Born in Kentucky on April 19, 1791, and dying on August 6, 1880, General William Orlando Butler attended Transylvania University and served in the War of 1812 as an aide-de-camp to Andrew Jackson at River Raisin, Pensacola, and New Orleans. In the Mexican War he was a major general of volunteers, commanded the 1st Volunteer Division of the Army of Occupation, was a hero of the Battle of Monterey, and on February 18, 1848, became the last commanding general of the American Army in the Mexican War. He also served as a Democratic congressman from Kentucky from 1839 to 1843, was the Democratic vice-president nominee under Lewis Cass in 1848, and was a poet whose works included Boatman's Horn and Battle of the River Raisin.