In 1861, as the American Civil War began, a writer by the name of Julia Ward Howe hears a song called "John Brown's Body", a popular marching created by Thomas Bishop of Vermont, who joined the Massachusetts Infantry one year prior to the beginning of the war. Howe hears the tune sung by the company in command of the 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Rufas R. Dawes. The man in command said that he had first come across the song by a man in his unit, Sgt. John Ticknor. Her companion, during her public review of the soldiers was a reverend, James Freeman Clarke, and he suggested that the lyrics in the song be changed. On the morning of November 18, 1861, Julia awakes with a blast of unexpected inspiriation, jots down the newly revised lyrics of the soldier's marching song on an old stump. One year later, in February of 1862, the lyrics are published on the front page of The Atlantic Monthly. The title of that song was called "Battle Hymn of the Republic". Today it is widely considered and regarded as an American patriotic song.
Much like "John Brown's Body" was re-structured into "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as a marching song for the soldiers on the front lines, two seinor members of the TEA Party has re-worked the famous tune into a song about TEA party favorite...Sarah Palin. I am not making this up.
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