Lieutenant Colonel William H. Watson (1808 – September 22, 1846) commanded the Battalion of Baltimore and District of Columbia Volunteers in the Mexican–American War.

Prior to that, he had been a captain in the "Independent Blues" Company of the 5th Maryland and served with the West Indies Squadron of the United States Navy against pirates.

The song was written in 1861, fifteen years later after Watson's death in Mexico, by James Ryder Randall while teaching in Louisiana, after hearing about the outbreak of rioting and loss of life as Massachusetts and Pennsylvania militia troops in Baltimore.

A monument to Watson exists at the corner of West North Avenue and Mount Royal Terrace in Baltimore near the old Gateway Entrance Pillars to Druid Hill Park where it was re-located in 1930.

The main speaker and orator for the ceremonies that day was Edwin Warfield (1848–1920), who was the founder (1890) and president of the influential Fidelity and Deposit Trust Company of Maryland (located in a landmark granite skyscraper headquarters, built 1894, at North Charles and West Lexington Streets (it was one of only a few tall older buildings which were not razed in the late 1950s and 1960s, during the re-development of the central business district known as Charles Center, and was still standing in 2013).