Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 23.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[84]

Since writing the above Mr. Robert W. Tunstall, principal of the Norfolk Academy, has called our attention to the fact that the poem was published as early as 1860, in ‘The Poets and Poetry of the West,’ edited by William T. Coggeshall. See Library of American Literature, volume 8, page 312.

In compliance with the request contained in the foregoing letter we have made such an investigation as was in our power, and we are quite well satisfied that General Lytle was in truth the author of the poem in question. ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ was certainly never written by General Allen, for it is the work of a true poet, and though Allen was a gallant soldier, a splendid and noble gentleman, and a popular orator, there was nothing of the poet about him. The Sugar Bowl was printed in New Iberia, but long after the poem was given to the public. It might have been printed in the Planters' Banner, published in St. Mary, long before and long after the war, by the late Daniel Dennett.

But while we believe that there is not a particle of doubt that the poem was written by the gallant Ohio soldier, the facts are fatal to the little romance that has been woven around it, and which states that it was written by the General by a camp-fire the night preceding the bloody battle of Chickamauga, in which battle he was killed. As a matter of fact, the poem, as stated by our Norfolk friend, was printed in 1860, fully three years before the battle referred to, and is extant in the Library of American Literature, volume 8, page 312, credited to ‘The Poets and Poetry of the West,’ printed in 1860, and the authorship credited to Lytle.

General Lytle was a gallant Federal soldier, respected and honored by the Confederates. Our honored friend and fellow-citizen, Major Douglass West, who was himself a brave and loyal soldier of the Confederacy, first discovered the body of Lytle on the field in his dying moments, and had him removed to the Confederate hospital. Major West furnishes the States with the following interesting and very touching interview on the subject:

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Colonel Wests account.

There is no one more familiar with the death and attendant circumstances of the author of ‘I am Dying, Egypt, Dying,’ than Colonel Douglass West, of this city, who performed such kindly services towards a fallen foe after General Lytle had received his death wounds. Colonel West was called on at his residence and