Richard Realf

Biography

Richard Realf was a poet, abolitionist, and Union soldier whose verses and speeches captured the moral urgency of his times. He labored in journalism and public discourse, using his voice to champion justice and to document the struggles that defined the Civil War era.

In his later years, Realf lived amid the literary circles of the West Coast before taking his rest in San Francisco National Cemetery in 1878; his gravesite recalls a life devoted to artful testimony and the pursuit of a better nation.