The propagation of electromagnetic traveling wave in a free-electron laser (FEL) with an electromagnetic wiggler is investigated using the relativistic fluid-Maxwell formulation. By adapting the traveling-wave ansatz, three coupled, nonlinear ordinary differential equations are obtained describing the nonlinear propagation of the coupled wave. These equations may be used to study saturation in FELs. By linearizing the nonlinear equations dispersion relations for the traveling wave are obtained. Numerical solution of the small-signal traveling dispersion relation reveals the coupling of radiation to both slow and fast space-charge waves. It is shown that the traveling wave, which is not a normal mode in a laboratory frame, becomes a normal mode in terms of a transformed variable.