Walter Paye Lane

By Archie P. McDonald

Years ago Max S. Lale of Marshall presented a biographical sketch of Walter Paye Lane in his presidential address to the Texas State Historical Association. It is easy to see why Max enjoyed learning about this previous resident of Harrison County.

Lane was born in Cork County, Ireland, on February 18, 1817, and came to America with his family in 1821. While still in his teens Lane came to Texas to take part in the Texas Revolution. He served in a cavalry company commanded by Henry Karnes and although wounded in a skirmish on the day before, his gallantry in the Battle of San Jacinto earned Lane an appointment as second lieutenant. Lane also took part in raids on the Mexican coast even after the Republic of Texas was established.

Lane settled in San Augustine County in 1838 and remained in East Texas until 1843, when he joined Captain John Coffee Hays' company of Texas Rangers in San Antonio. Lane served in the Rangers through the annexation of Texas and in the subsequent war between Mexico and the United States in the First Regiment of Texas Mounted Riflemen.

After the war with Mexico, Lane joined his brother, George Lane, in Marshall. He opened a mercantile business and lived in Marshall until the Civil War began, although he sometimes left to search for gold in Arizona or some such adventure.

Lane became a lieutenant colonel in the Third Texas Cavalry when the war began. He remained in the Western Theatre throughout the war and participated in all of the principal actions of the area, including the early battles of Wilson's Creek in Missouri, Pea Ridge in Arkansas, and Corinth in Mississippi.

When his initial one-year enlistment ended, Lane raised another regiment in Texas known as the First Texas Partisan Rangers. He commanded this unit at Mansfield, Louisiana, in April 1864, and performed a distinguished role in ending Union General Nathaniel P. Banks' Red River Campaign, an unsuccessful attempt to invade Texas.

Lane sustained a severe wound in the battle but returned to duty after he recovered and received a promotion to brigadier general in March 1865, just months before General Edmund Kirby Smith surrendered the Confederate Trans- Mississippi Department in New Orleans.

Lane came home to Marshall when the Civil War ended and operated his mercantile establishment. Lane was among the Redeemers who restored Democratic Party rule to Harrison County and served for a time as a deputy United States marshal. He died on January 28, 1892, and was buried in Harrison County, as is, now, Max Lale. They were two men who contributed their very lives to Marshall and Harrison County.

The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Archie P. McDonald is director of the Association and author of more than 20 books on Texas.