Arkansas Heroes of Mexican War, Sebastian County, Arkansas *********************************************************** Submitted by: Donna Newman Date: 29 Aug 2016 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ar/sebastian/sebastian.htm *********************************************************** From Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Ark.), Sunday, 28 June 1914, p. 14, col. 1. [Part of one column, beginning after the heading "Brave Captain Page", is obscured by what looks to be a piece of tape; words that cannot be definitely discerned are noted in brackets] Arkansas Heroes of Mexican War Deeds of Fort Smith and Van Buren Companies Republished After 15 Years. The following article, written 15 years ago by the late W.J. Weaver of Fort Smith, discusses interestingly and in detail the work of the Fort Smith and Van Buren companies during the Mexican war of 1848. Not only does the article tell much of the activity of Arkansas during the Mexican war at that time, but it also gives considerable data on the condition in this state during the period just preceding the war. The writer was thoroughly conversant with the subject and included the roster of the two companies, as well as a partial roster of a company organized for home duty during troublesome times with the Indians. The Gazette is indebted to J.F. Weaver, a son of the author of the article, for the privilege of publishing it at this time. Because of the added interest to Arkansans, the article, which was originally intended for publication in Fort Smith, is published without any changes in the text. *** Written by W.J. Weaver in 1899 It is due to the memory of the soldiers that went from this vicinity that some record of their names should be preserved. Their heroism and sufferings in the tropics should not be overlooked or forgotten in the glare of our recent wars, of which so much has been written. The shelves of our public and private libraries are loaded with war history of the great civil conflict in the states. But the arts of printing, illustration and photography 50 years ago were not as they are today. At the start our government did not expect to have much trouble with the Mexicans. General Taylor was sent with the regulars from Fort Smith to Fort Jessup, La. Arbuckle was left here in command, and a few companies of volunteers were called for along the western border of Arkansas and Texas. At the time the Mexicans held California and had military posts west of us on the Rio Grande. The Cherokees were in a guerrilla warfare between the Ross and Old [Settler] factions, and these few companies were only enlisted for a service of one year. Col. Jack Hayes enlisted several companies of cavalry for service along the border against the Comanche Indians, and one company of infantry, enlisted at Fort Smith, elected J.H.H. Felch, captain, and Charles Russell first lieutenant; Thomas Conway, second lieutenant; and went into camp in the building in Cantonment Belknap (sixteenth section), vacated by Taylor's regulars when they went South. It was a severe winter, and while they were drilling a few weeks and awaiting orders a disorder broke out among them and about half the number were on the sick list, several dying. The physicians were baffled at first by this disease - it was called "cold plunge" at the time. The symptoms were much the same as we meet in severe cases of grippe, with high fever and delirium. Little Camp Duty. This company did no service while in camp, excepting a detail of twenty men, ordered by Arbuckle on outpost duty at Dripping Springs and Fort Wayne, where they went to protect some Cherokee families from their enemies. After a service of nine months they were discharged, reorganized and most of them re- enlisted for the war, but some of them did not. There is no muster roll of this company to be had in the war office, but known to be members of this company were the following: Russell Mott, I. Hood, W.W. Gillihan, Moodys (three brothers), Victor Sorrels, G. Beebe, Pet Jones, Miles Harper, F.H. Smith, Vaughns (three brothers), Bluford Reeder, Jeff Malby, Peter Lewis, Calvin Evans. In the reorganization of the company Allen Woods was elected captain and J.H.H. Felch first lieutenant. The new company was known as Co C, Twelfth United States Infantry; Colonel M.L. Bonham, Brigadier-General Pierce's division. The following is a copy of the muster roll in the War Department: Officers. Allen Woods, captain; J.H.H. Felch, first lieutenant; John Simkins, first lieutenant; Thos. J. Conway, second lieutenant; Lloyd McGruder, second lieutenant; T.D. Crouch, sergeant; Geo. W. Young, sergeant; Wm. Rafeld, sergeant; Quinton Hedspeth, sergeant; E.H. Burchfield, corporal; John L. Tubbs, corporal; Wm. M. Todd, coporal; Thos. Oats, corporal; S. Church, musician; M.D. Johnson, musician; James M. Hudspeth, musician. Privates. Willard Ayers, Sam Bennett, Isaac Bledsoe, John W. Cooper, R.J. Campbell, Jacob Stemler, Geo. Stathan [Statham], Jas. Sutherland, Levitt Sever, John R. Tichnall, Lawrence Allen, Wm. Barnhart, Jas. S. Brawley, W.D. Culbertson, Preston Dobson, Benjamin Statham, Albert Statham, Jas. B. Stevens, Robert Sanders, John A. Willis, James Elwood, Thos. Finnegan, H. Henderson, O. Mathurin, Andrew Paden, W. Reddin, John W. Warner, Michael Gallagher, W.O. Hudspeth, John McMurr, John Pyron, Eli Short, John B. Edmondson, F.R. Gibson, George Hall, William McMurtry, J.J. Rogers, Wm. Warwick, Chas. B. Gray, R.M. Laforce, Wm. J. Morgan, W. Rominus. Muster Roll Incomplete. This report shows 16 officers and 45 privates - a total of 61. It must be imperfect. Several names are omitted who served through the campaign. They were joined by recruits in New Orleans and Vera Cruz, and were 128 strong in Mexico. Calvin Evans, Miles Harper and Pink Anderson (who was wounded at Cherubusco) are not on the roll. They were 68 strong when they left Fort Smith, and went by steamer to New Orleans, and thence on United States transports to Vera Cruz, where Gen. Franklin Pierce (afterward president) took command of them in his division. They arrived at Vera Cruz, after its bombardment and surrender, and their division reached General Scott at Pueblo just after the battle of Cerro Gordo. Died in March. William Warwick, a boy soldier from Fort Smith, was the first one to die on the march - from overheat. He was buried, rolled in his blakent, by the wayside. Jim Hedspeth, the drummer, fell dead from sunstroke marching through Pueblo. This division on its march had many skirmishes with guer[r]illas, and were engaged in every fight on the way. They were in the battles of Contreras, Molino del Rey, Cherubusco, Chapultepec and in the capture of the City of Mexico. They fought over the bridges and causeways that Cortez led his troops in the the fall of Montezuma. They were in the assaults of the stubborn foe on the house tops, and tore away walls to get from street to street. In the fights around and in the city, it is said that 25 Americans were killed in every hundred present. At roll call after the storming of Chapultepec but one man answered in a company from Pennsylvania - all the rest were killed or wounded. Terrible Loss From Sickness. In their exemption from fatalities the Fort Smith company was considered lucky by the regiment, but the loss by sickness was fearful, for of the 128 men who marched from Vera Cruz only 30 were landed at New Orleans on the return. Four of these were left in the hospital there in a dying condition; two died before they reached their homes in Madison county, and Quint Hedspeth and William Todd died soon after they returned to Sebastian county. Only Four Alive in 1899. At this date, July, 1899, only four are known to survive: J.B. Stevens, George Statham, Mr. Tichnal of California and Calvin Moody of the Creek Nation. [transcriber's note: Albert Statham was also still living, having relocated in the early 1850s first to Fresno, California and then to Los Angeles]. J.B. Stevens of Osage Mills, Benton county, a member of this company, has published several interesting sketches of his Mexican war experience, in which he details the slaughter of men and horses in the bloody ditches around the city, and the capture and execution of 30 deserters, over whom he stood guard with Lieutenant Felch. All these articles have heretofore been published. War in 1846 was different from now. There were no Red Cross nurses, no organized hospital corps for relief of the sick and wounded on the field, as we have at present. Our men were armed mostly with Springfield muskets. Our artillery was much the same as in 1812, with the addition of percussion caps for the muskets. We had no breechloaders, rapid-fire Maxim or Gatling guns; but our artillery, under Captain Bragg's discipline, had vastly improved on old methods, in its rapid movements from point to point in the field, which started the term "flying artillery," and won the battle of Buena Vista over a superior force of the enemy. The Mexicans are the best horsemen known. They are equal to the Cossacks or Mamelukes, and General Santa Anna could muster vast hordes of them and arm them cheaply with long lances. Their musket and grapeshot were mostly of brass and copper corroded by exposure to the air, and made a poisonous wound. Weary Homeward March. When the war closed our soldiers took up their weary march back to Vera Cruz. After passing through the valley of Mexico, the road crossed the great mountain of Orizaba, and from its height they enjoyed a fine view of the plains and the distant ocean. Far below they could see the passing clouds and flashes of lightning, a sight they had never before witnessed. As they marched down the mountain with their shining bayonets and uniforms, they entered the cloud, which one described as a fog so thick that they could not see the road. As the line passed through the lighning, a bolt, attracted by the polished steel, struck the Fort Smith company and prostrated about 20 of the men. Most of them recovered in a few minutes, but three of them did not. They were placed in the wagons to be buried at the noon rest, but all recovered on the way. This was a remarkable escape. William Rafeld's watch chain and coat buttons were melted, some had their boots torn and some lost their hearing for a time. General Gatlin was on the return to Vera Cruz. His escort camped on the mountain, one of his tired mules gave out and died. He awoke in the night and heard the Irish sentinels passing the watch with cheerful jokes as they smoked by the campfire. Said one: "Pat, why is that dead mule like the Orizaba mountain?" "Give it up." "Because it's an extinct craythur." Didn't Want to Go. Joe Merrill of Fort Smith enlisted in Jack Hayes' Texas regiment of cavalry. These were the "rough riders" of the campaign, and were enrolled along the western border of Texas. They enlisted under the idea that they were to serve at home, to protect their counties from the Comanches, with whom they were in constant conflict. When Hayes got orders to move to the Rio Grande, they were enraged and covered him with abuse. Joe said that Hayes rode along with the column for three days, white as a sheet, expecting to be shot every moment. Joe Merrill's company of rangers, with Albert Pike's, from Arkansas, were joined with Captain May's company of United States dragoons and did scout duty. On one of their raids they attempted the capture of Santa Anna. They got his tent, and his bed was warm, but the bird had flown. They secured all his papers. Brave Captain Page. General Arbuckle was too aged for active service, but his aid[e], Captain Page, went with General Taylor. At the first battle (Palo Alto) Page was struck by a grape shot, which cut off his lower jaw entirely. He was removed to the hospital at New Orleans, where, under the careful nursing of the [--start of taped/obscured section --] sisters, he [stayed] for several weeks and was visited [by one] of our citizens, to whom he gave an account of the fight, wirtten on [his slate?] for he was speechless. He [closed his] statement with, "but we [gave the] Mexicans hell." Pierce [Butler] whom we all knew so well here [as the] Cherokee agent, resigned his [agency] and went to South Carolina, [where he] raised the noted Palmetto [regiment]. He had been governor of [that state.] He was the uncle of Mrs. [Robert Rutherford] of Fort Smith, and [had married] the aunt of Colonel [Duval. He led] his men in all the severe [battles? that] led to the capture of the [city, but] was killed in the battle of [Churubusco]. Butler and [Jeff Davis] were lieutenants in the [First Dragoons] at Fort Gibson, under [Colonel Henry] Dodge (afterward [governor of Minnesota]), and it was at this [point that] Butler courted and married [the daughter] of Capt. William DuVal [of Fort Smith]. During the Black Hawk war, [Col.] Zach Taylor was stationed at [a post] on the upper Mississippi, and [it was] at that post that Jeff Davis first met and courted Taylor's eldest daughter, who died a year after the marriage. Taylor's second daughter, Miss Bessie, was with him while at Fort Smith. She married Captain Bliss, the general's aide, who was well known to our citizens. Death of Butler. At the Churubusco fight General Shields led the first charge, and his men were nearly all killed by the storm of shot. Shields called for volunteers. Butler shouted, "Every South Carolinian will follow you to the death." The Palmettos rushed in and Butler was shot in the head. Shields, calling to them to avenge his death, gave the word, "forward." They were only 400, but they charged with such fury that the Mexican host of 4,000 were scattered. Three of the Palmetto flag bearers were killed in succession. It would take an inspired pen to do justice to the bravery of our troops in this war. The Mexican[s] outnumbered them five to one in every engagement. Nearly all of our most distinguished officers who figured in the Civil war "fleshed their maiden swords" in the Mexican campaign. Saved by Enemy's Surgeon. I was informed by Doctor Joseph H. Bailey that General Shields was shot through the lungs. The surgeons, after mature deliberations, considered the case hopeless. It happened that General Santa Anna's chief surgeon was a prisoner in the American camp. He was of great eminence in his profession. In their consultation on the Shields case he was the only one who entertained a possibility of survival. The doctors turned the case over to him. He searched the camp for the finest cambric handkerchief he could get, rolled it in a close roll and carefully worked it through the body, giving it his close attention every day. General Shields recovered and lived for many years. Van Buren Roster. Following is the muster roll of the Van Buren Company F, First Regiment, Arkansas Mounted Volunteers, Colonel Archibald Yell: Officers. John I. Dillard, captain; George Foster, first lieutenant; Alexander Stewart, second lieutenant; Leonard Willhaff, third lieutenant; George Latham, first sergeant; William A. Houck, second sergeant; John Spratt, third sergeant; James W. Davis, fourth sergeant; John Rudy, first corporal; John Pierce, second corporal; Darwin Stewart, third corporal; David Thompson, fourth corporal; Gideon R. Bell, bugler; Micajah Parker, bugler. Privates. William Allen, James S. Boyd, Abner Caddrain, William Capps, Robert Chew, Aaron Daly, James J. Eastus, John Finley, Riley Foster, John L. Haynes, William Holman, Felix Houck, Michael Walny, Samuel Knaus, Moses Kelley, David E. Lewis, William McFarlane, Andrew S. Marshall, Isaac Patty, Reese Price, James C. Robertson, Benjamin Smith, John Story, M. Thomas, John Vice, Herman Winn, David Atkins, And. J. Boyd, Jos. F. Campbell, Abner Chew, George Griner, William Duly, B.B. Feans, Owen Fogarty, Jas. Haguewood, David Hart, Hardin Howell[,] A.C. Ingram, Solomon White, Samuel Johnson, James W. Little, John W. Lasater, Lewis Morri[s?], Benjamin Nicholson, George W. Peyton, William Queensbury, James H. Smith, Wesley Stinnett, Asbury Taylor, William Thomas, James Waters. Overland to Rio Grande. This shows them to be 70 strong. They were inspected and enrolled at Washington, Hempstead county, by Captain Hoffman and marched overland to the Rio Grand. William Allen, a member of this company, now living near Fort Smith, tells the writer that he does not know of any other living member. Excepting skirmishes with guerrillas, he thinks that Buena Vista was the only great fight they were engaged in. Santa Anna, in addition to his infantry and artillery, had a force of 10,000 mounted lancers. His army numbered in all over 20,000. He intended to crush Taylor with this great army, and so confident was he of success that he demanded Taylor's surrender. During the progress of the fight the Mississippi and Arkansas regiments were fronted by this horde of lancers. Governor Yell, at the head of his regiment, charged them, but they were repulsed with great loss and Yell was killed. Bragg's battery, however, came up and scattered the host. Colonel Yell's Death. Capt. John Dillard searched for and found Yell's corpse among the dead Mexicans. A spear had struck him high in the forehead, split through his nose and upper lip, entered his mouth and passed through his neck, a horrid impalement! Other spear wounds were in his body, which was brought back and buried at his home in Arkansas. When he shouted to his men to follow and charged into this forest of lances, he must have been in a stooping [position] and braced for the shock. We are told in history that Arnold Winkleried, the Swiss patriot, opened the way for his followers through the cordon of Austrian lancers by gathering their spears to his bosom. W.J.W. .