Major Lally's March

Colonel Louis Wilson of North Carolina was preparing to lead a relief column of 1000 soldiers to General Scott, but he contracted yellow fever.  With Wilson incapacitated, the next ranking officer, Major Folliot Thornton Lally, took command.  The command was a hodgepodge of regiments: 2 companies of the 4th Infantry, 2 companies of the 5th Infantry, 1 company of the 11th Infantry, 3 companies of the 12th Infantry, 2 companies of the U. S. Voltigeurs, 1 company of the 2nd Artillery, 1 company of the Georgia Volunteers, and a company of Louisianna Mounted Volunteers.  Lally himself was from the 9th Infantry, which had departed with General Pierce more than three weeks earlier.

Paso de Ovejas

The column set out on August 6th.  The pace was slow and guerrillas were always nearby.  Stragglers were frequently captured or killed.  Many soldiers abandoned their knapsacks on the side of the road.  On the 10th, the column neared Paso de Ovejas when gunfire erupted.  Luckily, the enemy was out of range for small arms.  However, the front of the column was soon charged by light cavalry.  Cannons quickly broke their charge and sent them in flight.  Before Lally's forces could engage the men off the roadside, they had fled.  One American was killed.

National Bridge

On the 12th of August, the column arrived at the National Bridge, an impressive structure that spanned the Rio La Antigua.  When General Scott's Army came to the bridge in April, it was abandoned.  When General Pierce came to the bridge in July, a minor skirmish ensued before the guerrillas retreated.  For Major Lally, National Bridge proved to be a fight.  The guerrillas were dug in and ready to repel the Americans.  Thinking to dislodge them with cannon, the artillery was rolled forward.  However, the soldiers were caught in a hail of fire and had to abandon the guns.  Suddenly, the Americans were exposed and at threat of being overrun.  Fortunately, the guerrillas did not take the opportunity to rush the Americans.  A Prussian Baron who happened to be traveling with the army urgently advised an attack, offering to lead it.  Fording the river rather than crossing the bridge, the Americans dislodged the guerrillas and took possession of the fortifications.  The 6-hour battle cost eleven dead and forty wounded, some mortally.

Cerro Gordo

On the 15th, the column arrived at Cerro Gordo, where General Scott had shattered Santa Anna's army in the middle of April.  When General Pierce marched through a month earlier, he experienced only harassment on the fringes of his army.  By contrast, Lally found himself once again in a battle.  The guerrillas had occupied the fortifications on the hills and contested his column's advance.  As luck would have it, a veteran of the April battle was part of the column and offered useful intel.  Lally's force assaulted the three hill forts, capturing 2 cannons, and 9,000 rounds of musket ammunition.  The battle cost another 3 lives and 10 wounded.

Xalapa

On the 19th, Lally approached Xalapa.  Once again, the guerrillas had taken up a position to oppose his advance.  For once, the guerrillas had not taken an advantageous position.  The Americans quickly flanked the enemy and sent them running in the 20-minute skirmish.  Despite the brevity, two more soldiers were killed and half a dozen wounded.  Lally waited until the following day to occupy Xalapa.  His thousand man column was reduced to 700 effective soldiers, the rest were sick, wounded, or dead.  To make things worse, the Louisiana troops deserted almost in mass and returned to Vera Cruz.  Lally opted to secure his forces in Xalapa.

A month later, Captain Sam Walker rode into Xalapa and declared that Colonel Childs was under siege in Puebla.  The sieging force was said to be 4,000 strong.  Despite the numbers, Lally prepared to march.  To his great good fortune, General Lane arrived the following day.  Lally attached his forces to Lane's and the army marched to relieve the Siege of Puebla and give Santa Anna his final defeat of the war.

Lally's column served as reserves at the Battle of Huamantla - October 9th - and later accompanied General Lane's forces for the Action at Atlixco on October 19th.  In December, his column went to Mexico City and the hodgepodge of companies joined their regiments, successfully delivering the reinforcements he had brought.

General Lane's Brigade in Central Mexico

In June of 1847, Albert Brackett joined the 4th Indiana Volunteer Regiment and set out for Mexico.  The regiment set off down the Ohio River and thence to the Mississippi.  By the 4th of July, they were camped near New Orleans.  A month later, the regiment had sailed up the Rio Grande to the training camp in Mier, Mexico.  After a month of marching and drilling, the regiment went back down the Rio Grande and embarked for Vera Cruz.  Brigadier General Joseph Lane's brigade departed Vera Cruz on September 19th, not yet aware that Mexico City had been captured 4 days earlier.  As the brigade marched inland, they did not know that Santa Anna intended to attack this relief column, hoping to break the Americans' supply lines and starve the US Army.  At Perote, the brigade met Texas Ranger Captain Samuel Walker who commanded a company of Texas Mounted infantry.  He had already won fame during the early battles of the war under General Zachary Taylor.  Continuing west with the Texas Mounted infantry, General Lane learned of Santa Anna's forces at Huamantla.  He marched his force for battle.  Though there had been guerrilla skirmishes on the roads, this was Albert's first taste of battle.  Though only 18 years-old, he was a Lieutenant and marched his men down the streets while gunfire erupted.  Though the Americans won the battle, Samuel Walker was killed.  The brigade soon arrived at Puebla where they lifted the siege that Santa Anna had waged; the American garrison - hard-pressed for 4 weeks - was relieved and the supply lines secured.  It was the middle of October, and the 4th Indiana would be based at Puebla until April.  After a brief redeployment to Nopalucan, the regiment marched for Vera Cruz.  Standing on the beach with the rest of Company I, he saw that 46 of the original 90 men were gone, almost all of them having died.  By July 16, 1848, Lt. Brackett was back in Indiana and discharged from the military.

This memoir is a fascinating narrative of the war and provides glimpses of the many officers and men with whom he had contact.  In these days, the states would raise companies and regiments that would support the regular army.  Volunteer forces were generally mustered for a limited time.  In the early days of the war, there were 3 month and 6 month volunteers, which dictated when an offensive might be launched.  Taylor was hampered after some of his early victories as his volunteer forces went home.  Colonel Joseph Lane had commanded the 2nd Indiana Volunteer Regiment at the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847, winning his promotion to general in the aftermath.

The book is as much of a travelogue as a campaign journal.  Brackett offers details about plants, animals, food, culture, architecture, geography, weather, and more.  He records some songs he heard, both English and Spanish.  There are short biographies of officers in his regiment and occasionally details on their lives after the war (his memoir having been written in 1854).  Some of these post-war details go too far, offering lengthy tangents that are narrated by others; it's like he copied and pasted a news story into his book to add some pages.

Certainly not a book for everyone but highly recommended for those interested in the Mexican-American War.