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WALTER PAYE LANE
1817 – 1892
A native of Ireland, Lane was born in County Cork, February 18, 1817. The family emigrated to America in 1821 and settled in Guernsey County, Ohio. At the age of 18 Lane went to Louisville and then to Texas where he fought in the battle of San Jacinto. He cruised the Gulf of Mexico as a crewman of a Texas privateer, fought Indians, taught school, and served during the Mexican War as a captain of a company of rangers. Between 1849 and 1858 he spent much of his time in mining in California, Neveda, Arizona, and Peru, making and losing several small fortunes.
Lane was elected lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Texas Cavalry, July 2, 1861, with which unit he fought at Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern). He was active in Louisiana in 1863 and fought in the Red River campaign the following year where he was severly wounded in the battle of Mansfield. He was recommended for promotion by Gen. Kirby Smith and was commissioned brigadier general to rank from March 17, 1865, being confirmed by the Confederate Senate the very last day that body met. Lane’s brigade was composed of the Texas cavalry regiments of Lane, Baylor, Chisholm, Madison, Walker, and Carter in the division of Maj. Gen. John A. Wharton, ATM.
After the war he returned home to Marshall, Texas, where he was a merchant and wrote his memoirs. As the years passed he became symbolic of the heroic age in Texas history and was long the idol of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Never married, he passed in Marshall, Texas, January 28, 1892, and is buried there in Old City Cemetery.
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