Theodore O ' Hara Theodore O ' Hara ( February 11 , 1820 - June 6 , 1867 ) was a poet and an officer for the United States Army in the Mexican - American War , and a Confederate colonel in the American Civil War . He is best known for the poems " The Bivouac of the Dead , " which is quoted in many cemeteries , and " The Old Pioneer . " Early life . Theodore O ' Hara was born to notable educator Kane O ' Hara and his wife in Danville , Kentucky on February 11 , 1820 . Afterwards , the family moved to Frankfort , Kentucky . He returned to Danville to go to Centre College and then continued his education at St . Joseph Academy in Bardstown , Kentucky , where he also served as a Greek professor during his senior year . He later studied law with future United States Vice President and Confederate Secretary of War John C . Breckinridge , and he was admitted to the bar in 1842 . He decided to forgo law and went to journalism in 1845 , just before being appointed for a position in the United States Treasury Department in 1845 . Mexican - American War . As the Mexican - American War was beginning , O ' Hara signed up for the U . S . Army on June 26 , 1846 . He held the positions of captain and quartermaster of volunteers under General Gideon J . Pillow as they advanced upon Mexico City , Mexico . For excellent conduct in the Battle of Contreras and the Battle of Churubusco , O ' Hara was honored with the rank of brevet - major on August 20 , 1847 . He was honorably discharged on October 15 , 1848 . After the war ended in 1848 , O ' Hara returned to Washington , D . C . to continue his law practices until 1851 . Between Wars . O ' Hara was a firm believer in American expansion , in the form of filibuster ing . He joined others from Kentucky in an expedition to Cuba in 1850 , after spending much of 1849 recruiting Kentuckians to the filibuster cause . Under the command of General Narciso López , O ' Hara commanded a regiment , with the rank of colonel , in the hopes of removing Spanish rule from Cuba . In the battle of Cárdenas on May 18 , 1850 , he suffered a severe injury . After Lopez failed and died in his Cuba position in 1851 , O ' Hara returned to Kentucky , after fellow Kentuckians serving in Cuba took him with them as they escaped , returning to the United States at Key West , Florida . O ' Hara returned to journalism , first working for the " Frankfort Yeoman " of Frankfort , Kentucky , and then helping to found the original " Louisville Times " of Louisville , Kentucky in 1852 , which became an organ for spreading Democratic Party propaganda . O ' Hara left the " Louisville Times " in 1853 to join General John A . Quitman ' s filibuster expedition to Cuba . After Quitman ' s efforts failed , O ' Hara attained a commission in the United States Army , was appointed captain of the Second Cavalry on March 3 , 1855 , and returned to Louisville as a recruiter for the Army . He was reassigned to Indian fighting on the prairies of Texas . On December 1 , 1856 , he was forced to resign by Robert E . Lee ( then Lt . Colonel ) , as Lee brought up charges of drunkenness against O ' Hara , and threatened him with court martial . When John Forsyth Jr . , editor - in - chief of the " Mobile Register " of Mobile , Alabama became minister to Mexico in 1856 , O ' Hara took his place in the newspaper . He continued to follow government orders , such as his diplomatic mission into the Tehuantepec grant debate . It has been speculated but never proven that he was involved with William Walker ' s filibuster expedition to Nicaragua . Civil War . At the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861 , Theodore O ' Hara joined the Confederate army and became colonel of the Twelfth Alabama Regiment . He would serve with General Albert Sidney Johnston and General John C . Breckinridge , his fellow law student . He distinguished himself in the Western Theater of the War in Tennessee at the Battle of Shiloh and Battle of Stone ' s River . But conflicts with General Braxton Bragg and with President of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis hampered his military career and made his efforts to attain a regimental command futile . Legacy . After the war , O ' Hara went to Columbus , Georgia to work in the cotton business , but eventually he lost his business to a fire . He later lived on a plantation near Guerrytown , Alabama , where he died . He was returned to Columbus for burial . On September 15 , 1874 , his remains , along with those of other Mexican War officers , were buried in the state cemetery in Frankfort , Kentucky Frankfort Cemetery . O ' Hara ' s friend Sergeant Henry T . Stanton read " The Bivouac of the Dead " at the reinternment and said , " O ’ Hara , in giving utterance to this song , became at once the builder of his own monument and the author of his own epitaph . " Lines from the poem would eventually grace the gates of numerous national cemeteries and several monuments of Confederate Dead . In particular , the first verse ' s second quatrain is often quoted : Because he served for the Confederacy , O ' Hara often goes uncredited when the quatrain is used in a non - Confederate cemetery setting . There is a dispute over when O ' Hara wrote " The Bivouac of the Dead . " It is popularly thought to be written after the Battle of Buena Vista of 1847 , where many Kentucky volunteers died . Others say it was actually written after the Battle of Cárdenas in 1851 . The New York Times wrote that it was first published in the " Frankfort Yeoman " in 1850 , which puts it before O ' Hara ' s Cuba adventures .