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Grace, Isaac.

[Mexican-American War Letter from the Field].

Pachuca, Mexico, 1848. 3 pp. manuscript letter, 4to bifolium, addressed on p. 4 “Mrs. Mary Rolfe Wilmot New Hampshire, with note “From the Army in Mexico,” postmarked Vera Cruz Mexico April 12 and stamped “10”.

A fine, detailed Mexican War letter written by a common soldier from New Hampshire, describing the closing actions of the War.

Isaac Grace, a private serving in company H of the Ninth United States Infantry, sailed from Newport, Rhode Island on the 21st of May, 1847 and arrived in Vera Cruz on the 20th of June. On the 14th of July, he and his unit began marching toward Puebla, a distance of 200 miles, to join the main army, passing through Jalapa and Perote along the way, and arriving in Puebla on 14 August. After a stay of four days, they proceeded to Mexico City, under General Scott.

Grace writes here to his friend Mrs. Mary Rolfe back in his native New Hampshire, laying out “a small sketch [of what] I have seen since I arrived here.” What Grace has seen is a sizable portion of the Mexican interior and considerable action. “The road from Vera Cruz to Jalapa, a distance of 70 miles, is through dense forests and over high and almost impassible mountains, and not a solitary inhabitant the whole way.” Puebla is “one of the handsomest cities in Mexico. It is built on a level plain and a fine stream of water runs through the west side of it…the buildings are large and handsomely built on the outside, but the inside is void of all comfort...the rooms in all the buildings I have ever been in are cold, damp and unhealthy.”

After a four day march that brings them within fifteen miles of Mexico City, which they find heavily fortified on that side, they march another sixty miles around the lake, then encounter “a large Mexican army strongly fortified directly where we must pass.” After a hard-fought initial battle (The Battle of Contreras) and a night sleeping in the mud, the decisive Battle of Churubusco began:

We met Santa Ana with thirty thousand men and strongly fortified, we had only seven thousand men to oppose them. The fight began about noon and lasted 3 hours. It was a hard and contested fight, and twelve hundred of our men was killed and wounded. I had hair cut out of my head twice with balls but done no hurt, out of twenty men in the company I belonged to 13 were killed or wounded…On the 14th we entered the city and the stars and stripes floated from the National Palace.

Though Santa Ana’s defeat at this battle on September 15, 1847 effectively signaled an end to the war, hostilities continued until the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on March 6, 1848. Even though he is writing two weeks after its signing, news of the peace had obviously failed to reach Grace, who closes the letter darkly observing “there is no sign of peace as I can see.”

An excellent letter, with vivid content.

CONDITION: Good, a few breaks and small losses at folds.

Item #2804

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