Martinsburg Gazette

PRINTERS IN MEXICO.

The Lynchburg Virginian gives the following extracts of a letter to one of its editors, "from a young man who was lately an apprentice in the Virginian Office, and who is now a Volunteer in Capt. Carrington's Company:"

Buena Vista, June 17th, '47.

We are now in Saltillo, at least beyond there, encamped on the ground of Buena Vista, and I can assure you it is one of the greatest fields on which was ever battle fought. It is a beautiful plain, bounded on the east by the Cordilleras, on the west by the same, on the north by Saltillo, and south, about six miles from the ground, by the Dead Man's Pass, which could be defended with 500 men against 50,000. In the centre of the encampment is a large live oak tree, from the foot of which flows a limpid brook large enough to turn a mill which the Americans have erected upon its waters, and which is the only one I have seen in Mexico. In fact, the Mexicans have no use for a mill; they mash, or pound, all of their corn, which labor devolves upon the Senoritas, the men being of a very lazy disposition. We have a fine market here now, at which you may purchase nearly all the delicacies and necessaries of life. We have here all the tropical fruits, and some of the largest water melons in the world. I have no hardships to undergo now as I had a month or two ago, as I have been appointed Company Commissary Sergeant, and am excused from drill and standing sentinel, and all I have to do now is to make off requisitions, draw and issue provisions, which occupies only about half my time. There was quite a remarkable circumstance connected with a permit I had a few days ago, which I enclose to you, and which shows the strength of the craft in our battalion. The permit was written for myself, a printer, by D. A. Stofer, Sergeant Major, who is a printer; signed by Lt. J. Richard Lewellen, who is a printer; countersigned by Capt. Harper, who is a printer; and the two men who accompanied me for the meat were printers: the whole being undesigned, and not noticed till the day after. I am very tired of playing soldier, for it seems that the Virginia regiment is doomed to go home without a brush, and I am heartily tired of escorting trains of wagons up and down the Monterey road. The Army seems to be at a stand, with no expectation of a battle, and I do not believe that there will be another battle fought in Mexico by the Americans.