The lyric “Glory, glory,...” is completed by “hallelujah” in “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
Julia Ward Howe wrote the song’s lyrics in November 1861 after hearing Union soldiers sing “John Brown’s Body.” She wrote the verses while staying at Washington’s Willard Hotel, and the song was published on the front page of The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862.
The melody and refrain came from an older revival and soldiers’ song tradition. “John Brown’s Body” itself used a tune related to the camp-meeting hymn “Say, Brothers, Will You Meet Us,” whose chorus developed into the recurring “Glory, glory, hallelujah.”
The hymn is often confused with “John Brown’s Body” because the two songs share the melody and chorus. Howe’s lyrics, however, added biblical imagery about judgment, war, harvest, and divine justice. Some modern performances also change “let us die to make men free” to “let us live to make men free,” but the opening refrain remains “Glory, glory, hallelujah.”