Book Description

Excerpt from Doniphan's Expedition The author is well apprised that any new publication, at this time, must either possess a high degree of literary merit, or treat of events in which all feel a lively interest, to recommend it to the favorable consideration of the reading public. For the success of this work he relies chiefly on the latter circumstance. Mexico has recently been the theatre of many thrilling events. The presses of the country are teeming with hooks, written on Mexico, the Mexican war, and Mexican manners and customs. Descriptions of camps, marches, battles, capitulations, and victories, have almost sated the public mind. But these have all, or nearly all, had reference to the central or southern wings of our army. Little has been said, or written, in regard to the "Army of the West." The object of the following pages is to supply this deficiency, and to do justice to the men, whose courage and conduct have accomplished the most wonderful military achievement of modern times. For, what can be more wonderful than the march, of a single regiment of undisciplined troops, through five populous States of the Mexican Republic - almost annihilating a powerful army - and finally returning home, after a march of near six thousand miles, graced with the trophies of victory? To the kindness and courtesy of Cols. Doniphan and Price, Lieutenant-colonel Jackson and Major Gilpin, Captains Waldo and Reid, Montgomery, Leintz, and Dudley H. Cooper, the author is indebted for much valuable information. He also desires to express the obligations-under which he feels himself, to the late lamented Captain Johnston, aid-de-camp to Gen. Kearney, whose Notes were recently published, and to the Hon. Willard P. Hall, of Missouri, for an account of the march of Lieutenant-colonel Cooke to California, and of the subsequent operations of General Kearney in that country. His acknowledgments are also due to his valued and esteemed friend, L. A. Maclean, of the Missouri Horse Guards, who generously and gratuitously furnished most of the designs which embellish this work. These sketches were engraved by H. C. Grosvenor, of Cincinnati. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.