No relevance to the Union cause? It apparently had much relevance to the Union armies, inasmuch as one of their favorite marching songs was "John Brown's Body." Has the pro-life movement composed any odes to Eric Rudolph? Maybe I haven't been paying close enough attention.
At any rate, thanks so much for the instructive information about Mr. Ruffin. (But you might want to check out the events of 9 January, 1861. The time of day escapes me.)
No, actually the marching song was "Battle Hymn of the Republic," unless you count the regiment that first wrote the song. The song was not written about the abolitionist, it was written as a joke to tease a member of their unit with the same name. Onlookers assumed it was about the abolitionist, and lyrics were added to suit that idea. Meanwhile, Julia Ward howe was writing new lyrics...
Talk about songs all you want. Brown was a serial killer. He didn't start the Civil War, he murdered innocent men. And those murders were in response to elctoral fraud by proslavery elements and the sacking of Lawrence. If the Civil War started in Kansas, it started when the Border Ruffians crossed over from Missouri to vote in Kansas elecytions, or when a cannon was shot into the town of Lawrence. And even if we consider the Citadel cadet's engagement to be "the first shots," that puts the aggression on the South.