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Richmond Palladium
Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana
What is this article about?
Reports from US Army in Mexico, August 1846, detail poor conditions including sickness, inadequate food, plundering by quartermasters, and pest infestations near Buena Vista. Gen. Taylor expresses frustration over delays in supplies that hinder the advance on Monterey, potentially costing lives.
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Not more than one half of our company are fit for duty. Some are sick with colds, some with fever and others are suffering the bad effects of drinking our abominable water. And as if to add to our miseries, we are about half starved—having nothing to support life but crackers so old that I think they must have been baked in the year one, and bacon that is still older. The partisan Quartermasters and Commissaries, with a rapacity that has seldom been equaled, are shamefully plundering the men who have gone to fight the battles of their country.
August 17. We are still in this old swamp, fighting manfully against mosquitoes, flies, tarantulas, snakes, spiders, and the miasma continually rising from the surrounding lagoons. Everything here has a thorn or a sting attached to it. We console ourselves, however, with the reflection that we shall soon get away. Gen. Taylor has promised to give us a dinner in Monterey on the 15th of September.
CAMP ALABAMA, Rio Grande, Aug. 10, 1846.
Gen. Taylor is said to be displeased with his Quartermasters or the Government agents, because they have not done what their duty required in furnishing him with transports and forwarding his army and provisions. He is of the opinion that had they acted properly, he might have taken Monterey three weeks ago almost without firing a gun; whereas its capture will probably now cost the lives of several hundred men.
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Foreign News Details
Primary Location
Mexico
Event Date
August 1846
Key Persons
Outcome
potential loss of several hundred men in capture of monterey due to delays; half of company unfit for duty from sickness and poor conditions
Event Details
Soldiers near Buena Vista report sickness from colds, fever, bad water; starvation on old crackers and bacon; plundering by quartermasters and commissaries. On August 17, enduring swamp with mosquitoes, flies, tarantulas, snakes, spiders, miasma. Gen. Taylor promises dinner in Monterey on September 15. At Camp Alabama on Rio Grande, Taylor displeased with quartermasters for failing to provide transports and provisions, delaying Monterey capture which could have been bloodless three weeks prior.