“General Taylor” is a well-known sea shanty, probably but not necessarily written after the death of General Zachary Taylor. Taylor the man was a career soldier, gaining prominence first in the Second Seminole War and Black Hawk War, before becoming a national hero for his command during the Mexican-American War. He would be elected the 12th President of the US in the 1848 election, and die suddenly of a stomach virus barely 16 months later.

Two things make “General Taylor” very interesting as a song and a piece of folk music, however–its relationship to the equally famous shanty Santiana, and the way that it mixes General Taylor’s life and death with that of an American folk hero, Ol' Stormalong.