Strangers to Us All | Lawyers and Poetry |
Thaddeus Oliver "Oliver, Thaddeus, lawyer and poet, was born in Jeffersonville, Twiggs County, Ga., December 25, 1826, and died in a hospital in Charleston, S.C., August 21, 1864, the result of a wound received in battle. During the administration of Herschel V. Johnson he held the office of solicitor-general of the Chattahoochee circuit. He was an eloquent advocate before the jury, a man of culture and a poet of singular power. There is abundant evidence for his claim to the authorship of the famous war lyric, 'All's Quiet Along the Potomac To-night,' despite the fact that two other claimants contest the honor, Lamar Fontaine and Ethel Lynn Beers. Several other fugitive poems from the pen of Mr. Oliver betray the same delicate and rhythmic touch. They include 'Rain in the Heart' and 'My Soul Is Dark as Starless Night.' He married, in 1849, Sarah Penelope, daughter of Hugh Lawson." [Source: Edwin Anderson Alderman & Joel Chandler Harris (eds.), Library of Southern Literature 326(New Orleans: Martin & Hoyt Co., 1910)(1907)(Vol. 15, Biographical Dictionary of Authors, Lucian Lamar Knight ed.)][online text]
On the disputed authorship of "All Quiet Along
The Potomac Tonight," see:
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