Civil War music, stories coming to Smokies

A Smoky Mountains program will explore how the Civil War affected the southern Appalachians. On Saturday, Sparky and Rhonda Rucker will sing old-time music that was popular during the war and tell stories about how the conflict affected the people living in the mountains. • Details

William H. Lytle: Remembering gallant poet-warrior who fell at Chickamauga

Brig. Gen. William Haines Lytle, son of pioneers, man of letters, warrior of old, spoke these gallant words as a horde of Confederates surrounded his brigade on the bloody battlefield at Chickamauga:

"If I must die, I will die as a gentleman. All right, men, we can die but once. This is the time and place. Let us charge."

Lytle, on horseback, led a determined but doomed counterattack on Sept. 20, 1863. He was shot in the spine and subsequently in the head. The Cincinnati, Ohio, hero and popular poet-warrior handed his sword to a soldier before dying of his wounds.

His Union comrades were forced from the field, leaving Lytle’s remains lying among the Georgia pines.

And then something remarkable happened.

Confederate troops, some of whom he knew from service in the Mexican-American War, posted an honor guard around Lytle’s remains before they were returned to Federals. His poems were reportedly read around campfires that evening.

Lytle had been twice wounded in previous Civil War battles and was a prisoner of war for a brief time. Admiring officers from the 10th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with whom Lytle served at the beginning of the conflict, only weeks before the Battle of Chickamauga had presented him a gold meal, decorated with an emerald and a star of diamonds.

Lytle's coat (Cincinnati Museum Center)

It wasn’t just his bravery that accorded such an honor at Chickamauga.

Lytle, 36, was known across North and South for his poetry, much of which was composed before the war. The general continued to write during the war.

Lytle’s most famous composition, “Antony and Cleopatra,” was published a few years before Confederate guns opened up on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

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!

Lytle’s messages of mortality and man were popular during the Victorian era.

The area on the Chickamauga battlefield where the general led his brigade is known appropriately as Lytle Hill.

The setting is serene, says Patrice Glass, executive director of Friends of the Park, which is financially helping the National Park Service restore Lytle’s monument at Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park.

Courtesy of SUVCW, Lytle Camp

The monument, a pyramid of artillery shells, is down to one level after years of vandalism and the use of some of the cannonballs to repair other memorials.

This Sept. 20, the fully restored monument will be dedicated at a solemn ceremony marking the 150^th anniversary of the momentous battle in northern Georgia, which ended in a Southern victory.

Among those attending will be members of the General William H. Lytle Camp #10 of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCV), which also raised money for the project.

That contingent may be bringing descendants of the Lytle family, which was among the founding fathers of Cincinnati. Lytle was a bachelor.

Glass and others say the treatment accorded to Lytle’s body is an early example of North and South coming together.

“That’s a great story and it goes to the heart of what happened here after the battle – reunification,” she recently told the Civil War Picket.

Lytle tactic books, medal (Cincinnati Museum Center)

The Cincinnati Museum Center, beginning last weekend and continuing through Oct. 27, has an exhibit of items from its collection marking the city’s involvement in the Civil War during 1863.

Among the Lytle items are his frock coat, sword, gold medal, liquor cabinet and tall boots.

Lytle was a lawyer and politician before the Civil War. His grandfather founded Williamsburg, Ohio, and his father was a well-known orator and Ohio congressman.

“Called Will by friends and family, Lytle was described as slight in build, but well developed with gray eyes and a resolute character,” according to a 2008 article in the Murfreesboro (Tenn,) Post.

The article said the chivalrous Lytle received is gift of prose from his mother and his eloquence from his father. Lytle provided vivid details of his wartime service in Mexico and other aspects of his life and studies.

From “When the Long Shadows”:

Ah! whereso'er the closing scene may find me,

'Mid friends or foemen or in deserts lone,

May there be some of those I leave behind me

To shed a tear for me when I am gone. 

Lytle liquor cabinet, boots (Cincinnati Museum Center)

Lytle was wounded in September 1861 at Carnifex Ferry and in October 1862 at Perryville, where he was taken prisoner before an exchange shortly afterward. The Ohioan was given brigade command in November 1862.

The poet-warrior’s funeral in Cincinnati weeks after the Battle of Chickamauga  was a major event, said Kerry Langdon, past commander of the Lytle Camp of the SUVCV.

“His family is a favorite family in the history of Cincinnati, Ohio,” said Langdon. “He was a learned man, a very articulate poet.”

Lytle Park is among several Cincinnati venues named for the general.

Langdon said the Sept. 20 ceremony will include a tribute to Lytle’s poetry.

From “Lines to My Sisters”:

“In vain for me the applause of men,
The Laurel won by sword or pen,
But for the hope, so dear and sweet,
To lay my trophies at your feet.”

• Previous Picket article on Gen. Lytle

Sword given to soldier back in Conn.

A Civil War sword that turned up at a New York tag sale is coming home to western Connecticut. The sword belonged to John Betts, who enlisted in the Union Army in 1861. Betts was wounded in the First Battle of Winchester in Virginia, captured and imprisoned. He was exchanged for a Confederate soldier and returned to Danbury. His Masonic lodge honored him with a sword, which went missing for decades. • Article

Cannonball pyramid will rise again at Chickamauga battlefield

Lytle Monument today ... (SUVCW)

Imagine one of the ancient pyramids of Egypt reduced to only its bottom level of stones. Kind of loses its visual impact, right?

That’s what happened over time to one of eight monuments – built with about 320 cannonballs – that honor senior officers killed at the Battle of Chickamauga in northwest Georgia in September 1863.

Ohio Brig. Gen. William H. Lytle, known as the “poet warrior,” fell during a failed counterattack on Sept. 20, 1863. The well-known poetry and bravery of Lytle, twice wounded in previous battles, brought him high esteem among his Confederate adversaries, who placed a guard around his body until it could be returned to Union lines.

... Back in its glory days (SUVCW)

This Sept. 20, 150 years to the day after Lytle fell, the fully restored Lytle Monument will be rededicated during a ceremony at Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park.

Groups that supported the restoration and, possibly, Lytle descendants will join park and local dignitaries for the formal observance of the 150^th anniversary of the battle, which ended in Confederate victory.

A separate Battle of Chickamauga re-enactment, set for Sept. 19-22 and sponsored by the Blue Gray Alliance, will be held in Walker County, Ga.

The monument project has proven a challenge for park staff, said Jim Szyjkowski, chief resource manager.

Fund-raising led by the Friends of the Park and the General William H. Lytle Camp #10 of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, totaling about $65,000, was critical to moving the project forward. “Typically, you cannot do something like this with a park budget. You have to go outside,” said Szyjkowski.

Officials had to consult old plans for the cannonball pyramids and find a welder and manufacturer who could faithfully duplicate the work.

Brig. Gen.W.H. Lytle

“It is exciting because it has been a different kind of project the park has taken on. It is great to see it restored to its onetime grandeur,” Szyjkowski told the Picket.

Vandalism took its toll gradually after the Lytle Monument was dedicated in 1894. As the pyramid shrank, some of the cannonballs – surplus artillery shells from the Civil War – were used to repair other monuments at the park.

The exact number of original cannonballs is either 317, by Szyjkowski’s count, or 323. Only 120 of the original shells remain.

Szyjkowski said the pyramid monuments at Chickamauga recognize four Union and four Confederate mortally wounded officers.

They have a mortar skeleton, meaning they are not entirely made of artillery shells.

“All of them were victims of vandalism,” he said.

The Lyle Monument was eventually reconfigured to one level.

The restored monument – back to its original height -- will be made of reproduction 8-inch shells produced by a local foundry. The old shells will be stored for possible future use.

Szyjkowski said his staff is working from original monument plans designed by park engineer Edward E. Betts.

Original plans for Chickamauga pyramid monuments (NPS)

Kerry Langdon, a Cincinnati Realtor and past commander of the Lytle SUVCW camp, is thankful the park has improved maintenance around the monument -- which is a bit off the beaten track -- northeast of the towering Wilder Brigade Monument.

A few years back, Langdon and his wife, Wanda, contacted the Friends of the Park to help further along the restoration project to honor a “brave soldier” who Langdon said should be considered for a posthumous Medal of Honor.

In 1895, Chickamauga was the first of the four original federal Civil War sites to open, a testament to the desire of veterans of both sides to see a lasting symbol of the bloody clash.

“We are now on the same side and working together and we love this country,” said Kerry Langdon, who visited the federal cemetery at Chattanooga, Tennessee, when he was a small boy. “It is a good example of how forgiving both sides were after the war and we are united.”

One of the intact pyramid monuments (NPS)

The Friends of the Park, formed in 1986, supports educational programming and restoration and preservation projects.

“We are having huge success in working with individuals and corporations for the 150^th,” said executive director Patrice Glass.

The Friends, which operates the Jewell Memorial Restoration Fund, is helping governments and the National Park Service with 150th anniversary events, including a Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra concert at the battlefield on Sept. 21.

An emphasis this year has been the Lytle Monument.

“It is the first monument to be completely restored through the fund-raising of the Friends and other organizations,” said Glass.

The Sept. 20 Lytle rededication ceremony will recall the sacrifice of soldiers and others for the entire battle.

National Park Service

“That is the moment where we will stop and pause and will say here is what happened here and the significance,” said Glass. “This is where reunification happened. … Those veterans said we need to mark this and we need to remember it.”

Other sesquicentennial events that week at Chickamauga include ranger-led programs and the Civil War timeline, at which living historians "will propel visitors through North Georgia between 1861 and 1864."

Kerry Langdon said about 25 members of the Cincinnati SUVCW will be at Chickamauga for the rededication.

“The ceremony is going to be based on a Grand Army of the Republic ceremony back when monuments were first being up,” said Wanda Langdon.

Her husband will be one of the speakers, and will make note of Lytle’s poetry skills and military leadership.

“We feel it is our duty and privilege to honor the honorable,” Kerry Langdon said. “We will be moved, likely to tears, that this monument, through (the work of) so many, has been fully restored.”

COMING SOON: A closer look at Lytle’s life and his poetry.

Gettysburg 150th events tell a wider story

Confederate veteran in 1913.

This weekend and through July 7, between 200,000 and 300,000 visitors -- more than the number of combatants -- will flock to the town and fields of Gettysburg National Military Park to mark the 150th anniversary of the three-day clash, which cost an incredible 51,000 casualties.

Times have changed since previous anniversary observances, including the 1938 reunion, at which grizzled veterans of the battle met at Gettysburg one last time in an event known for reconciliation. They shook hands across that famous wall at the Angle. Some let out the haunting Rebel Yell.

The 150th commemoration of the battle will tell a wider story than previous observances, officials told CNN. • Article