The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-06-10
A FAMOUS MARTIAL POET

and other battles of the Mexican war.
The bodies of Mckee and CLAY and
| Vaughn and Carly, and others of it's
native sons. were brought back and
buried in the State cemetery at Frank
- nara was asked by the governor of
kentucky to write and read a poem upon
June 20, 1917, the day on which the burial
took place. These were the men with
Wnom oHara had campaigned, had
iousn. ana conquered. lie knew of every
experience that had led up to their
deaths. Their hopes, their aspiration
,heir personal joys and sorrows he too
had shared. His friends and comrades
We're being buried. The first rough draft
OF the poem Is said to have been written
as Hara sat near the plot where the
| neW-hlade graves were. The poem was
,,n,..l asieu ana poiished at his desk in the
newspaper office. Across the street from
| the statehouse at common maeting
pace Tor his comrades at arms he first
read the verses he had written And
upon the day OF the great public funeral
wren al the officials of the state and
vast crowd stood with uncovered heads
ABOUT the new-made graves in Frankfort
cemetery, OHara read the poem as we
know it today.
ihere was, however. this difference he
| tween the poem O'Hara read ON that oc-
caslon and the poem in its present form.
| !. at first contained local reference to
| .ne struggle in which his friends and
r1aaaes 0,II nad fallen In after years
| " Hara struck out these alIusions To
| spain and 'Angostura" and the Ozark
anu bioody Ground" and cut the whole
| from twelve to nine stanzas He was
almost constantly polishing it and as late
| as 1868, when the author was again a
soiuier In the civil war, he made changes
In the poem until he left 1t a iirge and
an elegy for all the soldiers of the world
as we know, 1t today
only one other poem did O'Hara write.
In September, 1S45. he witnessed the re-
| burial of the bodies of Daniel Boone and
his wife, Rebecca. This was his first
effort at verse making. but it still lives.
gins:
"A dirge for, the brave old pioneer!
Knight errant of the wood!'
In the interval between the Mexican
war and the commencement of the civil
war O,Hara gained much distinction as
an editor and an orator. He was sent
upon several minor diplomatic missions
| Tor the government, but none of these
enterprises turned out particularly sue
cessful and at the outbreak of the civil
war O'Hara was an editor at Mobile.
lie was then man just past 40 and he
volunteered Immediately for the defense
of the south. He became colonel of the
|
assigned to the task of guarding the en-
| trance to Mobile bay. Later he was on
the staff of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston,
with whom he fought in many battles.
OHara was at the side of the famous
general at the fierce battle of Shiloh. 1t
was into the arms of the poet-soldier that
General Johnston fell mortally wounded
Gen. John Breckenridge had been a firm
friend and after General Johnston's death
! he made Colonel O'Hara member of
his staff of which O'IIara later became
chief. In that capacity he served to the
end Of the war, fighting in many famous
battles and gaining particular distinc-
tion in the heroic charge at Stone river
When the war was over. like thou
sands of other sons of the Southland
O'I1ara returned to retrieve his broken
fortunes. At Columbus, Ga, he engaged
in the cotton business. A disastrous fire
destroyed his warehouse and stores and
a little later he retired to plantation on
the Chattahoochee river. where he died
two years later of fever. He was Al vars
old and unmarried 1t was In 1874 that the
state of Kentucky had the body of its
poet-soldier removed from Georgia to the
State cemetery at Frankfort and there
laid to rest near where he had read his
memorial poem over the graves of his
fallen comrades Of the Mexican war.
Since that occasion THE Bivouac of the
Dead" had been growing in fame. When
the government assembled the dead in
many national cemeteries OHara's poem
} was designated as the national elegy. Its
} lines were inscribed upon tombstones and
: markers in the burying places. 1t is re-
cited still on Memorial day, for It has
in it's lines the beat Of the muffled drum
and the last sad, still notes OF the buglo
! sounding taps forever. -