At Seralvo (Cerralvo)

Wagon In Texas

Journal of William H. Richardson, a private soldier ... (on the 29th):

Cerralvo mentioned here.

Runaway Scrape

Source

See a sculpture depicting the Ride of Katy Jennings beginning of Runaway Scrape.

Guenter To Patos

Saskatchewan Probate Estate Files, 1887-1931  Saskatoon 1927...

Probate File# 2028 

Patos, Durango, Mexico, was a Mennonite stettlement.

Fort Jackson Noted In A Journal

Fort Jackson was mentioned in the Journal of William H. Richardson on the 16th of June (below):

Journal Of William H. Richardson, A Private Soldier in the Campaign of New And Old Mexico...
[Page 84]

City Of Mexico

A System of Modern Geography: Comprising a Description of the Present State ... [1843]

Simpkins In Keweenaw

Michigan, Probate Records, Keweenaw Probate of wills 1866-1938:

Image 35

Nathaniel S. Simpkins, Jr.

City of New York

Sister, Mary Fay, wife of Caleb Fay

Of San Francisco, California

Deceased Brother, John Simpkins (and his 7 children)

Nathaniel S. Simpkins, one of John's 7 children

Father: Nathaniel Simpkins of Yarmouth, Massachusetts

Brother: Charles H. Simpkins

Katie Worcester Fay and Charles Simpkins Fay, bequeathed land in Mexico

Brother: George W. Simpkins, St. Louis

Sister-In-Law: Mrs. Ruth B. Simpkins Of Yarmouth, Massachusetts

Robert S. Covell, of Boston, Massachusetts

Henry E. Jacobs, Employee

Thomas D. Ellis, Employee

Daniel W. Gilbert, Employee

Henry J. Scudder, Friend, New York, Sole Executor

21 March 1881

Witnesses: Edward M. Scudder; Henry Sanger Snow; Robert W. Blackwell

Nathaniel Simpkins' Mother's family (and his siblings):

Source

A Married Mexican Officer

From The Taylor anecdote book: anecdotes and letters of Zachary Taylor:

American Army In Mexico City

Source

William Trousdale, a Mexican War veteran, parlayed his military success into the governorship of Tennessee.  He is my 1st cousin 7x removed.

Plan Of Battle Of Buena Vista

Source

Mexico

A System of Modern Geography ... [1843]:

Calculated To Win Favor

Source

From The Mississippi Valley historical review...:

The appeal for assistance in a letter of May, 1776, from General Charles Lee who spoke for the Virginia committee of safety was, therefore, not unwelcome to Unzaga, the governor of Louisiana.

The articles which it was hoped would be supplied by Spain were guns, blankets, and medicinal drugs, especially quinine.

The arguments presented were well calculated also to win favor from King Charles III and his advisers for the cause of America.  Should Great Britain succeed in subjugating the colonies, Lee wrote, her army and navy would be free at any moment to take possession of Mexico and Cuba. With America independent, Spanish possessions, it was maintained, need not fear attack.

Great Britain reunited to America would be more dangerous to Spain than one of the two if they remained separated. 

James V. Acklin

Fold3

A  3  Tenn.

James V. Acklin

Pvt., Co. E, 3 Reg't Tennessee Infantry

Mexican War

Mch 1848 Loss

17 Mch 1848

Died at Molino del Rey, Mexico

Battle Of Sacramento

Battle Of Sacramento

28 February 1847

Sunday, 28th.  At sunrise this morning, we took up our line of march... .  From the Journal of William H. Richardson, a private soldier ... .

Pike Captured In His Stockade

Pike was captured in his stockade, with the few men he had left about him, by Spanish dragoons, under the orders of General Allencaster, then governor of New Mexico. The message he received from his captors was disguised under the form of a polite invitation to visit the governor at Santa Fe. On the 27th of February, 1807, he left his post as a prisoner in the hands of a half-hostile foreign power, accompanied by the remnant of his men. [Source]

Captain Martin Scott's Probate File 1512

Michigan, Probate Records, Wayne Probate packets 1848-1849...:

Wayne County, Michigan

Probate File #1512

Image 500

Martin Scott

Captain Martin Scott addressed a letter to Major B. F. [Benjamin Franklin] Larned dated 10 September 1845, that stated "you are authorized on receiving satisfactory evidence of my death to turn over to any one of my sisters the $33 00 in your hands by me this day for which I hold your receipt...".

Addressing the question of the instructions in the letter being approved as a probate document, the following information was added:  "...is a good will, Captain S. being in the Army, a soldier on his march, in an expedition to Mexico, then the seat of active war...".

Captain Scott, of the 5th Infantry, late of the State of Vermont, left no children and his wife was provided for.  Scott heirs listed here.

In 1846 he was at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma in Texas (Fold3).

Fort Martin Scott, Near Fredericksburg, Texas [Source - Jim's Blog]

Captain Scott was killed 8 September 1847 at the Battle of Molino del Rey, Mexico (per a document at Fold3).

Mrs. Quisenberry, Booth And Iturbide

An excerpt from  Genealogical memoranda of the Quisenberry family...

After the assassination of President Lincoln, in April, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth, the assassin and his confederate, Herold, fled together, and at Port Tobacco, Maryland, they crossed the Potomac in a boat, for which [John Wilkes] Booth paid twenty dollars in gold, and landed in Virginia on the farm of a man named Bryan, a near neighbor of Mrs. Quisenberry's.

She [Mrs. Elizabeth Rousby Quisenberry] was the daughter of a Mr. Green, of Rosedale, an estate between Washington and its suburb of Tenallytown. Her sister [Alice] had married the son of the Emperor Iturbide, of Mexico, and Mrs. Quisenberry's nephew [Don Augustin De Iturbide] was, at the very time Booth stopped at this house, a protege, and perhaps adopted son, of the Emperor Maximillian.

Source
Don Augustin De Iturbide 

This little incident seems to connect, in some measure, the fates of two distinguished men, one of whom speedily followed the other to a violent death.

Early Counterfeiters In Canada

Source

From Life in Canada


"...the Spanish milled dollars in which military services were paid for. Mexican dollars were also in vogue, and a few years previous to the American War of 1812, some enterprising New England counterfeiters, fancying the densely-wooded portion of Lower Canada, near the state lines, would afford a secure base for their operations, emigrated to our lower province.

"So expert had they become at the business that paymasters in the American army actually crossed over the lines by stealth through the woods and bought these Mexican dollars from the counterfeiters to pay the American troops with."

"...they ceased to produce the Mexican dollars for fear they might be traced out. Counterfeiting bank notes was what they next turned their hands to."

Cinco De Mayo

Goliad, Texas (location of Presidio La Bahia), was the birthplace of General Zargoza, hero of Cinco de Mayo (1862).


Ignacio Zaragoza's father was an officer at the Presido and Ignacio was born in the dwelling below, which is near the Presido La Bahia.


A brief description of General Zaragoza's heroism:



A cute "You Tube" video and blog entry at "The Huffington Post" about Cinco de Mayo can be found here. It provides a little more information about the culmination of events that led to Cinco de Mayo. A more historical version, found at the History Channel website can be found here.

A blog describing our visit to the Goliad area can be seen here.