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"Louisville's Most Historic Inn" |
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Washington
Post - Feb. 28, 1909
A MONUMENT TO LAWTON.
A bill has been introduced in the House appropriating $1,000 for the erection of a modest monument over the grave of Gen. Henry W. Lawton, at Arlington. The bill should become a law.
Lawton was every inch a soldier. He fought his way up from a private in the regimen of volunteers until he became a major general in the regular army. He was a battle scarred hero before he was 20, and died with his front to the foe. A student preparing for college when Sumter was fired on, he left his books and entered the volunteer service becoming a noncommissioned officer before his first three months' enlistment had expired. Mustered out, he at once entered the service again, serving until November, 1865. He served in a regiment that won for itself a place among the fighting regiments in the army of the West, advancing step by step until he became the lieutenant colonel of the regiment.
Lawton fought in all the great battles of the army of the Cumberland, from Shiloh to Chickamauga and from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and won a medal for his desperate courage in leading a charge on the Confederate rifle pits at Atlanta. He was with Thomas at Nashville, and led his regiment in one desperate charge after another. The war over, he was offered and accepted a commission in the regular army. Once more he became the idol of the soldiers and a hero in more than one bloody contest with the Indians. When war came with Spain he was sent to Cuba and placed in command of a division of the Fifth army corps. His troops were the first to land on Cuban soil. He commanded the forces which fought the battle of E1 Caney, and there won his second star. He was still fighting for the flag when he fell in the Philippines.
Why should not the nation mark Lawton's grave? No call to duty every found him wanting; when fighting was to be done he was always ready; he inspired his men with his own lofty and desperate courage, and when he led there was never a retreat. Had he been an Englishman he would have been given a tomb in Westminster. Had he been a Frenchman he would have been a commander in the Legion of Honor. He was an American, and a stone a foot high marks his last resting place.
With Thanks to Jean Lawton Reagan for finding and sending this article
The General Lawton, Spanish-American War Photo Album
