| Birth: | Feb. 3, 1842 | | Death: | Sep. 7, 1881 | 
Poet, CSA Soldier. He was born and reared in Macon, Georgia. He became known through his poetry as a spokesman for the defeated Confederacy. He was an 1860 graduate of Oglethorpe University and tutored there until the Civil War. He supported the secession of Georgia. In June 1861 he joined the Macon Guards (which became Company I of the 4th Georgia) and was assigned to the Virginia theater through most of the war. On March 9, 1862, he witnessed the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac. He transferred to mounted signal duty in late summer 1862, and served on the staff of Major General S. G. French. In May 1863, he visited the battlefield of Chancellorsville, which inspired his 1865 poem, "The Dying Words of Jackson." He later served variously as a scout, courier, and signalman aboard blockade runners until being captured at sea on November 2, 1864. He was sent to Point Lookout Prison, Maryland, where he sat out the end of the war. His 1867 novel of the war period, Tiger-Lilies, and his poems brought his antebellum views of the South before the Northern and Southern public. The novel also dealt with prison life. His more popular poems reflected these sentiments but were sometimes racist. They included: "The Raven Days," "Civil Rights," "Betrayal," "Corn," "Laughter in the Senate," and "The Revenge of Hamish." Before pursuing writing full-time, he practiced law, and wrote in 1878 the poem, "The Marshes of Glynn" which endeared him to his native state. In 1879 he became a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University. While a POW his health was permanently impaired and he died of consumption (tuberculosis) in Lynn, North Carolina, as unhappy over the hack work he wrote to support his family as he was over the late war and the lost of his beloved antebellum South. The largest lake in Georgia is named in his honor as is the longest spanning bridge in the state. (bio by: Ugaalltheway)
Search Amazon for Sidney Lanier | | | Burial:
Green Mount Cemetery
Baltimore
Baltimore city
Maryland, USA
Plot: Sycamore Area, Lot 25 |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Record added: Jan 01, 2001
Find A Grave Memorial# 602 |
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