Frederick A. Niles was a first lieutenant with Company D, 49th Illinois Volunteers. He participated in the Battle of Shiloh and served for a brief time in the army of General William Tecumseh Sherman. He was discharged from the Union Army in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1865 and moved first to Kansas and then to Washington, D.C., where he entered into government service. Niles eventually returned to Kinsley, Kansas, where he died in 1906. He is buried in Hillside Cemetery in Edwards County.

Niles wrote this poem before his promotion from first sergeant to first lieutenant. We are grateful to Lt. Niles' great-grandson, Steverson Moffat, for sharing this poem with us.

"The Daisy in the South"

This page is http://civilwarpoetry.org/authors/niles.html
Last modified 16-April-2001