Complete Content List

1. • Full Citation: Thomas Bailey, "Diary of the Mexican War," Indiana Magazine of History 14, no. 2 (June 1918): 134-147.
   • Home: unknown
   • Year: 1847-1848
   • Regiment: 5th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Co. C
   • Abstract: Bailey, identified by the editor only as a musician, kept a journal from October 30, 1847 to July 27, 1848. He traveled from Jeffersonville, Indiana, and arrived in Mexico November 18. He arrived in Mexico City December 17. From then until May 13 his company camped on a plain called Molino del Rey outside the city. In June he moved to Vera Cruz, and began sailing back to the United States on June 29, and made it to Louisville July 17. He saw no action.
   • Sample Text:
     1. "There are many Churches built in a very firm and lasting manner; some of them in the greatest of splendor and has few equals in the world." (p. 142, Dec. 18, 1847)
   • LC Subject Headings:
     1. Mexican War, 1846-1848 Personal narratives.
     2. Mexican War, 1846-1848 Sources.
     3. United States. Army. Indiana Infantry Regiment, 5th
   
   
   
2. • Full Citation: Thomas Ware Gibson et al., "The Mexican War: Some Personal Correspondence," ed. R.B. Weber, Indiana Magazine of History 65, no. 2 (June 1969): 133-139.
   • Regiment: 3rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Co. I
   • Home: Clark County (Charlestown)
   • Year: 1846-1847
   • Abstract: Thomas Ware Gibson had organized a group of volunteers for the Mexican War called "The Clark Guards." They were mustered into the army at New Albany on June 22, 1846, and then mustered out on June 27, 1847. They were involved in the Battle of Buena Vista under Zachary Taylor. This collection includes one letter from Thomas to his wife Mary, one letter from Mary to Thomas, and one letter from Columbus Goodwin, Thomas's brother-in-law, to Thomas. Mary and Columbus had written to Thomas after the Battle of Buena Vista, when they weren't sure he was still alive.
   • Sample Text:
     1. "The field of battle is still covered with their dead and the stench is most horrible. The stragglers are scattered through the mountains by thousands and must many of them starve to death." (Thomas to Mary Gibson, p. 135, Mar. 4, 1847)
   • LC Subject Headings:
     1. Mexican War, 1846-1848 Personal narratives.
     2. Mexican War, 1846-1848 Sources.
     
     
     
3. • Full Citation: Milo S. Hascall, "West Point Letters of Cadet Milo S. Hascall, 1848-1850," ed. Stephen E. Towne, Indiana Magazine of History 90, no. 3 (September 1994): 278-294.
   • Home: DeKalb County (Goshen)
   • Year: 1848-1850
   • Abstract: Milo Hascall (1829-1904) is best known for his vigorous suppression of Democratic dissent in Indiana during the Civil War. He was born in Le Rory, New York but moved to Indiana as a teenager. These five letters were written by Hascall to his friend Ezra Saurin Janes, and donated to the Le Roy County Historical Society by Janes's daughter after his death. Hascall described his social and academic life as a West Point cadet from 1848-1850.
   • Sample Text:
     1. "However I am in hopes that by strict attention to my studies &c I shall be able to approximate rather nearer to the Head before I *graduate* if that event should ever happen." (p. 289, Jan. 14, 1849)
     2. "We gave a fine Dancing Hall in a Building three hundred feet long and the Cadets with their white pants grey coats and glistening Bell Buttons and withal excellent dancing, present no mean appearance." (p. 292, Apr. 22, 1849)
   • LC Subject Headings:
     1. West Point (Military academy)
   
   
   
4. • Full Citation: Henry S. Lane, "The Mexican War Journal of Henry S. Lane," ed. Graham A. Barringer, Indiana Magazine of History 53, no. 4 (December 1957): 383-434.
   • Home: Montgomery County (Crawfordsville)
   • Year: 1846-1847
   • Regiment: 1st Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Co. K
   • Abstract: Lane's (1811-1881) almost-daily journal covers the period June 20, 1846 to June 16, 1847, when he was mustered into, and then out of, the U.S. Army. He spent most of his time in camp at the mouth of the Rio Grande, writing about boredom, vice in camp, missing his wife, how Catholicism has corrupted the Mexicans, and several meetings with General Zachary Taylor. In December 1846, his regiment traveled to Monterrey and stayed there until May 1847, when he began traveling back to Indiana. He saw no action. After the war, he became a banker, and served in the U.S. Senate for Indiana from 1861-1877.
   • Sample Text:
     1. "It is an abuse of the bounty of providence to let such a race of drones & slaves [cumber?] so goodly a heritage, but they are do[o]med to be swallowed up in the all-engulphing vo[r]tex of Anglo-Saxon enterprize & ambition." (p. 393-394, Aug. 21, 1846)
     2. "The pageantry & eclat of arms will interest man as long as his nature remains unchanged. Warfare seems to be our natural trade, & the history of the world is but a recital of heroes & their butcheries." (p. 406, Dec. 10, 1846)
     3. "If all the money which has been expended in this war had been expended to give the Gospel to the poor & deluded Mexican, oh what a glorious conquest we should make." (p. 416, Feb. 14, 1847)
   • LC Subject Headings:
     1. United States. Army. Indiana Infantry Regiment, 1st
     2. Mexican War, 1846-1848 Personal narratives.
     3. Mexican War, 1846-1848 Sources.
     
     
     
5. • Full Citation: Robert H. Milroy et al., "Mexican War Letters," Indiana Magazine of History 25, no. 2 (June 1929): 167-173.
   • Home: Carroll County (Delphi)
   • Year: 1846-1847
   • Regiment: 2nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry
   • Abstract: Robert H. Milroy, Samuel L. Milroy, E.W.H. Beck, and William E. Pearsons served together in the Mexican war. The Milroys wrote to their brother James, and Beck and Pearsons wrote to the Milroys's sister Frances. Beck married Frances when he returned from the war. Robert became an attorney and served in the Civil War in the 9th Indiana. Samuel ran the family farm. They were in camp at the mouth of the Rio Grande for most of their time in Mexico, thought that their own commanders were worthless, and that Zachary Taylor got the credit for General Worth's actions. They saw no action.
   • Sample Text:
     1. "Nothing is to be seen but the Boys lying around in the shade fighting flies, & wishing to get home. A newspaper is worshipped. & a paper from you occasionally would read well, & a little penciling on the margins would not be detected." (Beck to Frances, p. 168, Sept. 18, 1846)
   • LC Subject Headings:
     1. United States. Army. Indiana Infantry Regiment, 2nd
     2. Mexican War, 1846-1848 Personal narratives.
     3. Mexican War, 1846-1848 Sources.

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Abstracts by Elizabeth Sloan.