Abstract | Keywords | Export | Availability | Bookmark

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Colonel Samuel Ryan Curtis, engineer, lawyer, and graduate of West Point, arrived in Mexico in July of 1846 as commander of the 3rd Ohio Volunteer Regiment to find a volatile and chaotic situation in occupied towns along the Rio Grande. American civilians of the lowest sort - men and women - mingled with Mexican townspeople, robbing, murdering, and raping. Neither civil nor military law made provisions for governing municipalities under such conditions. Nor was the U.S. military prepared for a struggle against Mexican guerrilla forces and desperate bandits. Colonel Curtis was a diary keeper, and this record of his experiences in Mexico gives a clear picture of his efforts to restore and maintain order under nearly impossible conditions: of death and suffering in his regiment from disease, not fighting, and of the tedium of army camp life. A reflective man as well as an educated one, Curtis was a keen observer. He documented social and economic circumstances, flora and fauna, and the weather, even as he chronicled political conditions and martial unrest. The resulting diary is a major contribution to studies of the Mexican War.

Mexican War, 1846-1848 --- Soldiers --- United States - General --- Regions & Countries - Americas --- History & Archaeology --- Armed Forces personnel --- Members of the Armed Forces --- Military personnel --- Military service members --- Service members --- Servicemen, Military --- Armed Forces --- Mexican-American War, 1846-1848 --- United States-Mexican War, 1846-1848 --- Personal narratives, American. --- Campaigns --- Diaries. --- Personal narratives, American --- Diaries --- Curtis, Samuel Ryan, --- Curtis, Sam'l R. --- Curtiss, Samuel R. --- United States. --- Ohio Volunteer Regiment, 3rd (1846-1847) --- Curtis, Samuel R.