Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier (February 3, 1842 – September 7, 1881) was an American musician and poet.

Early life and war

Lanier was born in Macon, Georgia. He began playing the flute at an early age, and his love of that musical instrument continued throughout his life. He attended Oglethorpe University near Milledgeville, Georgia, graduating first in his class shortly before the outbreak of the American Civil War.

Related Topics:
Macon - Georgia - Flute - Musical instrument - Oglethorpe University - Milledgeville - American Civil War

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He fought in the Civil War, primarily in the tidewater region of Virginia, where he served in the Confederate signal corps. Later, he and his brother Clifford served as pilots aboard English blockade runners. On one of these voyages, his ship was boarded. Refusing to take the advice of the British officers on board to don one of their uniforms and pretend to be one of them, he was captured. He was incarcerated in a military prison in Maryland, where he contracted tuberculosis (generally known as "consumption" at the time). He suffered greatly from this affliction for the rest of his life.

Related Topics:
Virginia - Confederate - Blockade runner - Maryland - Tuberculosis - Consumption

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Shortly after the war, he finished writing his only novel, Tiger Lilies (1867), and married Mary Day. They took up residence in his hometown of Macon, and he began working in his father's law office. After taking and passing the Georgia bar, he practiced as a lawyer for several years. During this period he wrote a number of poems in the "cracker" and "negro" dialects of his day about poor white and black farmers in the Reconstruction South. He traveled extensively through southern and eastern portions of the United States in search of a cure for his tuberculosis.

Related Topics:
1867 - Cracker - Negro - Dialects - Reconstruction - South - United States - Tuberculosis

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