William Wing Loring

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William W. Loring
Regiment of Mounted Riflemen (USA)
Army of the Northwest (CSA)
Battles/warsSeminole Wars

Texas Revolution

Mexican-American War

American Civil War

Ethiopian–Egyptian War

Other workAuthor

William Wing Loring (December 4, 1818 – December 30, 1886) was an American soldier who served in the armies of the United States, the Confederacy, and Egypt.

Biography

Early life

William was born in

Seminole Indians in minor skirmishes that would culminate in the Seminole Wars. When he was seventeen, he ran away to fight in the Texas War for Independence, but was soon retrieved by his father and taken home. For the next few years, he continued to fight in the Second Seminole War and was promoted to second lieutenant. In 1837, Loring was sent to Alexandria Boarding School in Alexandria, Virginia, completing his secondary education. He attended Georgetown University from 1839 to 1840 and then went on to study law, and was admitted to the Florida bar in 1842. In 1843, he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives where he served from 1843 to 1845. In 1845 he ran unsuccessfully for the Florida Senate
.

Mexican-American War

In 1846, Loring joined a newly formed regiment, the

Mexican-American War. Loring's regiment saw action in most of the battles of the war and he was wounded three times. While leading the charge into Mexico City, Loring's arm was shattered by a Mexican bullet, and he later had it amputated. He received two brevets for bravery, one to lieutenant colonel, and another to colonel
.

Antebellum years

In 1849, during the

Kiowas
. Loring was promoted to colonel at the age of 38 in December 1856, the youngest in the army.

He left the United States and traveled to Europe in May 1859. While there, he, like many of his fellow American officers, studied the military tactics that had been invented in the recent Crimean War. Before he returned home, Loring would visit Great Britain, France, Sweden, Prussia, Switzerland, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia, Turkey, and Egypt.

Civil War

When the

Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's invasion from Ohio
.

After organizing an army of roughly 11,700 at

Henry Alexander Wise, then-at Sewell Mountain and Meadow Bluff. Lee was re-called back to Richmond in late October. Loring and the men remained for a short period before abandoning the mountainous region too, marching into, and down the Shenandoah Valley to join Stonewall Jackson at Winchester
.

Loring famously butted heads with superior officers, particularly with

Kanawha Valley in his Kanawha Valley Campaign of 1862, ultimately occupying Charleston
for a six-week period. In mid-October, Loring was transferred to the West.

By November 1862, Loring was in

Atlanta Campaign. Polk's divisions, one commanded by Loring, arrived just in time to temporarily thwart a flanking maneuver by Union General James B. McPherson at the Battle of Resaca
. Facing overwhelming numbers, Johnston's army was continuously flanked and forced to withdraw closer and closer to Atlanta.

Loring temporarily took command of Polk's III Corps when Polk was nearly cut in two by an artillery round and killed at

Carolinas Campaign, seeing action at the Battle of Bentonville before being surrendered by Johnston at Durham, North Carolina
a month later.

Egypt

Loring Pasha as a general in the Khedivate of Egypt

After the Confederate defeat in the Civil War, Loring served for nine years in the army of

Egyptian-Ethiopian War ended in disaster at the Battle of Gura, and the Egyptians blamed the Americans for the disaster. When Ratib Pasha had urged remaining with the Gura fortress, Loring had taunted him and called him a coward until he consented to meeting the Ethiopian host in the open valley.[4] While the rest of the Egyptian army returned home, they were ordered to remain in Massawa until further notice, where they endured the summer months, then spent the next two years enduring endless frustration and humiliation in Cairo.[5] In 1878, partially due to finances, the American officers were dismissed. During his service to Egypt, Loring attained the rank of Fereek Pasha (Major General). After his return to the United States, he wrote a book about his Egyptian experiences, entitled A Confederate Soldier in Egypt (1884). Loring was also the posthumous co-author of The March of the Mounted Riflemen (1940).[6]

Return to United States

Loring returned to Florida where he unsuccessfully ran for the United States Senate against Charles W. Jones. He then moved to New York City, where he died. He was buried in Loring Park, behind Government House in downtown St. Augustine, Florida until August 24, 2020, when the University of Florida Historic St. Augustine exhumed his ashes and began the process of moving them to Craig Funeral Home Memorial Park.[6][7]

Legacy and honors

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Charles Henry Pope, "Loring Genealogy", 1917, p.228
  2. ^ Virginia. Governor (1860-1863: Letcher). Executive Papers, 1859-1863. Accession 36787. State government records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
  3. ^ Czeslaw Jesman, "Egyptian Invasion of Ethiopia", African Affairs, 58 (1959), p. 79
  4. ^ Boulger, Demetrius. The Life of Gordon, pp. 230 ff. T. Fisher Unwin (London), 1896 reprinted Library of Alexandria, 1986.
  5. ^ Jesman, "Egyptian Invasion", p. 81
  6. ^ a b Eicher, pp. 353-54.
  7. ^ "University of Florida removes Loring monument from downtown St. Augustine".
  8. ISBN 978-1476617541
    . Retrieved 7 December 2017.
  9. WCJB
    . August 24, 2020.
  10. ^ "Actress, Author, Wife: The Story of May Nunez". The Tennessean. Nashville, Tennessee. November 29, 1886. p. 2. Retrieved November 6, 2023 – via newspapers.com.

References

External links

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