William Haines Lytle

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William Haines Lytle
10th Ohio Infantry
Battles/warsMexican–American War
American Civil War
Signature

William Haines Lytle (November 2, 1826 – September 20, 1863) was a politician in Ohio, renowned poet, and military officer in the United States Army during both the Mexican–American War and American Civil War, killed in action as a brigadier general.

Biography

William Haines Lytle was born in

antebellum America.[2] Lytle was appointed as a major general in the Ohio state militia. In 1860, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for his district's seat in the United States House of Representatives. He campaigned in Ohio for the candidacy of Stephen A. Douglas in the 1860 Presidential Election.[3]

When the Civil War erupted in 1861, through his political and military connections, Lytle was commissioned as colonel of the

William S. Rosecrans. Admiring officers from his old 10th OVI presented him with a jeweled Maltese cross in September 1863, just eleven days before his death.[3]

Lytle was mortally wounded at the

Chickamauga National Military Park.[4]

His funeral was held in the early afternoon at

Christ Church on Fourth Street in Cincinnati. So many people lined the streets that the funeral cortege did not reach Spring Grove Cemetery
until dusk. Lytle's monument, one of the most impressive ones there, is near the entrance to the cemetery.

Legacy

Lytle never married, and left no direct descendants.

Fort Vinegar, on Vinegar Hill in Bowling Green, was renamed as Fort Lytle after Lytle's death. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places in Warren County, Kentucky.

Lytle Park in Cincinnati, One Lytle Place in Cincinnati, and Lytle Street at 1235 west in Chicago, are named for the fallen general or his family.[3]

Anthology

The shooter

The alleged shooter of Lytle was never discovered. All that is known is that the shooter was a Confederate sniper who used a Whitworth .45 caliber percussion rifle.

However, according to history presented to The Daughters of The Confederacy, the shooter was Hillary Garrison Waldrep of Company B of the 16th Alabama Regiment of Infantry. In order to make the shot that was purportedly approved personally by General Bragg, Waldrep had to adjust the sights on his rifle for 200 yards beyond where they usually were. According to the account, once General Lytle fell to the ground, his horse was spooked and ran toward the Confederate soldiers. Bragg gave Hillary Garrison Waldrep General Lytle's horse, bed-roll and equipment. Waldrep later sold the horse for $100.

Antony and Cleopatra

Lytle's most famous poem, 1858:

I am dying, Egypt, dying!
Ebbs the crimson life-tide fast,
And the dark Plutonian shadows
Gather on the evening blast;
Let thine arm, oh Queen, enfold me,
Hush thy sobs and bow thine ear,
Listen to the great heart secrets
Thou, and thou alone, must hear.

Though my scarred and veteran legions
Bear their eagles high no more,
And my wrecked and scattered galleys
Strew dark Actium's fatal shore;
Though no glittering guards surround me,
Prompt to do their master's will,
I must perish like a Roman,
Die the great Triumvir still.

Let not Caesar's servile minions,
Mock the lion thus laid low;
'Twas no foeman's arm that felled him,
'Twas his own that struck the blow —
His who, pillowed on thy bosom,
Turned aside from glory's ray —
His who, drunk with thy caresses,
Madly threw a world away.

Should the base plebeian rabble
Dare assail my name at Rome,
Where the noble spouse, Octavia,
Weeps within her widowed home,
Seek her; say the gods bear witness, —
Altars, augurs, circling wings, —
That her blood, with mine commingled,
Yet shall mount the thrones of kings.

And for thee, star-eyed Egyptian —
Glorious sorceress of the Nile!
Light the path to Stygian horrors
With the splendors of thy smile;
Give the Caesar crowns and arches,
Let his brow the laurel twine,
I can scorn the senate's triumphs,
Triumphing in love like thine.

I am dying, Egypt, dying;
Hark! the insulting foeman's cry;
They are coming; quick, my falchion!
Let me front them ere I die.
Ah, no more amid the battle
Shall my heart exulting swell;
Isis and Osiris guard thee, —
Cleopatra, Rome, farewell!

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Johnson, Rossiter; Brown, John Howard, eds. (1904). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. Vol. VII. Boston: The Biographical Society. Retrieved May 10, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
  2. ^ Civil War Poetry: Antony and Cleopatra
  3. ^ a b c Johnston, John (November 2, 2003). "A general of interest". The Cincinnati Enquirer. pp. E1, E5. Retrieved May 10, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b Goodman, Rebecca (November 2, 2003). "Ohio Moments: Gen. William H. Lytle mourned even by Rebs". The Cincinnati Enquirer. p. B2. Retrieved May 10, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.

Further reading

  • Carter, Ruth C., For Honor, Glory & Union: The Mexican & Civil War Letters of Brig. Gen. William Haines Lytle. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999.
    ISBN 0-8131-2108-6
    .

External links
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