Although born in North Carolina, William’s family moved to St. Augustine in the earliest days after Florida’s admission to the union as a territory. He was four, but he did not stay long; he became a soldier and then another soldier and another soldier.
At fourteen, I first kissed a girl with what passion I had; at fourteen William was in the Florida Militia fighting Seminoles, then ran away to Texas to help Texans fight for independence, then returned home to Florida to fight Seminoles again, then took a break to become a lawyer and a member of the Legislature. He left home again to fight in the Mexican war, became a major then a colonel, and took three bullets which cost him his arm. He traveled Europe and northern Africa studying military tactics, knowledge he put to use when the Civil War started and he remained true to his South becoming a brigadier general defending his native Carolina, and after the war traveled to Egypt attaining the rank of Fereek Pasha in the Egyptian army. He returned to the US, lived in New York, wrote two accounts of his war experiences and when he died, he was returned to St. Augustine and buried under a granite obelisk.
On a rainy day, I stood and read the inscriptions of all the exploits, starred at the carved Confederate flag and rubbed my fingers along the edges of the chiseled Egyptian flag. It seemed to me that he was nothing but a soldier, but every bit a soldier and a soldier and another soldier.
To William Wing Loring
Mount the wind
and ride hearty
for battle cries as do those in it.
A gauze
for a cause
and tomorrow may see you
between granite and coquina.
Brief Case Poems (1973-1979)