"Book recommendations for Mexican American War please." Topic

Hi all,
I have plenty of books on the war chronology, larger battles, strategies and uniform guides etc. I'd now like to research what day to day life was like for soldiers from both sides during the conflict.
Can anyone recommend any books that cover the war from this angle? Diaries, memoires, witness accounts etc.

Mr. Polk's Army: The American Military Experience in the Mexican War by Bruce Winders is the book you're looking for.

Rogue's March. Irish American soldiers who deserted & fought for the Mexican Army.

Although not a book, you might want to look at the Aztec Club. It does have some battle information and some good links to follow to other sites. aztecclub.com

Both sides it will be hard given the asymetric Memory of the War unlike the Napoleonic Wars or others periods where you can have testimonies from several nations, more has been published or known from the point of view of the Anglos than the Mexicans, there is a lack of equivalent sources for these last ones

Apuntes del Subteniente de Artilleria Manuel Balbontin julio de 1846 – septiembre de 1847
PDF link
he wrote that the Regimiento de Caballeria n°7 had also Americans who passed in its ranks

Among the defects of the Commander-in-Chief, one of those that caused the greatest harm was the protection and preference he gave to certain corps, which had everything in abundance while others lacked the essentials.
The Regimiento de Husares, with its high pay and numerous officers, consumed much more than the other regiments. To bring it up to full strength, several of the piquets that had been raised in Guadalajara during the uprising were merged into it. The result was that that corps, which was distinguished by its select officership, lost this advantage, receiving officers far inferior in every respect.
In infantry, the 1st and 3rd Light Battalions, and the 11th Line Battalion, were protected.
Sappers, the 2nd Light Battalion, the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th 10th and 12th Line were understrength and poorly equipped.
The active units of Mexico, Querétaro, San Luis, Aguascalientes, and Morelia were almost cadres.
The auxiliaries of Guanajuato, Leon, Celaya, and Guadalajara, although well-strength, were almost naked, with very poor armament, especially the first three.

and for US Samuel Chamberlain and his famous watercolors
Though many of its stories are exaggerated in the romantic literary style popular at the time, research has corroborated most of them as true. Noted for its authentic descriptions of the experiences of the typical American soldier during the Mexican–American War, Chamberlain's account continues to serve as a valuable primary source text for historians studying the war.
text
link
PDF link
watercolors and handwritten text
link

little or no resistance was offered to our advance. The Guerillars contented themselves in hanging around our flanks and rear and they served to keep our column well closed up. Woe to the unfortunate soldier who straggled behind. He was lassoed, stripped naked, and dragged through clumps of cactus until his body was full of needle-like thorns; then, his privates cut off and crammed into his mouth, he was left to die in the solitude of the chapperal or to be eaten alive by vultures and coyotes. Such were the daily acts of the Guerillars.
(…)
We went out on the San Luis road and as we reached the ranch found the place full of volunteers. They were committing all manner of outrages on the few women left in the ranch, fighting over their poor victims hke dogs, and the place resounded with horrid oaths and the groans and shiieks of the raped Captain Steen cried out, "Ride them down. men! Give the cowardly wretches the weight of vour sabres!" and we went for them with a will.

With the memory of our dinner fresh in our minds our mess struck some hard blows, several of the miscreants getting badly cut We drove them out of the place, placed the women, some of whom had been stripped naked, in one house, and leaving a guard, we went on.
(…)
On the 24th of February, 1847, a large government train of waggons and pack mules loaded with Quartermaster and commissary stores, on its way up from Camargo, was attacked by the united bands of the guerillars of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon. The train, consisting of some two hundred waggons and as many pack mules, with an escort of two infant: y companies, had reached a ruined ranch known as Ramos, nine miles from Marin, when the guerillars charged on both flanks, front and rear. The guard offered no resistance, but threw down their arms and became prisoners. A scene of wildest confusion and horror ensued; some of the teamsters defended themselves, and all whipped up their mules and tried to park the waggons but were lanced or lassoed by the guerillars who surrounded the waggons, cutting off all retreat.

I am indebted to a waggon master, one Captain Mick Box, for a description of the massacre. Captain Box made for the hills when he was charged on by two of the band, one with a lance, the other swinging the more fatal lazo. The Captain with his holster pistols sent them to grass, ran down a third who tried to bar his way, and gained the shelter of dense thicket. From there he witnessed the most fiendish acts of wanton cruelty committed by the guerillars. Teamsters were lassoed, stripped naked, and then dragged through clumps of cactus, and horribly mutilated; a boy of sixteen who drove a forge was lashed in front of the bellows, a charcoal fire kindled and a fire hole blown into him, until he expired in the most fearful agony. Another had an incision made in his abdomen, cartridges inserted and the victim blown up!

The Salteadores, after plundering the train of the things they wanted, loaded the mules with the goods, and then set fire to the train. Three waggons loaded with ammunition blew up, killing a number of the yelling devils. The guard, commanded by a Captain Brown, offered no resistance but cowardly stood and saw their countrymen butchered under circumstances of unheard of cruelty. One hundred and thirty waggons was destroyed, and one hundred and ten teamsters killed.

A young Miss of sixteen, the daughter of a Sutler, was with the train. She was taken to Montemorelos, and after being compelled to sit in a nude state on the table at a banquet given by the guerillar chiefs, she was released without any further outrage being perpetrated, and reached Monterey, on foot.

The loss to government amounted to over one million dollars, which was assessed on the inhabitants of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas

General Taylor not only collected the money assessed by force of arms, but he let loose on the country packs of human bloodhounds called Texan Rangers. Between the Rangers and the guerillars the unfortunate inhabitants of the states of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas had a hard time of it during the summer of 1847, plundered by both sides, their lives often taken, and their wives and daughters outraged and carried off. The names of "Old Reid, Captain Bayley, Harry Love, Ben McCulloch and, more terrible than all, "Mustang" Gray will always remain fresh in the memory of the Mexicans, as the fearful atrocities committed by them now form part of the Nursery Legends of the country"

Mustang Gray with his command on one occasion started out from camp at midnight and after a two hours' ride reached the San Francisco ranch on the Camargo road near Agua Fria. The place was surrounded, the doors forced in, and all the males capable of bearing arms were dragged out, tied to a post and shot! Most of them was shot by an old mountain man known as "Greasy Rube" who had been castrated by Mexicans in Chihuahua. The victims were tied to a post on which was placed a light, the grim old Ranger would coolly fire his rifle from the distance of one hundred yards and send the ball crashing through the poor devil's brain, keeping tally by cutting a notch on the stock of his fatal Rifle. Thirty-six Mexicans were shot at this place, a half hour given for the horrified survivors, women and children, to remove their little household goods, then the torch was applied to the houses, and by the light of the conflagration the ferocious Tejanos rode off to fresh scenes of blood.

For weeks this work of carnage and devastation continued until the entire country from Monterey to Camargo, a distance of one hundred and eighty miles, with the exceptions of the towns Marin, Cerralvo and Mier, was depopulated.

The guerillars, if possible, were guilty of worse acts than the Rangers, and the conflict was no longer war but murder, and a disgrace to any nation calling itself Christian. Our officers became disgusted with the many revolting acts committed byv volunteers and Rangers, and no reports were ever made of these cruel raids.

Thank you gents. Much appreciated.