William Steffe (c.1830 – c.1890), born in South Carolina, United States, was a Philadelphia bookkeeper and insurance agent. He is credited with collecting and editing the musical tune for a camp-meeting song with the traditional "Glory Hallelujah" refrain, in about 1856.Annie J. Randall, "A Censorship of Forgetting: Origins and Origin Myths of 'Battle Hymn of the Republic'", in Music, Power, and Politics, edited by Annie J. Randall, Routledge, 2004, p. 12, 15, 16. It opened with "Say, brothers, will you meet us / on Canaan's happy shore?" The tune became widely known. Early in the American Civil War, this tune was used to create the Union army marching song " John Brown's Body", which begins with the lyrics "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, but his soul goes marching on." In November 1861, Julia Ward Howe, having heard this version, used the tune as the basis of her new verse, later known as " The Battle Hymn of the Republic".

References

*C. A. Brown (revised by Willard A. Heaps), ''The Story of Our National Ballads'', 1960, pages 174–178 *William A. Ward (ed.), ''The American Bicentennial Songbook, Vol. 1 (1770–1870s)'', 1975, page 236

External links

Battle hymn of the Republic (Julia Ward Howe/William Steffe) (1861)William Steffe and The Battle Hymn of the Republic
* * * 1830 births 1890 deaths 19th-century American composers 19th-century American male musicians American male composers Bookkeepers Insurance agents Musicians from South Carolina {{US-composer-19thC-stub