Julia Ward Howe (1819 - 1910) full signature with final sentence from a letter ('I am, dear Sir, yours with much respect,...') mounted & framed together with a picture of Howe in old age., an ardent abolitionist, suffragette and advocate of world peace, Julia Ward Howe is best known for writing 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' (set to the tune of 'John Brown's Body'), which was penned in 1861 after her visit to civil war battlefields.