Calixa Lavallee, born Calixte Lavallée, was a French-Canadian-American musician and Union officer during the American Civil War who composed the music for O Canada, which officially became the national anthem of Canada in 1980. During the later years of his life, Lavallée was the choirmaster at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston and he died in that city in 1891. As the result of the campaign by the Montréal based music director of the Victoria's Rifles, Joseph-Laurent Gariépy, his remains were returned to Montréal and reinterred at Côte-des-Neiges Cemetery in 1933.