May 23, 2006

A&E > The Remainder of the Narrative: "John Brown's Body"

Mark Steyn writes this week on the song "John Brown's Body":

Ah, yes. The famous song about the famous abolitionist hanged in 1859 in Charlestown, Virginia before a crowd including Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson and John Wilkes Booth.

Well, no, not exactly. “By a strange quirk of history,” wrote Irwin Silber, the great musicologist of Civil War folk songs, “‘John Brown’s Body’ was not composed originally about the fiery Abolitionist at all. The namesake for the song, it turns out, was Sergeant John Brown, a Scotsman, a member of the Second Batallion, Boston Light Infantry Volunteer Militia.” This group enlisted with the Twelfth Massachusetts Regiment and formed a glee club at Fort Warren in Boston. Brown was second tenor, and the subject of a lot of good-natured joshing, including a song about him mould’ring in his grave, which at that time had just one verse, plus chorus:

Glory, glory, hallelujah
Glory, glory, hallelujah…

And that song transmogrified into "Battle Hymn of the Republic." And now you know... the remainder... of... the narrative.*

* The lawyers for Paul Harvey - whom I've never heard of - asked me to state that there's no connection between his "The Rest... of... the Story" and my "The Remainder... of... the Narrative."

Posted by lesjones | TrackBack



Comments

An even better telling of the history of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, you should hear Sarah Vowell's Teacher Hit Me with a Ruler

The segment in question begins at the 22:40 mark of the program.

Posted by: Stormy Dragon at May 23, 2006

Odd twist....

I remember a Paul Harvey "Rest of the story" segment from years back where he says the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic came in a dream to an, uh, up to that time less-than-virtuous Julia Ward Howe.

Posted by: TheGunGeek at May 23, 2006
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