Calhoun County AlArchives History-Letters.....Cunningham, G. D. September 1887 Mexican - Letters 1st Alabama Regiment Volunteers ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Candace (Teal) Gravelle tealtree@comcast.net October 12, 2006, 12:58 am Letter From A Mexican War Veteran "The Jacksonville Republican" Jacksonville, Calhoun Co., Alabama NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, AUGUST 20, 1887 NOTICE I desire to correspond with parties or their descendants who were in any of the old wars prior to 1855, viz: The Revolutionary, Mexican, Florida or any of the Indian Wars. Address: Emmett F. Crook, Jacksonville, Ala. --- NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, SEPTEMBER 10, 1887 CALHOUN County Local News LETTER FROM A MEXICAN WAR VETERAN Letter from G.D. Cunningham of Eulaton, Ala., Calhoun County, Sept. 5, 1887 About the middle of May 1846 news reached us that Gen. Taylor was in danger of being pushed by the superior force of the Mexican Army. The President of the United States made a call for volunteers to protect Taylor from the army of occupation and the citizens of Texas who were threatened by the government of Mexico. Such excitement and anxiety never prevailed in the county. Companies were raised and ample facilities given to transport relief to Gen. Taylor's army. And in less time than a month, the 1st Alabama Regt. reported to Taylor on the ground for duty. The excitement subsided, thus giving us an opportunity to drill and prepare ourselves for the duties of a soldier. We remained on the river some months and then we were ordered up to Caurargo, four or five hundred miles. We were struck with the great contrast between ours and that country in many respects. The size of the timber and their leaves, the kind of timber had its fruit, the kind of birds and their songs, the manner of houses and their dress, but above all their fencing and means of farming. Strange as it might appear it is nevertheless true, that one never saw a rail fence around their patches, posts were driven up and a pole laid on top and then thorny bushes leaned up on either side. This protects from every occasion. Their houses were covered with tile or long grass that does very well in a dry, hot country. They plant their corn by inserting a stick in the ground and depositing the seed. I never saw a plow used in Mexico. They have no plank and use no rules. Their floors are dirt. The roofs of their houses were flat. I never saw a chimney in all our travels. They make coal of the small timber to cook with and carry things to town on their pack mules. They eat today what was cooked yesterday. They never eat hot food. They make coffee that grows in the woods. They make their own sugar and eat no hog meat. Their principal meat is beef and mutton. Their boil their potatoes, peas and cabbage all together and make a thick soup. If they have bread, they make a sour light bread. All their labor is light and they are small eaters. The young boys employ their time in throwing the lariats and they become very expert. The chief items of trade are oranges, lemons, pineapples, ?? and hides. Let me pass on to the battle of VeraCruz and to that famous castle, San Juanduelle. After we were detached from Gen. Taylor to Gen. Scott at VeraCruz, we we were situated to that point and when we were in sight, it occurred to me what I had read concerning that famous impregnable fortress, but I did not expect to see it constructed on a made foundation, a thousand yards from the city with a wall nine feet thick and mounted with four hundred cannons; nor did I expect to see the city covered with moss and all with flat roofs. When we neared the shore we could see nothing but beds of white sand, white as snow, and the clusters of prickly pears, which grew to the height of fifteen feet. After a dead silence of three days, Gen. Scott summoned the enemy to surrender. When they refused, our batteries of guns opened fire on the city of VeraCruz and the fire was returned by the city. The Navy then opened also on the city. The castle opened on our breast works, shooting over the city, but not knowing the distance, their shots were not effective. The firing continued during the night. The night scene was sublime, mixed with shock of horror at the screams and lamentations of the sufferers. We could see the bombs with their fuse flying with rainbow curve, and descending behind the walls of the city, and hear them explode, sending death and carnage in every direction. On the morning of the 25th of March, a large white flag was suspended on the walls of the castle and city, and the firing ceased. They surrendered 7,000 troops, 600 cannons and all their public stores; what a contrast. The evening before all was hostility, now all in friendship and trade. When we entered the city we could see what havoc our cannons had done. I would not attempt to enumerate the dead animals that had to be removed from the city, that the people for all miles around had brought to the city for safety. G. D. Cunningham ---- LETTER FROM G.D. CUNNINGHAM to The Washington Vedette newspaper: An old comrade, G.D. Cunningham of Eulaton, Calhoun county, Alabama sends to the Vedette this letter, asking earnestly that we publish the following letter: " Mr. Kenaday, I complied with your request and filled out a blank sent me from Washington and was proud of the compliment but did not give my known friend a power of attorney to get his fee. My dear comrade, I am in a deplorable condition, with cancer in my face and eyes, one eye gone, and can see but little with the other. I must send you a line, though my friends have tried to stop me. But I must say a few words to my friends, the Secretary of the National Association and a word to the veterans of the 1st Alabama Volunteers, who boasted that they were the flower of the State, that they belonged to families of honorable men. What I wish to say to you is this: The reason our boys have not done more to aid the Assocation is that they had no faith in getting justice while the ruling power exhibited such bitter feelings toward the South. But as for our Secretary, and what he has done for the vets, they are highly pleased. I have heard praises going up from widows and their friends to the Secretary for his persistent efforts in their behalf and in behalf of his comrades. I now send you seven dollars. If this does not square us, you must wait until I draw again. i wish to say to you that I like your pluck, and that all you have done I think was done at the right place and at the right time. I now wish to address my old comrades from the 1st Alabama Volunteers: " You all know me. I have never seen a dollar of my money paid the Secretary published. If you have also been standing off with folded arms while he has been hunting and killing the bear, you will now come in with a yell that "We have got him!, and bring in your claims for a share of the booty! You will draw a pension, doubtless, as long as you live; and you will not count up what incidental expenses the Secretary has had to pay from his own resources to procure the passage of the pension bill for his comrades. I want to feel assured that he be paid in full for the Vedette. Now let us see what the Secretary has done toward getting the bill passed. He has shown through his paper from month to month, and year after year, keeping it continually before Congress and the people, that it was the will of two thirds of the people of the United States that we should be punished. That the army of Mexico had gained 1,000,000 square miles of territory and opened up communications from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and also showed Congress and the people by statistics the vast amounts of gold and silver derived from this million acres of land, amount to three billions of dollars, more than enough to cancel the national debt, the States' and county debts and all the pensions for other wars. He has had to meet and refute, by hunting up documentary evidence, every tory charge that was hurled against the Mexican War by our lying and unscrupulous enemies. He has tried to reach every lost strayed Mexican war veteran and bid them to be of good cheer and advise them what course to pursue in preparing their applications, and called them together to renew old acquaintances and help one another. Who else would have done so all these years but our Secretary? He has had to furnish his own outfit, at his own risk. Who of you will not help? As for my part, I can do but little. I will try to pay for my paper at least. I have had only one draw, but will not be here to make another, I fear. Yours truly, G.D. Cunningham, aged 69 years. Additional Comments: http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/usmexicanwar/ > Battles and Wars> 19th Century Wars> U.S. - Mexican War U.S. - Mexican War (1846-1848) Despite the fact that the Mexican government considered it an act of war, the United States annexed Texas on March 1, 1845. Following the concept of Manifest Destiny, Americans overwhelmingly approved of the annexation to the Rio Grande River – well beyond the boundary claimed by Mexico after the War of Texan Independence (1835-36). By the war's end, Mexico lost nearly half of its territory and the United States became a continental power. However, U.S. commanders such as Lee, McClellan, Johnston, Beauregard, Grant, and Jackson all studied, applied, and refined their concepts of the art of war – experiences that they would draw heavily from as their own armies would square off against one another in the American Civil War. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/calhoun/history/letters/cunningh267gmt.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 10.0 Kb