History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/William McE. Dye
WILLIAM McE. DYE was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, January 26, 1831. He entered the Military Academy at West Point in July, 1849, graduating in 1853. He served as second lieutenant for several years in California and Texas and in May, 1861, was promoted to captain in the Eighth Infantry. He was living at. Marion, Iowa, in 1862 and Governor Kirkwood, anxious to find experienced military men qualified to take command of the numerous Iowa regiments being organized, tendered the command of the Twentieth Volunteer Infantry to Captain Dye. He accepted the position and was commissioned colonel. The regiment participated in the Vicksburg campaign and was for a long time in the Gulf Department. Colonel Dye proved to be an able officer and became a colonel in the regular army. In March, 1805, he was promoted to Brigadier-General of volunteers. After the close of the war he returned to the regular army where he served until September, 1870, when he resigned and returned to Marion and engaged in farming. He went to Egypt after several years, where he became a high officer in the army of the Khedive and was severely wounded in one of the battles. He returned to America in 1879 and was made Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police of the District of Columbia. In 1888 Colonel Dye went to Corea where he became military adviser and Instructor-General of the king of that country. He introduced many reforms in the army equipment and arms. He wrote a valuable book on Egypt and Abyssinia and their military systems and, returning to America in 1899, died at Muskegon, Michigan, in the same year.