Eighty-one years ago today, on January 1, 1942, Winston Churchill wept as he heard Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic” for the first time.

Churchill, who was sitting beside Franklin D. Roosevelt in a church pew that had been used by George Washington and Robert E. Lee in centuries past, sang “My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,” and “Glory, glory, hallelujah!” with a congregation of mostly American worshipers at Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia. The service was a celebration of a National Day of Prayer. Pearl Harbor had been attacked 25 days before. With America now in the war, Britain and its Dominion nations no longer fought alone.

(*This photograph is from two years later - from a celebration of America's Thanksgiving in London's Albert Hall in 1944. It was just too perfect not to use in this newsletter*).

I only knew about this story - along with the stories that follow below - because I recently watched a video of a fascinating presentation titled: “Winston Churchill and the American Civil War.”

I was a Lincoln boy before I was a Churchill man. I started reading about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War at an early age, and read everything I could find, including Carl Sandburg’s four-volume account of the War Years. I collected Abraham Lincoln stamps (and still have them). Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln was the book that most inspired me to start researching and writing about history.

When I learned about this video, I was not only drawn in by its content, I was also attracted by the presenter: Lee Pollock. Lee is a Director and Senior Advisor to the Board of The International Churchill Society and previously served as its Executive Director. I’ve watched a half-dozen of Lee’s presentations, and learned a humbling amount of history from each one. I asked Lee if I could base this newsletter on his “Winston Churchill and the American Civil War” lecture, and he kindly agreed. At first I thought this had simplified my life - I had the meat of my newsletter for this month! And then I started writing, and realized only then how challenging it would be to decide what to leave out. Lee’s presentation, delivered to an audience at the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia, is packed with 34 minutes of fascinating stories, followed by 30 minutes of questions and answers. Here are a few of the stories that I found most enlightening and inspiring:

I was generally aware that Churchill had written about the Civil War, but I had not realized just how deep, and how personal his interest had been. In 1929, Churchill, accompanied by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Douglas Southall Freeman, walked some of the most famous battlefields from the Civil War. Churchill shared his impressions of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania, and the fields of the Seven Days Battles in a newspaper article titled “Old Battlefields of Virginia.” Churchill, whose fascination with history was unbounded, wrote: “You must see the ground, you must cover the distances in person, you must measure the rivers, and see what the swamps were really like.”

In my time writing about the Second World War, I carry a constant reminder of a much later conversation between Churchill and President Roosevelt. When Roosevelt asked what he thought the Second World War would be called, Churchill suggested “The Unnecessary War.” I just learned that Churchill described the Civil War as “the noblest and least avoidable of the great conflicts of which there was a record.” (That noise you will be hearing for the next week or so will be the sound of me chewing over that quote).

Winston Churchill died on January 24, 1965 at the age of 90. His state funeral, held six days later in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, had been planned in fine detail for years. I’ve watched multiple videos of his funeral through the years For some reason, it never dawned on me that the hymn I recognized (but never gave much thought to) was the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Now that I know its meaning to Churchill – as well as that Churchill had asked that it be sung at his funeral as a tribute to his American mother – I will never hear it the same way again.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Our God is is marching on.

If you’d like to learn more, I strongly encourage you to check out these two links:

Lee Pollock’s “Winston Churchill and the American Civil War” presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDuLOR6KlnE

Winston Churchill’s funeral: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC1WEdgXKEI
(The entire 10-minute video is impressive and quite moving. The singing of the Battle Hymn of the Republic begins at the 6:17 mark).

Lee Pollock also mentions a fascinating website about Lincoln and Churchill in his presentation. You can find it here: https://lincolnandchurchill.org/
Lewis Lehrman, who fostered this site, is also the author of the book Lincoln and Churchill: Statesmen at War. He wrote this note on the website: “Theirs are the stories we tell here of great leaders. Let them inspire a world still in need of their extraordinary leadership.

Thanks for reading – and watching. I wish you all the very best for a safe, healthy, and happy 2024!

Bill