Age at enlistment:  abt. 16

Born: 1835 in Germany

Died: February 1874 near the St. Lucie River

Married: Susan Priest in Brevard County in 1870

Final Resting Place: unknown

Children:  Winnie Estelle and Augusta

German immigrant settled in what is now Palm Beach County by 1861. It is said that he came from Germany, where he had been a gardener for The King of Prussia/Grand Duke of Baden/King of Saxony.

Construction on the Jupiter Lighthouse had begun in 1855. Trouble with the Indians halted work for a time but it was completed and lighted 10 July 1860. Thomas Twiner was the keeper from 12 June 1860 to January 1, 1861, when J.F. Papy became the keeper, with A.O. Lang and Francis Ivy as assistants.

In April 1861 and President Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of Florida's coastline and the Confederate government ordered that the lighthouses at Jupiter and Cape Florida be darkened, to enable blockade runners to slip in and out under cover of darkness.  Papy professed to be sympathetic to the South, but it seemed he could not bring himself to darken his beloved light.

In August 1861, Lang, with Ivy and James Paine of St. Lucie, removed some of the apparatus to make the light inoperable.  They deposed Papy, then proceeded to travel south to Cape Florida Lighthouse, where they broke the lens and took some parts back to Jupiter with them. It was a trip of 140 miles, 90 of it along the beach, walking.

A letter to Governor Madison Starke Perry and one to C.G. Memminger, Secretary of the Treasury, Confederate States of America, tell of their acts. Lang had resigned as assistant keeper so that he was not in the employ of the government when complying with the order sent to Keeper Papy.
 

Lang enlisted 1/27/1862 at Fernandina for two years but is shown deserted 18 August 1863.
However, he proved his loyalty to the South by darkening the two lighthouses.

Pvt. Lang was murdered in February 1874 near the St. Lucie River.

Pvt. Lang did not survive to receive a Florida Confederate Veteran's Pension.