A SON LORD BYRON IN THE AMERICAN ARMY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 54, 10 July 1862, Page 6 (Supplement)

A SON LORD BYRON IN THE AMERICAN ARMY.

The St. Louis correspondent of the 2Tew York Post says : —This war has had the effect of bringing many strange characters into notice who were not supposed to exist, and of presenting human nature in the novel and often romantic light. A queer one, calling himself Captain George Gordon de Luna Byron, who is said and believed by many of his acquaintances—though he does not claim it himself —to be the son of the noble English poet. This Captam informs those who question him on the subject that he is a near relative of the author of “ Manfred,” but refuses to enter

into any particulars respecting the connection. Some of his friends insist upon it that the Captain’s head, eyes, hair, brow, and nose, bear a striking resemblance to those of his putative father. If Byron were half as handsome as he is painted, the Captain lias deteriorated; but still there is resemblance enough between them to build belief upon ; and those who know the bard’s liberal views and not less liberal practice in what are sentimentally termed affairs of the heart —perhaps because the heart has very little to do with ihe.n—■will not wonder that he has a son almost everywhere, even in the army of the United Srates. The Captain has a thorough acquaintance with all the details of Byron’s life, as well as of Shelley, Keats, Moore, and most of the modern English poe.s, and relates many interesting anecdotes that have never appeared in print. Ho declares that Byron, while in Spain, was clandestinely mar fed to a noble lady of the old family of De Luna, and that the fruit of this marriage was an only sou, the Captain himself, though ho does not say so. The discovery of this union, through certain letters, by Lady Byron in England, caused the separation, about which so much mystery has ever rested, between the poet and his second spouse ; the true reason of which the proud and injured woman pertinaciously refused to divulge. The subject of this sketch went, when a youth to England, and obtained a position in the British army, and served as major for some time in India. He afterwards visited Persia and filled Lome official position there; returned to England ard after the breaking out of the rebellion concluded to enlist in the cause of the Union ; having inherited the same love forliberty that characterised his distinguished father, and sent him in the full blossoming of his fame, to die at Missolonghi. The Captain, who is about forty-five years of age, modest, unassuming, .intellectual, and highly cultivat'd, but rather bizarre in manner, began to write the History of the “Byron Family ’ some years ago; but after completing two large volumes without reaching the poet’s grandfather, he oiispended his labours for the adoption of an abbreviated account, which is to be given to the world at some future day.. So much for the captain, his statements, and the belief of In’s friends. His stories are plausible enough, and may be true, as those who know him believe are. I give the brief histoiy' as I have heard it from various sources, thinking it would not be without inter st to many of your readers.