Poet; born in
Danville, Ky., Feb. 11, 1820; graduated at St. Joseph Academy,
Bardstown, Ky.; and admitted to the bar in 1845.
He was appointed captain and assistant quartermaster in the army in June, 1846, and served with distinction throughout the
Mexican War. After the remains of the
Kentucky soldiers who fell at
Buena Vista were reinterred in their native State he wrote for that occasion the well-known poem,
The bivouac of the dead, the first stanza of which is:
The muffled drum's sad roll has beat
The soldier's last tattoo.
No more on life's parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few.
On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread;
And Glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead.
During the
Civil War he enlisted in the Confederate army and became colonel of the 12th Alabama Regiment.
He died near
Guerryton, Ala., June 6, 1867.
