According to Dave Smith of the Cincinnati Civil War Round Table, the legend behind this poem is similar to the one told about the ground cactus that grows on the battlefield at Perryville, Kentucky. Locals maintain that the cactus grew from seeds carried in the saddlebags of Wharton's Texas cavalry, which bivouacked near the Walker house the night before the battle. Chuck Ten Brink of the Civil War Artillery Page points out that the late summer's haying shipped from the midwest to Atlanta in the fall of 1864 to feed the horses and mules of Sherman's army could easily have contained enough daisy seeds to blanket the route of Sherman's eventual push to the coast.

"The Daisy in the South"