| It was the very darkest time of the American Civil | | | | was coming. |
| War. President Lincoln could not find the right superior | | | | Meanwhile, back at the parade ground in Washington. |
| officer who would take the charge to the enemy. In | | | | Imagine these broken men, mostly wounded, all |
| contrast, the most brilliant cadet at West Point | | | | exhausted, trying to put on a brave face for |
| Academy to train American officers, Robert E. Lee, | | | | America, at a very perilous hour. As these men |
| had felt a loyalty to his native Virginia he could not | | | | limped on by the Presidential Review Stand, |
| refuse. His masterful strikes and retreats kept a far | | | | dignitaries all around, they sang their tribute to the |
| superior northern force at it's wits end. At the top of | | | | man who had given his life and who really triggered |
| the heap of those wits was the President. | | | | the Civil War: John Brown. |
| In contrast, the Senior Union General was often | | | | As the men straggled by they sang their camp fire |
| reported speaking that the nation needed a dictator: | | | | tribute to the first to die to free the slaves, and it |
| he had the ideal candidate in mind, and it was not | | | | was so rudimentary yet so solemn in the tune that |
| President Lincoln. I studied the letter Lincoln wrote to | | | | President Lincoln mused out loud that it was a shame |
| that general, and it is a masterpiece of putting an | | | | that such an inspiring tune was not connected to |
| arrogant fool in his place, and reminding him that first | | | | more noble words. |
| he must give victories, then we could all talk about | | | | And, in the middle of the night, the now famous wife |
| his dictatorship. | | | | of a minister who had overheard the remarks of |
| It was only when that famous, wonderful drunkard, | | | | Lincoln awoke and jotted down the words of the |
| Ulysses S. Grant, began to give amazing victories | | | | Battle Hymn of the Republic. The same tune as the |
| down the Mississippi and especially his masterful | | | | body of John Brown lies a mouldering in the grave: |
| taking of Vicksburg and smashing his way across | | | | brought us Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the |
| Tennessee; then with General Sherman pounding | | | | Coming of The Lord, the Saints Go Marching On. It |
| their way across the south to the Atlantic and then | | | | choked me up when I read that, I hope it does you |
| back up towards Richmond, having to make the | | | | too. |
| brutal point that slavery was over and a new order | | | | |