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THE SUSSEX MUSE. 239
When the war of the Secession broke out, his fiery, freedom-loving spirit found vent in the Federal Army. He served through the war with the 88th Illinois regiment. His war songs, written in the field, and sung by the camp fires of the Federal Army, had a wide popularity. He became the commandant of a coloured regiment, and in 1864, left the army with the rank of captain and brevet lieutenant-colonel. Afterwards he established a school for freedmen, and resumed his old life as a journalist and lecturer. The last scene of all came at Oakland, California, 28th October, 1878, when bowed down by the domestic trouble consequent upon "an unfortunate man and an imperfect divorce," he committed suicide by poison.
John Fletcher was born at Rye, where his father was minister, on December 1579. No more interesting or remarkable example of literary partnership, has been recorded than that of
" Please all the world, but very soon he left My arms to go and seek another fame ; Leaving me of my latest bard bereft.
Still he is dear to me. And I was proud, when, in America, He struck for liberty with old John Brown, Fighting beside him when he took the town Of Harper's Ferry, in Virginia." |
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It is to be regretted that no notice of Realf appears in the '* Dictionary of National Biography." |
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