Benny Havens was a seller of contraband liquors and viands to the cadets. In course of time he was expelled from the immediate vicinity of the Point, and then opened a regular establishment a mile or two below, which until a few years past was a favorite resort of the cadets on convivial occasions, "sans permission."

The lamented O'Brien, formerly an Assistant Surgeon in the army, was commissioned a Lieutenant in the 8th Infantry. Before joining his regiment he stopped at West Point to visit an early friend, Major Ripley A. Arnold, then a first-class man, residing in "No. 32 Rue de Cockloft," in the old North Barracks. They made many excursions to "Benny's." The song was composed by O'Brien and others, and set to the tune of "Wearing of the Green." It soon became popular, and from that time to this, all those who have learned the way to "Benny's," consider it an old stand-by.

The verse relative to the death of O'Brien, and all the other following it, were written afterwards by the different classes.