Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/606

This page needs to be proofread.
566
O'HARA
O'HIGGINS

seph academy, Bardstown, Ky., where he entered the senior class and acted as professor of Greek while he was completing his studies. He then read law, was admitted to the bar, and in 1845 was ap- pointed to a place in the treasury department at Washington. At the beginning of the Mexican war he entered the army, and was appointed cap- tain and assistant quartermaster of volunteers, 26 June, 1846. He was brevetted major, 20 Aug., , for gallant conduct in the battles of Contreras and Churubuseo. and was mustered out on 15 Oct., . He was appointed captain in the 2d cavalry, 3 ilarch, 1855, but resigned on 1 Dec, 1856. When the remains of the Kentucky soldiers that fell at Buena Vista in February, 1847, were removed to their native state, Maj. O'Hara wrote for the oc- casion the poem by which he is best known. " The Bivouac of the Dead," which begins with the stanza :

"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 ai'e spread ;
And Glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead."

Lines from this poem are inscribed over the en- trances of several of the national cemeteries. At the close of the war Col. O'Hara returned to Wash- ington, D. C, where he practised his profession. He afterward went with a filibustering expedition to Cuba, and commanded a regiment in the battle of Cardenas, where he was wounded. During the absence of John Forsythe from the United States as minister to Mexico, O'Hara edited the " Mobile Register." He was afterward editorially connected with the Louisville "Times" and the Frankfort, Ky., " Yeoman." He was several times intrusted by the government with diplomatic missions, and was especially active in the negotiations regarding the Tehuantepee grant. During the civil war he joined the Confederate army, and was made colo- nel of the 12th Alabama regiment. Subsequently he served on the staffs of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston and Gen. John C. Breckinridge. After the war he engaged in the cotton business in Co- lumbus. Ga., but lost everything by fire, and retired to a plantation, where he died. After his " Bivouac of the Dead" his best-known poem is "The Old Pioneer." In accordance with a resolution of the Kentucky legislature, his remains were conveyed to that state and buried by the side of those whom he had commemorated. See " O'Hara and His Elegies," by George W. Ranek (Baltimore, 1875).


O'HARA, William, R. C. bishop, b. in County Derry, Ireland, about 1816. His parents emigrated to the United States in 1820 and settled in Phila- delphia, where the son received his early education. He afterward entered Georgetown college, but, de- ciding to become a priest, he went to Rome and studied for eleven years in the L^roan college of the Propaganda. He was ordained in 1843 and appointed pastor of St. Patrick's church, Philadel- phia, where he remained till 1856. He was subse- quently professor in the Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo, and for some time acted as its rector. He became vicar-general of the diocese in 1860. In 1868 the diocese of Scranton was formed out of that of Philadelphia, and Dr. O'Hara was appoint- ed its first bishop, and consecrated on 12 July. The new diocese contained fifty churches, most of them of a very primitive character,»attended by twenty-eight priests. At present (1888) there are seventy-nine priests, seventy-four churches, forty- six stations, and twelve convents.


O'HIGGINS. Ambrosio, Marquis de Osorno, vicerov of Peru, b. in Summer Hill. Ireland, about 1720 ; d. in Lima, Peru, 18 March, 1801. A'ery little is known about his youth, but it is believed that he was the son of laboring people. According to Jose A. Lavalle, he was sent to Cadiz to his uncle, a Jesuit, and destined for an ecclesiastic career. Having very little inclination for the church, he went to South America and for some time was an itinerant trader in Venezuela, New Granada, and Peru, but, being persecuted by the Inquisition, he went to Chili as an engineer. He proposed to open easy communication between Chili and Mendoza by a way over the Andes, and. his proposition being ac- cepted, he was employed to superintend the works about 1760. In 1770 the president of Chili ap- pointed him captain of a column of cavalry to resist the attacks of the Araucanian Indians, whom he defeated, founding the fort of San Carlos in the south of the province of Arauco, which is still in ex- istence. He gained the good-will of the Indians by his humanity and benevolence, and recovered the territory that had been taken from the Spaniards. In consequence of his services he was appointed, on 7 Sept., 1777, by the viceroy Amat, a colonel in the army. He soon rose to be brigadier, and the viceroy Croix appointed him intendant of Concep- cion in 1786. He founded the city of San Ambrosio de Ballenar, in 1789 was promoted major-general, and soon afterward became president of Chili. In 1792 he built the city of Osorno, which had been de- stroyed by the Indians, and was created a marquis. He was made lieutenant-general in 1794, and in the next year became viceroy of Peru. On 16 May, 1796, he delivered the presidency of Chili to Rezabal y Ugarte, and arrived at CaUao in June, receiving the government in Lima on 24 July. When war was declared between England and Spain in 1797, O'Higgins took active measures for the defence of the coast, strengthening the fortifications of Callao and constructing a fort in Pisco. He projected and constructed a new carriage-road from Lima to Callao, and his principal attention during his short administration was directed to the improvement of means of communication. He died suddenly after a short illness. O'Higgins is the only example of a man sprung from the laboring class that obtained the rank of viceroy. — His son, Bernardo, president of Chili, b. in Chilian in 1780; d. in Lima in 1846, was educated in his native city, and in Cadiz and England. At the time of the declaration of inde- pendence, 18 Sept., 1810, he was prefect in the isl- and of Laja, where he organized two regiments, one formed almost entirely of his own dependents. When Gen. Pareja landed in San Vicente with a royalist expedition, 26 March, 1813, O'Higgins joined the dictator Jose Miguel Carrera in Concep- cion. Near the river Roble they were defeated by Gen. Elorriaga, 17 Oct., 1813, O'Higgins saving the army from total rout. After this battle the junta of Santiago deposed Carrera from the general com- mand of the army and appointed O'Higgins in his place. He had gained some successes when he received orders from the junta at Santiago to negotiate with the enemy, and on 3 May the treaty of Lircay was signed. On 23 July, Carrera, by a military revolution, recovered the government, but O'Higgins did not recognize him. and on 26 Aug. they had an encounter, in which Carrera remained in possession of the field, when they heard of the landing of the expedition of Gen. Mariano Osorio and made peace, O'Higgins asking for tlie command of the vanguard. He occupied Rancagua, and they agreed that Carrera should attack the enemy in the rear, but, after sustaining several assaults, O'Higgins