Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1916-03-17
His Father Became an Irish Exile
Rather Than Abandon
Religion.
Admitted to the Senior Glass at
st. Joseph's College at
Bardstown.
WAS HANDSOME AND NEAT


poem, ."Bivouac of the Dead" but
appears at a loss as to the life and
history of the great Irish-Ameri-
can author and soldier. This makes
timely the following authentic and
truthful sketch, which doubtless
many will be pleased to read:
Theodore O'Hara was born in
Danville, KY, February II, 1920.
He was the son of Kane 0'Hara, an
Irish political exile, noted for his
piety and learning, who had been
invited to Danville to take charge
of an academy about to be estab-
lished there under the auspices of
Gov. Shelby. His ancestors becom-
ing subject to the disabilities i'm
posed upon Catholics in their UNI
happy land, abandoned home rather
than religion, emigrated to this
country with Lord Baltimore and
aided in founding that colony
which was so long an asylum for
victims of religious intolerance. The
family removed from Danville to
Woodford county, where the father
commenced the education of his
son, and resided until they settled
in Frankfort.
Theodore O'Hara was remarkable
when but a child. Study was his
passion. It engrossed his entire
boyhood and added fuel to the fires
of his genius. Happily he was
trained and appreciated by one who
fully understood the nature he was
moulding. His education was con-
Quoted wholly by his father until
he was prepared to enter college,
and then that ripe scholar had so
thoroughly done his work that he
was at once admitted to the senior
class of st. Joseph's Academy at
Bardstown. There among the
learned clergy of his church he
soon became pre-eminent as a pro-
found and accomplished scholar,
especially in the ancient classics,
and though but a youth, the rare
compliment was paid him of cleo
tion to the professorship of the
Greek language.
After leaving college O'Hara
studied law in the office of Judge
Owsley. where he was fellow stu
strong attachment there formed
lasted through life. In 1916 he
held a position in the Treasury De-
partment at Washington under Gen.
John NJ. McCalla. He was APP
pointed Captain in the old United
States army, served with distinc-
ton through the Mexican war. and
was breveted Major for gallant and
meritorious conduct. He left the
ermy after the war and began the
practice of law in Washington City,
where he remained until the break
ing out of the Cuban fever, when
with many Kentuckians he en-
barked in that Inflated enterprise.
He commanded one of the regiments
in the disastrous battle of Cardenas
and was badly wounded. Upon his
return from Mexico he conducted
the Mobile Register during the
years that John Forsythe, its editor,
was Minister to Mexico. He sub
sequently returned to Kentucky and
became for a time the editor OF
the Louisville Times Can ephemeral
and not the Times of
j.
'Yeoman.
At the beginning of the civil war
he entered the Southern army and
became the Colonel of the Twelfth
Alabama Regiment. Later he
served on the staff of Gen. Albert
Sidney Johnston. was with him at
the battle of Shiloh, and as George
w. Ranck says, received his great
chief in his arms when he fell upon
hat ensanguine field" He became
Chief of Staff to Gen. John G.
Breckenridge and was with him
Turing the remainder of the civil
var.
After the civil war he settled in
Ga, and engaged in the
cotton business, which did not prove
He then settled upon a
plantation on the Alabama side of
he Chattahooche river, near a
,lace called Guerrytown. There he
vas laboring successfully when at
acked with bilious fever, dying
Friday, June 6, 1867. He was
irst buried at Columbus, Ga, but
n the summer of 1874, in accord
nee with the resolution of the
kentucky Legislature, his remains
we're brought to Frankfort where
hey were reinterred on September
8. O'Hara was never married.
dr. Ranck says: I'm personal APP
,earance he was strikingly hand
ONE. He was not quite six feet in
Ieight, very graceful and erect in
lis carriage and scrupulously neat |
n his dress His face beamed |
With generous feeling. His dark |
azel eyes kindled with soul and |
Expression and were filled with a
ght like that which comes down
0 us from the stars"
In his address on the occasion
the refinement of O'Hara at
frankfort, Gen. William Preston
aid; Having known Col. O'Hara
Ultimately. both in his campaigns
i Mexico and in the South; having
njoyed the pleasures that his cul-
waited mind and genial temper
ave to the camp fire or the march;
aving witnessed his brilliant cour-
go and quick discernment in bat
g; having seen him in the defiles
Mexico, by the side of Sidney