Samuel Chamberlain was a boy from Boston with a grand sense of adventure. He viewed himself as a romantic hero right out of the pages of a novel. He wooed the ladies, clobbered the bullies, and traveled to his next adventure. Is his autobiography just so much nonsense and self-promotion? Oddly, a lot of it proved to be true.
Sam was an artistic lad whose father died when Sam was 14. His wild streak began shortly thereafter. Being more trouble than not, he went west to live with his uncle in Illinois. Before long, he was fighting with his cousin, which caused his uncle to come at him with an axe! Sam fled to Louisianna, where he became an accountant. An affair with another man's wife sent him flying back to Illinois. He had hardly arrived when there was a call for volunteers to go to war in Mexico. Though only 16 years-old, Sam joined immediately. He traveled to Texas with an Illinois Volunteer Regiment, but he didn't get along well with the command structure. In San Antonio, he joined the Dragoons and found himself marching with General Wool to Monclova. Being something of a hellion (his horse's name was Lucifer!), he found himself in several scrapes, sometimes with other troops, sometimes with Mexican guerrillas, and frequently on account of senioritas.
In December 1846, General Wool marched to support General Taylor at Saltillo. There was a rumor that a grand army was marching north. The army arrived in February and General Santa Anna attacked. Samuel Chamberlain joined his first battle, the most epic one of the war: The Battle of Buena Vista. The Dragoons didn't see a lot of action, but they were posted as sentinels during the breaks. As action began on the 21st, expanded on the 22nd, and concluded on the 23rd, there was a need for lookouts during the nights. Thus, Sam was posted between the two armies to be aware of night attacks. Needless to say, he didn't get a lot of sleep. It is a very different view of the battle where he spent much of it idle.
For the remainder of the war, he fought guerrillas and wooed the ladies. When the war ended, he stayed in the service to head to California. Halfway through the march, he deserted and joined a notorious band of scalp hunters. Scalp hunters killed Apache and sold the scalps to Mexican authorities; it was a method of curbing the depredations that the Apache committed against the Mexicans. Sam's tale of adventure ends in the California deserts between Yuma and the Salton Sea.
Like a good James Bond movie, Chamberlain had a new love interest in each adventure. There was his true love in Boston, the woman met on the coach heading to Illinois, the girls at an all-girl school in Illinois, the married woman in Louisianna, and on and on. Each is more beautiful than the last, but dreams of happily-ever-after are always foiled by circumstances. Though the autobiography is built on actual incidents, his love life is almost certainly wishful thinking.
Chamberlain went on to become a general in the Civil War and lived until 1908. Of note, his book and the many sketches and watercolors that accompanied it, was not published until 1956. Doubtless, this book was an inspiration for George MacDonald Frazer's Flashman Papers.
Here is a great read with plenty of action, adventure, and romance. Highly recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment