16 Facts About Theodore O'Hara

Theodore O'Hara is best known for the poems "Bivouac of the Dead", which is quoted in many cemeteries, and "The Old Pioneer".

Theodore O'Hara was born to educator Kean O'Hara and his wife in Danville, Kentucky on February 11,1820.

Theodore O'Hara returned to Danville to go to Centre College and then continued his education at St Joseph Academy in Bardstown, Kentucky, where he served as a Greek professor during his senior year.

Theodore O'Hara 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.

Theodore O'Hara 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.

Theodore O'Hara 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, Theodore O'Hara was honored with the rank of brevet-major on August 20,1847.

Theodore O'Hara was a firm believer in American expansion, in the form of filibustering.

Theodore O'Hara 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 Lopez, Theodore O'Hara commanded a regiment, with the rank of colonel, in the hopes of removing Spanish rule from Cuba.

Theodore 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.

Theodore O'Hara was reassigned to Indian fighting on the prairies of Texas.

Theodore O'Hara continued to follow government orders, such as his diplomatic mission into the Tehuantepec grant debate.

At the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861, Theodore O'Hara joined the Confederate army and became lieutenant colonel of the Twelfth Alabama Regiment.

Theodore O'Hara distinguished himself in the Western Theater of the War in Tennessee at the Battle of Shiloh and Battle of Stone's River.

Theodore O'Hara later lived on a plantation near Guerryton, Bullock County, Alabama, where he died.