Northern soldiers that opposition developed to so common a lyric being affixed to so exalted a melody. In 1862, Julia Ward Howe was persuaded to write the inspirational words we know as "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
