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WALTER
PAYE LANE
by Archie
P. McDonald |
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Years
ago Max S. Lale of Marshall
presented a biographical sketch of Walter Paye Lane in his presidential
address to the Texas State Historical Association. It is easy to see
why Max enjoyed learning about this previous resident of Harrison
County.
Lane was born in Cork County, Ireland, on February 18, 1817, and came
to America with his family in 1821. While still in his teens Lane
came to Texas to take part in the Texas
Revolution. He served in a cavalry company commanded by Henry Karnes
and although wounded in a skirmish on the day before, his gallantry
in the Battle
of San Jacinto earned Lane an appointment as second lieutenant.
Lane also took part in raids on the Mexican coast even after the Republic
of Texas was established.
Lane settled in San Augustine County in 1838 and remained in East
Texas until 1843, when he joined Captain John Coffee Hays' company
of Texas Rangers in San
Antonio. Lane served in the Rangers through the annexation of
Texas and in the subsequent war between Mexico and the United States
in the First Regiment of Texas Mounted Riflemen.
After the war with Mexico, Lane joined his brother, George Lane, in
Marshall. He opened a
mercantile business and lived in Marshall
until the Civil War began, although he sometimes left to search for
gold in Arizona or some such adventure.
Lane became a lieutenant colonel in the Third Texas Cavalry when the
war began. He remained in the Western Theatre throughout the war and
participated in all of the principal actions of the area, including
the early battles of Wilson's Creek in Missouri, Pea Ridge in Arkansas,
and Corinth in Mississippi.
When his initial one-year enlistment ended, Lane raised another regiment
in Texas known as the First Texas Partisan Rangers. He commanded this
unit at Mansfield, Louisiana, in April 1864, and performed a distinguished
role in ending Union General Nathaniel P. Banks' Red River Campaign,
an unsuccessful attempt to invade Texas.
Lane sustained a severe wound in the battle but returned to duty after
he recovered and received a promotion to brigadier general in March
1865, just months before General Edmund Kirby Smith surrendered the
Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department in New Orleans.
Lane came home to Marshall
when the Civil War ended and operated his mercantile establishment.
Lane was among the Redeemers who restored Democratic Party rule to
Harrison County and served for a time as a deputy United States marshal.
He died on January 28, 1892, and was buried in Harrison County, as
is, now, Max Lale. They were two men who contributed their very lives
to Marshall and Harrison
County. |
© Archie P. McDonald
All
Things Historical
December 10, 2007 column
A syndicated column in over 70 East Texas newspapers
(The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public
service. Archie P. McDonald is director of the Association and author
of more than 20 books on Texas. ) |
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