William W. Patton

William W. Patton
William Weston Patton (photo by Charles Delevan Mosher)
Born	October 19, 1821 New York, New York, U.S.
Died	October 21, 1889 (1889-10-22) (aged 68) New York, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	New York University Union Theological Seminary
Occupation	5th President of Howard University
Known for	His lyrics of John Brown's Body

William Weston Patton (October 19, 1821 – October 21, 1889), was an abolitionist, academic administrator, and scholar. He served as the 5th president of Howard University, and one of the contributors to the words of John Brown's Body. He was the son of Rev. William Patton and the grandson of Anglo-Irish Congregationalist immigrant and Revolutionary War Major Robert Patton.

Patton took an earnest part in the anti-slavery movement, and was chairman of the committee that presented to President Lincoln, 13 September 1862, the memorial from Chicago asking him to issue a proclamation of emancipation. In 1887, Patton read a paper before the Maryland Historical Society entitled "President Lincoln and the Chicago Memorial on Emancipation" recalling the actual dialogue with President Lincoln at that meeting in 1862. The original copy of that paper is held in the Mugar Memorial Library at Boston University. He was vice-president of the Northwestern sanitary commission during the American Civil War, and as such repeatedly visited the eastern and western armies, publishing several pamphlet, reports. In 1886, he went, on behalf of the freedmen, to Europe, where, and in the Orient, he remained nearly a year.

In October 1861 Patton wrote new lyrics to the battle song John Brown's Body. These were published in the Chicago Tribune on December 16, 1861. Even more than the previous words the new words glorify the violent anti-slavery acts of the abolitionist John Brown and his followers. The third verse directly refers to the attack on the armory in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Verse four compares John Brown to John the Baptist.