Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass History Undergraduate Works Dept. of History 2021 Bring The Jubilee: The Civil War and the Healing Power of its Music Richard E. Martin Virginia Commonwealth University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/hist_undergrad Part of the Military History Commons, Other History Commons, Public History Commons, Social History Commons, and the United States History Commons © The Author(s) Downloaded from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/hist_undergrad/1 This Research Report is brought to you for free and open access by the Dept. of History at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Undergraduate Works by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. - 2021 Bring the Jubilee: THE CIVIL WAR AND THE HEALING POWER OF ITS MUSIC BY RICHARD ELLIOTT MARTIN 1 On a cold November night in 1861, poet Julia Ward Howe suddenly had a stroke of inspiration while lying in bed in her room at the Willard Hotel in Washington. “I went to bed that night as usual, and slept, according to my wont, quite soundly,” she wrote. “I awoke in the gray of the morning twilight; and as I lay waiting for the dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to twine themselves in my mind. Having thought out all the stanzas, I said to myself, "I must get up and write these verses down, lest I fall asleep again and forget them." So, with a sudden effort, I sprang out of bed, and found in the dimness an old stump of a pencil which I remembered to have used the day before.