Richard Realf was born in Framfield, Sussex, England, June 14,
1834. He emigrated to America in 1855, and was connected with John
Brown and his men in Kansas and Iowa during the two years
following. He served with the 88th Illinois Volunteer Infantry
throughout the Civil War, and then became a newspaper writer and
lecturer. Unfortunate domestic relations led to his suicide in San
Francisco, October 28, 1878. The lyric “Indirection” is usually
regarded as Realf’s finest poem.
“The Defense of Lawrence” commemorates “the resistance made, in
September, 1856, to the last pro-slavery attack on Lawrence, Kansas,
when a small number of Free State men successfully held the place
against twenty-four hundred armed Missourians, and drove back their
advance of three hundred men.”
=Stanza 6.= =Gideon.= See Judges, chapters 6, 7, and 8.
=Stanza 7.= The river referred to in the last line of the stanza is the
Wakarusa.