C. C. McCabe › Hymnals

Charles Cardwell McCabe’s story begins during the Civil War when at age 25 he was appointed chaplain of the 122nd Regiment of Ohio Volunteers. He read in The Atlantic Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic” fit to the popular marching tune “John Brown’s body” and immediately taught it to his regiment. As they moved out to Virginia and became part of a larger Union regiment they took The Battle Hymn with them. Captured and sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, he led the prisoners on the long 150 mile march in singing The Battle Hymn to raise their spirits and maintain morale. Under terrible prison conditions they sang; people remembered standing outside the prison to listen. At the news of Lee’s defeat McCabe again led all the prisoners in singing “national airs”. He contracted typhoid, and when prisoners were exchanged at Fortress Monroe, VA he weighed less than 100 pounds. After prison he worked as a fund raiser for the U.S. Christian Commission in Washington. He often officiated at four or five church services around Washington camps and hospitals, sometimes walking ten miles. He told of refusing an invitation to a white folks’ church so he could preach to a congregation of former slaves where he gave to the choir copies of the Battle Hymn. On Feb. 2, 1864 he attended a meeting of the House of Representatives for a celebration of the second anniversary of the Christian Commission which Lincoln attended. When McCabe led the singing of the Battle Hymn Lincoln was so moved that he asked for it to be sung again. McCabe attended Lincoln’s funeral in Springfield, IL and was asked to sing the Battle Hymn there. After the war McCabe was appointed to Spencer Chapel in Portsmouth, OH and became a major fundraiser for his alma mater [Ohio] Wesleyan University’s endowment fund. For forty years he lectured throughout the country as Secretary of the Church Extension Society. In 1896 he was elected to the Methodist episcopacy, unofficially named “The Singing Bishop”. He died after suffering a stroke Dec. 19, 1906.

M.L. VanDyke (with material from Wm. E. Ross: “The Singing Chaplain: Bishop McCabe” in Methodist History, Oct. 1989