This was the answer of those that sympathized.with John Brown, a song which they flung at those who seemed to take delight in the fact that he was dead Thane Miller, of Cincinnati, heard the melody, which is perhaps the most popular martial melody in America, in a colored Presbyterian church in Charleston, South Carolina, about 1859, and soon after introduced it at a convention of the Young Men's Christian Association in Albany, New York, with the words, Say, brothers will you meet us, Professor James E. Greenleaf, organist of the Harvard Church in Charlestown, found the music in the archives of that church, and fitted it to the first stanza of the present song. It has since been claimed that the Millerites, in 1843, used the same tune to a hymn, one verse of which is as follows, "We'll see the angels coming Through the old churchyards, Shouting through the air Glory, glory hallelujah!"' Whatever may have been the origin of the melody, When fitted by Greenleaf to the first stanza of John Brown's Body, it became so great a favorite with the Glee Club of the Boston Light Infantry that they asked Mr. Hall to write the additional stanzas. As has been the case with popular tunes in every age, verses have been often added to it to meet the occasion. While the words are not of a classical order, the air is of that popular kind which strikes the heart of the average man. During the Civil War it served to cheer and inspire the Union soldiers in their camps and on the march, and was sung at home at every popular gathering in town or country. It seemed to be just what the soldiers needed at the time, and served its purpose far better than would choicer words or more artistic music. No song during all the war fired the popular heart as did John Brown's Body. It crossed the sea and became the popular street song in London. The Pall Mall Gazette of October 14, 1865, said: "The street boys of London have decided in favor of John Brown's Body, against My Maryland, and The Bonnie Blue Flag. The somewhat lugubrious refrain has excited their admiration to a wonderful degree, and threatens to extinguish that hardworked, exquisite effort of modern minstrelsy, Slap Bang." After the original song had gained world-wide notoriety, the following words were written by Henry Howard Brownell, who died at Hartford, Connecticut, October 31, 1872, aged fifty-two. Mr. Brownell entitled his poem, "Words that can be sung to the Hallelujah Chorus," and says: “If people will sing about Old John Brown, there is no reason why they shouldn't have words with a little meaning and rhythm in them." "Old John Brown lies a-mouldering in the grave, Glory, glory hallelujah! Glory, glory hallelujah! Glory, glory hallelujah! His soul is marching on. "He has gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord, He is sworn as a private in the ranks of the Lord He shall stand at Armageddon, with his brave old sword, When Heaven is marching on. "He shall file in front where the lines of battle form He shall face the front where the squares of battle form Time with the column and charge with the storm, Where men are marching on. |