&
Other Odds & Ends
lisa@southerncemeteries.org
The Daily Picayune
New Orleans, Louisiana
October 1885
"Various Articles"
New Orleans, Louisiana
October 1885
"Various Articles"
Thursday, 15 October 1885, Page 7
AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR
"A Galveston (Texas) correspondent of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat says:
A day or two since, as the correspondent of the Globe-Democrat was visiting the Episcopal Cemetery in the western part
of the city, in company with a friend, his attention was attracted by a modest tombstone under the shade of a vigorous live oak, bearing the following inscription:
"Edward Lea"
Lieut. Commander, U.S.N.,
Born Jan. 31, 1837
Killed in Battle Jan. 1, 1863
"My Father is Here."
"This modest stone," remarked the correspondent's companion, "commemorates one of the saddest of the many and events transpiring during the late war,
for it marks the last resting place of as brave an officer as ever trod the deck of an American man-of-war. Edward Lea was a Baltimorean by birth, and the breaking
out of the war found him an officer in the Federal navy. His father, Major Albert M. Lea, who had espoused the Confederate side, had written him early in '61, giving
his views on the then pending contest, adding that he must judge for himself the side he would take, but should he choose the service of the United States they would
probably never meet again, unless, perchance, in battle.
"The young officer elected to stand by the old flag, and when the steamer Harriet Lane was transformed into a man-of war he was selected by Capt. Wainwright as
her First Lieutenant, and in that capacity served under Farragut at Fort Jackson, New Orleans and Vicksburg. When the United States forces occupied Galveston in the
fall of 1862, the Harriet Lane formed one of the flotilla, and when the city was retaken by the rebel forces under Magruder on the 1st of January, 1863, Major A. M. Lea,
the father of the young Lieutenant, was among the attacking party, and from the shore witnessed his son's ship surrender, after her captain had been killed and most of her
officers desperately wounded.
"Proceeding to the head of Bean's wharf, near where the fight took place, Major Lea hailed the Harriet Lane, upon whose bulwarks Gen. Tom Green and Com. Leon Smith
stood, and asked if any of the steamer's officers had been killed or wounded, and the reply was: "Yes; nearly all of them."
"Major Lea was then granted permission to go on board, and meeting an officer of the ship asked if Lieut. Lea was there, and was answered: 'Yes, and badly wounded.'
"'I am his father,' replied the Confederate officer; and he was then led to his son, who was lying in the cock-pit surrounded by the dead and dying. The son recognized
the father, telling him that he hoped he was not mortally wounded. Dr. Penrose, of Philadelphia, who was operating upon a wounded man, stated that the Lieutenant was
mortally wounded and might die within an hour, or might linger for several days. The father then returned to the shore to procure an ambulance to take the wounded man
to the hospital, but during his absence the Lieutenant expired, his last words, when asked if he had any directions to give, being simply; 'My father is here.' He was buried,
together with Capt. Wainwright, on the 2d of January with military honors.
"A wealthy relative in Baltimore asked the father's leave to remove the remains of the Lieutenant to Green Mount Cemetery and place them beside his mother, but the
request was denied, the father feeling that it was more fitting for the brave sailor to sleep where he fell, 'in sight of the sea and in sound of the surf.' In 1866, when the
remains of Capt. Wainwright were removed by his brother officers, they wished also to take the Lieutenant's body to the naval cemetery at Annapolis, Md., but this effort
was also resisted. To-day, of all who fought and died under the stars and stripes on the Harriet Lane's decks, the remains of Lieut. Lea are the only ones resting beneath
the turf on Galveston Island."
Edward Lea
Born: 31 January 1837
Died: 01 January 1863
Old City Cemetery
Galveston, Texas
Albert Miller Lea
Born: 23 July 1808
Died: 16 Janury 1891
Oakwood Cemetery
Corsicana, Texas
Section K, Row 1
[source: A Towering East Texas Pioneer: A Biographical Sketch of Colonel Albert Miller Lea,
By W. T. Block, East Texas Historical Journal, XXXII, 2 (1993), 23-33]
Newspaper Articles
AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR
"A Galveston (Texas) correspondent of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat says:
A day or two since, as the correspondent of the Globe-Democrat was visiting the Episcopal Cemetery in the western part
of the city, in company with a friend, his attention was attracted by a modest tombstone under the shade of a vigorous live oak, bearing the following inscription:
"Edward Lea"
Lieut. Commander, U.S.N.,
Born Jan. 31, 1837
Killed in Battle Jan. 1, 1863
"My Father is Here."
"This modest stone," remarked the correspondent's companion, "commemorates one of the saddest of the many and events transpiring during the late war,
for it marks the last resting place of as brave an officer as ever trod the deck of an American man-of-war. Edward Lea was a Baltimorean by birth, and the breaking
out of the war found him an officer in the Federal navy. His father, Major Albert M. Lea, who had espoused the Confederate side, had written him early in '61, giving
his views on the then pending contest, adding that he must judge for himself the side he would take, but should he choose the service of the United States they would
probably never meet again, unless, perchance, in battle.
"The young officer elected to stand by the old flag, and when the steamer Harriet Lane was transformed into a man-of war he was selected by Capt. Wainwright as
her First Lieutenant, and in that capacity served under Farragut at Fort Jackson, New Orleans and Vicksburg. When the United States forces occupied Galveston in the
fall of 1862, the Harriet Lane formed one of the flotilla, and when the city was retaken by the rebel forces under Magruder on the 1st of January, 1863, Major A. M. Lea,
the father of the young Lieutenant, was among the attacking party, and from the shore witnessed his son's ship surrender, after her captain had been killed and most of her
officers desperately wounded.
"Proceeding to the head of Bean's wharf, near where the fight took place, Major Lea hailed the Harriet Lane, upon whose bulwarks Gen. Tom Green and Com. Leon Smith
stood, and asked if any of the steamer's officers had been killed or wounded, and the reply was: "Yes; nearly all of them."
"Major Lea was then granted permission to go on board, and meeting an officer of the ship asked if Lieut. Lea was there, and was answered: 'Yes, and badly wounded.'
"'I am his father,' replied the Confederate officer; and he was then led to his son, who was lying in the cock-pit surrounded by the dead and dying. The son recognized
the father, telling him that he hoped he was not mortally wounded. Dr. Penrose, of Philadelphia, who was operating upon a wounded man, stated that the Lieutenant was
mortally wounded and might die within an hour, or might linger for several days. The father then returned to the shore to procure an ambulance to take the wounded man
to the hospital, but during his absence the Lieutenant expired, his last words, when asked if he had any directions to give, being simply; 'My father is here.' He was buried,
together with Capt. Wainwright, on the 2d of January with military honors.
"A wealthy relative in Baltimore asked the father's leave to remove the remains of the Lieutenant to Green Mount Cemetery and place them beside his mother, but the
request was denied, the father feeling that it was more fitting for the brave sailor to sleep where he fell, 'in sight of the sea and in sound of the surf.' In 1866, when the
remains of Capt. Wainwright were removed by his brother officers, they wished also to take the Lieutenant's body to the naval cemetery at Annapolis, Md., but this effort
was also resisted. To-day, of all who fought and died under the stars and stripes on the Harriet Lane's decks, the remains of Lieut. Lea are the only ones resting beneath
the turf on Galveston Island."
Edward Lea
Born: 31 January 1837
Died: 01 January 1863
Old City Cemetery
Galveston, Texas
Albert Miller Lea
Born: 23 July 1808
Died: 16 Janury 1891
Oakwood Cemetery
Corsicana, Texas
Section K, Row 1
[source: A Towering East Texas Pioneer: A Biographical Sketch of Colonel Albert Miller Lea,
By W. T. Block, East Texas Historical Journal, XXXII, 2 (1993), 23-33]
Newspaper Articles
