The original wiring had a four-wire (R,G,B,W) coming from a wall switch to an outlet on the far side of the room.

The top outlet was on the switch, the bottom was always hot.

I went to install an overhead light that would also be on the switch.

The wiring that I was using was a three-wire (B,W,G), so the first configuration that I tried was splicing the white through (bypassing the light), black -> black, G->G, and red->white. I know that was completely wrong and I got lucky because the ground was now carrying the current.

I re-wired so that the red bypassed the light, W->W, B->B, and G->G. Now the light stays on all the time and the outlet does not work at all.

I anticipate that the red is the wire on the switch, so if I just change and bypass the light with the black wire and wire the R->B in the light and keep the others the same, would that solve the problem?

Okay, let's go back to the beginning. You have a switch outlet box with a 3 conductor feed into the box, correct?

What color is the conductor on the switch, black or red?

If the object is to hardwire the night light to the switch circuit, then you need to connect the white from the receptacle to the white on the night light. The black on the night light will get pigtailed to the blacked for the switched receptacle.

The conductor on the switched receptacle will match the conductor on the switch.

Thanks for the input donf - I really appreciate it -
What I wasn't looking at was the full circuit in the room. First - source to 2-way switch (regular on/off light switch) is romex 3-wire (w,b,g).

White bypasses switch in the box and was running directly to the outlet on the other wall.

Black attached to the switch, and left from the switch on the same terminal - the lower right as one looks at it from the front.

The Ground connected to the switch's ground terminal (green screw, and was also spliced through to the cable that left the switch box.

The cable that left the switchbox was romex 4-wire (r,b,w,g), with the red attached to the upper right terminal of the switch and the black (same as said above) was attached to the lower right terminal of the switch.

(white and ground bypassed the switch)

At the light. I installed a junction box just next to the hole that I made in the ceiling - ran a romex 3-wire from the junction box to the round fixture box that I installed for the chandeiler (sp?).

Back to the junction box - I spliced both ends of the red (from the switch and to the outlet) to the black on the three-wire that I ran to the round box. I spliced the white neutral and the ground in the same way. The black from the switch was spliced through to the outlet. So at this point - the splices are: [w-w-w] [r-b-r] [g-g-g] and [b-b] in the junction box.

At the outlet on the far wall (which is a double 120v regular wall outlet) - the black comes in to the bottom right (looking again from the front), the white comes in to the lower left, and the red comes into the upper right, and the ground terminates at the grounding terminal (green screw).

Light works perfectly now.