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Battle of Buena Vista. View of the Battle-Ground of “The Angostura” Fought Near Buena Vista, Mexico February 23rd. 1847.
New York: Lith. Pub. & Printed in Colors by H. R. Robinson, 142 Nassau St., 1847. Tinted and hand-colored lithograph, 19.125” x 29.375” plus margins. A splendid, large folio lithograph of the Battle of Buena Vista, based on a drawing by battle participant, Major Joseph Horace Eaton, aide-de-camp to General Zachary Taylor, drawn on stone by famed lithographic artist Fanny Palmer. Eaton's original drawing combined his own eye-witness experience with consultations with other participants. A West Point graduate (1835) who served as Taylor’s aide-de-camp throughout the Mexican War, Eaton was “rewarded for gallantry” (LOC) after this battle with a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel. By no means a professional artist, Eaton nevertheless produced a striking drawing that found its way to New York where it was rendered on stone by the famous English-born artist Fanny Palmer. A contemporary newspaper extolled the print, saying that it:
conveys a more vivid and distinct impression to the mind of the beholder, than could be given in any verbal description. The position of our gallant little army—the charge of the Mexican forces—the peculiar character of the ground, broken up by deep, rocky ravines—and towering over all, the grouped summits of the majestic cordilleras, with a glimpse of the grand valley opening beyond—are represented with a force and faithfulness which those who were present can best appreciate, as the certificates of many, appended to the work, testify (Literary World qtd in Sandweiss).
The print depicts the battle near the close of its second day, as Taylor's troops, after having saved their line by only a hair that morning, were on the aggressive. They pinned the surprised Mexican army with its back to the towering cordilleras, and though Santa Anna declared victory, he made a hasty retreat to defend Mexico City against a political coup. He had lost over 3400 men, while U.S. casualties numbered only 650. General Taylor's audacious success in leading his 5,000 inexperienced troops against a Mexican force at least three times that size played an important role in his subsequent ascent to the White House.
"By far one of the most important Mexican War prints is this grand view of the Battle of Buena Vista" (Sandweiss).
REFERENCES: An Album of American Battle Art, 1755-1918, (Washington: The Library of Congress, 1947), pp. 130-131; Sandweiss, Martha. Eyewitness to War : Prints and Daguerreotypes of the Mexican War, 1846-1848, p. 158.
CONDITION: Very good, minor soiling and discoloration.
Item #2630
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