Colonel Trousdale

Source 

The Mexican War And Its Heroes...

See a biography of William Trousdale (my 1st cousin 7x removed). 

General Scott And The Halls Of Montezuma

Source

Source

Caught By Hays' Texan Rangers

View From The Rio Grande River Looking At Mexico

Notes of the Mexican War, 1846-47-48...:

 

"He (a guerilla) was caught by Col. Jack Hays' Texan Rangers, coming up from Vera Cruz (where he was captured)...let go on parole of honor, and again captured leading a guerilla band...".

A Strongly Entrenched Santa Anna

Notes of the Mexican War, 1846-47-48:

"Gen. Santa Anna was strongly entrenched around his loved and boasted capital, surrounded by his splendidly-uniformed staff, his glittering lancers and the flower of his army; he was sole master of the city of Mexico.  Straight for that ancient city our army marched... ."

An Artifact At The Illinois National Guard Museum, Springfield, Illinois

From The First Gun At Palo Alto

Notes of the Mexican War, 1846-47-48: Comprising Incidents, Adventures and Everyday Proceedings and Letters While with the United States Army in the Mexican War; Also Extracts from Ancient Histories of Mexico, Giving an Accurate Account of the First and Original Settlers of Mexico, Etc.; Also the Names and Numbers of the Different Rulers of Mexico; Also Influence of the Church

Source

"...from the first gun at Palo Alto to the surrender of the city of Mexico...we made our advances, without one defeat, without one retreat.  There is not a paralell in all the pages of history."

The Captain Is A Fighting Man

Notes of the Mexican War, 1846-47-48:

"Word now comes from Capt. Small's party of fifty picked men, saying that they are at work piercing their way through the deserted stone houses, so as to get in the rear of the enemy's battery, and then charge upon the enemy by surprise; that is, provided the enemy don't stop them before they get through, but there is no fear on our side of the house, for the Captain is a fighting man, and all his men are fighting soldiers, and have expressed a determination to capture the breastworks, if possible."

How Much That Sword Looked Like A Baton

Jim's Photo Of Alamo Display

And Wait For The Night by JohnWilliam Corrington (published ca 1964)

Because it struck me how much that sword looked like a baton, and how I had been the bandmaster without knowing it. I don’t know why—I never figured why—but all the fight was gone out of me in an instant. I had come to Mexico to kill as many of ‘em as I could shoot, stab, or ride down. For Travis and Bowie and Bonham. I came to burn or devastate, it didn’t matter who or how. But there I was with a clean sword in my hand and twelve of my own men turning in the hot wind, and the words of politicians and landgrabbers elbowing each other in my memory.….and because anyhow there probably hadn’t been ten men in the Mexican army we were facing who had fought at the Alamo or murdered at Goliad.

A Rotten Fight

Rio Grande River Looking Towards Mexico

And Wait For The Night by JohnWilliam Corrington...

"He remembered the long tortured negotiations that summer before the war with Mexico, the equally tortured logic of the administration, the coarse gleeful representatives in the Louisiana legislature who wanted a war that would net not only Texas to the Rio Grande, but the whole of the subcontinent down to Central America if the Mexicans gave trouble."

"Mexico was a rotten fight, and you were right on top of the heap. You fought ‘em from the border to the City of Mexico itself. You saw Scott ride in, and you were part of what went on before he made that ride. I bet you remember Chapultepec."

Since Our Flag Was Raised In California

Source (U.S. Flag would have had fewer stars in the 1840's)

Three years in California [1846-1849] ̈ by Rev. Walter Colton, U. S. N...

Thursday Feb. 11: Two of the officers of Gen. Castro sent through me to day to Com. Shubrick, applications for permission to return to Mexico. They are very poor, having received no pay since our flag was raised.

There has been, I apprehend, quite as much love of country in the Californian as the American, in the storm of battle which has swept over this land. 

Ide's Horse From The Mexican War

Source - The Mexican War (Not Ide's Horse)

A biographical sketch of the life of William B. Ide:

 When Father came home from the War late in November, 1846, William came with him. He had earned two good horses, and Father rode home on one of them, leaving his own faithful horse, which he brought with him from Illinois, in a pasture to recruit a U. S. officer had rode him, and, for want of proper care, had made his back so sore that Father could not bear to put a saddle on him. Through this means he lost this valuable animal, for, while thus necessarily recruiting in the pasture, he was stolen, and never recovered. On loaning the use of this horse to ' Uncle Samuel,' the ' U. S. brand was put on the top of Father's  "W. I.", and afterwards the horse was claimed as U. S. property; but Father proved it to be his.

Portrait Of John Coffee Hays

Portrait and description of Colonel Hays from The Mexican War And Its Heroes.  Hays and Christopher Acklin were both Texas Rangers.

"...conduct of Colonel Hays and his noble band of Texan volunteers. Hereafter they and we are brothers and we can desire no better guarantee of success than by their association."

"The following description of the personal appearance of this celebrated partisan is given by his friend Reid."
"We had heard so much of Col. Hays that we were anxious to be introduced to the commander of our regiment."

"As we cast our eye around the group we tried to single out the celebrated partisan chief and we were much surprised when we were presented to a delicate looking young man of about five feet eight inches in stature and told that he was our colonel.  He was dressed very plainly and wore a thin jacket with the usual Texian hat; broad brimmed with a round top and loose open collar with a black handkerchief tied negligently around his neck.  He has dark brown hair and a large and brilliant hazel eye which is restless in conversation and speaks a language of its own not to be mistaken with very prominent and heavy arched eyebrows.  His broad deep forehead is well developed he has a Roman nose with a finely curved nostril a large mouth, with the corners tending downwards a short upper lip, while the under one projects slightly indicative of great firmness and determination.  He is naturally of a fair complexion but from long exposure on the frontier has become dark and weather beaten. He has rather a thoughtful and care worn expression from the constant exercise of his faculties and his long acquaintance with dangers and difficulties, and the responsibilities of a commander have given him an habitual frown when his features are in repose.  He wears no whiskers, which gives him a still more youthful appearance and his manners are bland and very prepossessing from his extreme modesty."

John Coffee Hays

Hays Display At The Texas Ranger Museum

From The Mexican War And Its Heroes, a biography of John Coffee Hays, with whom Christopher (Kit) Acklin served.

Source

Captain Dan Henrie's Escape

The Mexican War And Its Heroes... including Captain Dan Henrie, who escaped from the Mexican Army after being captured.

...the major [John Pollard Gaines] requested Captain Henrie who is a famous rider of the Jack Hays school... .  The captain did so and riding up to Captain Clay carelessly remarked Clay I am going to make a burst.

An Act For the Relief of Dan Henrie for his efforts in the Mexican War.

Henrie was a Texas Ranger and part of the Mier expedition.  He was also a prisonmate of Gen. Wharton J. Green.

The Illustrious General Gaines

General Edmund Pendleton Gaines participated in many historic events:

• Captured Aaron Burr
• Testified At Aaron Burr's Trial
  
• Surveyed The "Gaines Trace"
• Proposed A National System of Transportation For The Military
  
• Ordered Zachary Taylor To Establish Fort Jesup & Baton Rouge barracks
  
• Commander Of Fort Stoddert
• A Recruiting Officer in May 1812 [letter from Gen. Winchester]
  
• Defended Fort Erie in The War of 1812
  
• Taking Orders From Andrew Jackson [letter extract]
  
• Participated In The Black Hawk War
  
• Engaged In The Second Seminole War
• Met With Opothleyahola Along The Trail of Tears
• On The Texas Border During Its War of Independence [letter]
  
• Requisitioned Troops For the Mexican War
  
• Participated In The Longest Court Case - Re: his father-in-law's (Daniel Clark) estate
• Had A Fort Named In His Honor on beautiful Dauphin Island in Mobile Bay
  

The Devil's Backbone, The Story of the Natchez Trace, mentions (Lieutenant) Gaines: "Wilkinson's men went to work building the road--or at least widening and straightening the Trace, providing some fords, ferries, and bridges." "Lt. Edmund Pendleton Gaines, who was later to arrest Aaron Burr, was actively engaged in working on the road."

A letter from General Edmund P. Gaines at Fort Mitchell to General John Coffee at Ft. Strother dated 18 February 1816, both in Alabama, concerning the Treaty of Fort Jackson and the Choctaw and Cherokee nations, echoed his concerns.

It was no secret that General Gaines and General Winfield Scott did not see eye to eye. They were the two top brigadier generals, but because of their public feuding, President John Quincy Adams did not promote either one of them and chose Colonel Macomb instead. Did their rivalry play a part in the Second Seminole War? General Scott had ordered General Clinch not to assist General Gaines, but seeing that Gaines was surrounded by hostile Seminoles and had exhausted their supplies, Clinch disobeyed orders and went to rescue Gaines and his troops. There was a court inquiry where the influential General Scott was exonerated even though there was evidence against him.

Sam Houston wrote a letter on 29 August 1836, telling General Gaines, "You can save Texas!"

A description of an 83-year old General Gaines can be found here.

Andrew Jackson Had His Eyes On Texas

Andrew Jackson was portrayed as a driving force behind the United States' expansion west in "Magnificent Destiny," by Paul I. Wellman.


Perhaps one of Andrew Jackson's greatest disappointments may have been the initial failure to bring Texas into the United States. "...that victory had not been won. The Senate was divided, seeking small ends and petty triumphs, true. But in some manner he should have been able to unite the country. He had been unable to do so. The burden of failure had lived with him all these years." On the flip side, "of all his acts he (President Jackson) looked back with deepest pride to the payment of the national debt." (See today's debt here at the U.S. National Debt Clock).

Andrew Jackson's adopted son, Jack Donelson, was appointed Charge d'Affaires to the Texas Republic by President Tyler. As such, he approached Sam Houston inquiring as to Houston's attitude about the Texas annexation question. Houston was always in favor of it, but General Santa Anna of Mexico was encroaching upon Texas territory, perhaps forcing Houston's hand.

Not only was Santa Anna making forays into Texas, he conducted his infamous "bean lottery" on captured Texans. One in 10 beans in the pot was black, the others white. When a prisoner drew the black bean, he was executed. As Houston explained to Donelson, "Confronted by such a foe, you can understand that our situation is critical."

Houston intimated that Texas was vulnerable to foreign overtures if the United States continued to rebuff Texas over slavery issues, knowing that it would reach Andrew Jackson's ears. Jackson believed that "Britain--or France--with a foothold in Texas...would be a sword poised and pointed at the heart of his country."

Andrew Jackson hand-picked James K. Polk to run for President. He was loyal to Jackson and favored the annexation of Texas. Democratic delegates nominating a candidate for the election of 1844 were divided between Martin Van Buren and Lewis Cass. "The divisions were forgotten when he (Jack Donelson) gave them the message he carried from the old chief (Andrew Jackson). After an all-night adjournment, the convention by acclamation nominated the man Andrew Jackson asked it to name. James Knox Polk [was] now hailed as "Young Hickory"...".

Andrew Jackson advised future President James K. Polk, "Mexico has already notified our government that if we annex Texas, a state of war will exist. Do not strike the first blow: but once that blow is struck against you, make the enemy repent--and protect Texas." By 1846, The United States and Mexico were at war.

Madame Castel's Lodger - General Beauregard

Madame Castel's Lodger, by Frances Parkinson Keyes, was one of two books I had in mind when I started this blog. This book had a surprise ending for me when I first read.

A piece in the "Author's Notes," states:

"My friend Mrs. Kenneth T. Price, whose late husband was for many years District Manager of the Freeport Sulphur Company at Port Sulphur and was therefore a long-time resident of Plaquemines Parish, who was also fully familiar with this work, made the arrangements for the visit (to Fort Jackson) and took me to Fort Jackson in her car, with a stop for lunch at the Sulphur guest house, long one of my favorite haunts; the oyster pies, corn puddings and steak with "rusty" gravy... ." "This excursion was so delightful and so successful that, a week or so later, Mrs. Price and I undertook the trip to the even more isolated Fort Livingston on Grande Terre Island... ."

This historical novel, based on the life of Confederate General Pierre (P.G.T.) Beauregard, initially grabbed my attention because of the Civil War affiliation and the colorful General himself. Literally, in the midst of reading it, I asked my sister about her husband Frank's family background for my genealogical research. Two seemingly unrelated events, that is until I read the author's notes and realized that the Mrs. Kenneth Price referenced therein was none other than Frank's grandmother. The confluence of genealogical research and reading for pleasure was wonderful and inspiring.

After learning more about the Price family from Frank, he put me in touch with his mother, Joan. Joan grew up as an only child in Port Sulphur, south of New Orleans, Louisiana. She related that her mother, Lois (Blunt) Price, met Mrs. Keyes, a most formidable woman, when she (Lois) as president of the local PTA contacted Mrs. Keyes, asking her to speak to students in Port Sulphur. After the speaking engagement, Mrs. Price and Mrs Keyes became friends.

The house where General Beauregard lodged with Madame Castel is real, is now known as the Beauregard-Keyes house and is open for tours. The house itself becomes a supporting character in the book and was where Beauregard honeymooned with his second wife, Caroline Deslondes, before the start of the Civil War. After the war, General Beauregard, a widower for the second time, returned to the house in New Orleans, destitute, and living in the house's former slave quarters where he spent time organizing his papers and reminiscing about the past.

"Simone Castel had been on the rear gallery when he found her. Now, after that startled moment of silence, he turned and looked across the neglected patio toward the building which had once been the slave quarters and which was in a sad state of dilapidation. He had never been in it, but Caroline had; she had gone there to see a sick slave and she had described it to him. Now he asked a question, as surprising to himself as to his hearer. 'This quarters--they're empty now, aren't they?' '...but I thought, if the quarters were empty, perhaps you'd let me move out there.' 'General Beauregard---in the slave quarters!'

I was even more surprised when Joan (my sister's mother-in-law) told me that as a newlywed, she and her husband also lived in the slave quarters of the Beauregard-Keyes House. She was Madame Keye's lodger!

Madame Castel's Lodger is also a novel that includes an authentic genealogical chart, a family history and the Beauregards as they were listed in the 1830 Census taken in St. Barnard Parish. There is also an excerpt from a plantation expense journal, gumbo recipes, an explanation of Southern and Louisiana customs, a glimpse into the lives of planters and New Orleans.

Madame Castel's Lodger is a novel that illustrated, through the life of P.G.T. Beauregard, the cultural differences experienced by a French-speaking Louisiana planter's son who furthers his education at a New York City military school and how he adapted to being part of both worlds.

Beauregard experienced the bureaucracy of the American Army after graduating from West Point. When there were slights, real or imagined, from the Army or otherwise, he found great comfort with his wife, his beloved Laure, and was thrown into despair when she died in childbirth.

Madame Castel's Lodger provided the impetus to visit New Orleans and especially the Beauregard-Keyes house, which we did. Reading it a second time, years later, after becoming familiar with various landmarks mentioned in the novel, is even better. The plantations of Beauregard's friends and family were located in St. Bernard's Parish and Plaquemines Parish; we've camped in St. Bernard's State Park and travelled the length of Plaquemines Parish, after first crossing over in a ferry boat, visiting Port Sulphur and destinations south. We've visited Fort Jackson, for which "Captain" Beauregard was responsible as an Army engineer.

The War of 1812's Battle of New Orleans, was part of the Beauregard family's oral history. P.G.T. Beauregard's Uncle Joseph had "...taken part in the Battle of New Orleans and had commanded a band of young Creole planters at Proctor's Point on Lake Borgne...". A plantation belonging to the Villeres family, to which Laure belonged, was central to the Chalmette Battlefield, as were plantations of other Beauregard friends.

The patriarch of the Villeres family, Jacques Philippe Roy Villeres, held "court;" "...every morning the old man seated himself in the shade of a great tree, situated in what seemed to him an ideal meeting place, and awaited the arrival of his six sons. Only the gravest type of emergency would excuse their absence and, as soon as they were gathered around him, he gave his orders for the day...".

While the Villeres followed the customs of the older generation, P. G. T. Beauregard was one who made when he deemed it necessary. The "...Creole custom was for a newlywed couple to remain confined in a room at the bride's home for several days (or longer); ...that, in Beauregard's opinion, was nothing sort of barbarous. That opinion was one of the 'American' ideas which he had formed in the north...". He borrowed a friend's garconniere and opted for an 'American' honeymoon instead.

The Spanish Beauregard learned as a boy as a result of the Canary Island natives who lived in the area helped him once he participated in the Mexican War. He stated that "I was called on, quite often, to interpret for others when I was the only Spanish-speaking officer around."

Beauregard returned home as a hero from the Mexican War. Some time after being narrowly defeated in the election for Mayor of New Orleans, he returned to West Point where he taught until he resigned when Louisiana seceded from the Union.

After P. G. T. Beauregard was summoned to Montgomery, Alabama, the capital of the new Confederacy, he told Caroline, "...I won't be gone long...I've only been asked to attend a conference." As he later related to Madame Castel, "I've been gone four years. I never saw her again." The Civil War had intervened as had General Beauregard's triumphs in that war as well as his ultimate surrender.