The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-11-10
oAPr. MAYNE REID.
Some OF His Mexican War Expert
ences.
Cincinnati Commercial

Cincinnati Commercial
WASHINGTON, D. C-Mr. Mayne Reid. who
was placed on the pension list the other day,
and who is now living in avery quiet way near
little English town in straitened circum-
stances, writing snarling letters about his
neighbors to New York paper, instead of the
thrilling fiction which has made him well
known to the boys of the world, was CAV
youth when he was younger. He is described
by men who knew him before the Mexican war
as dashing, somewhat reckless, handsome
young Englishman with o hot temper. He
went to the Mexican war in the New York vol
unteer regiment commanded by Gen. Ward
Burnett, who was himself pensioned last year.
Reid knew something about soldering, and,
having found favor in the eyes of his colonel,
was appointed lieutenant and placed in COM
mand of a company at Pueblo, Mexico,
where the American army halted for time.
Lieut. Reid, while reproving one of the men in
his company, became very much heated and
ran his sword through the mans body The
man died the same night Lieut. Reds grief
was almost uncomfortable. The feeling
against hun, despite the fact that he had prov
ocation for the act was very strong in the reg
iment soldier and slave were not synon-
ymous to an American army In those days,
even in the mouths of officers. If the regi-
ment had not moved with the rest of the
army toward the city of Mexico the next day,
Lieut. Reid would have been court-martialed
and might have been shot As it was, he
marched forward with heavy heart. On the
night the army reached the field of Chapulte-
pee, Lieut. Wilcox, West-Pointer, on Gen
Quitman's staff, afterwards a major general
In the Confederate army and now employed
In the clerks Office of the United States SEN
ate, who had already manifested his sym
pathy with Lieut. Reid in many ways, rode
over to where the New York regiment was
lying and calling up his friend told him that
on the morrow storming party of volun-
teers and regulars was to be sent to the forts
on the heights and urged him to apply for
permission to go with it, that he might wash
away the blood on his hands with the blood
of the Mexicans, at the worst dying bravely
in the foremost of the fight Lieut. Reid,
his face glowing with pleasure and his form
qulverlng with emotion, grasped the hands
of his friend, and, shaking them in his
strong, hearty way, thanked him most ex-
travagantly for his kind thoughtfulness
Wilcox galloped back to his headquarters
and Reid went to bed
He was sleeping more restfully than he had
slept before for weeks, when Lieut. Wilcox
came galloping back toward morning and
routed him out again. The smile with which
Reid met him faded away when Wilcox
said, Il am sorry to say that have just learned
that none but regulars will be permitted to go
in the storming party to-day"
Then, as he saw Reds face fall and the old
sorrow coming back, he went on to say: "But
think | see way to which you can take
baud in the attack. Your regiment will prOba-
lily be set to guard the artillery which will
cover the advance of the storming party. Of
course the guns will be silenced as soon as the
storming party gets within their range. That
will be your opportunity"
Reid's face flushed with pleasure, and the
smile came back again as his friend continued:
@Leave your men where they stand, and run
after the storming party with all your might
Get into it, and if possible get in front of it.
so that you may be the first man in the breach
After that it will be plain sailing"
Lieut. Reid again thanked his friend in the
warmest terms, and again they separated Ev-
erything turned out just as it would in a ro-
nance
Reid's regiment was placed behind the bat
terry, and Reid was placed in the front rank.
The guns screamed at the fort while, and
the fort guns screamed back, while the heavy
storming party of blue-coated regulars moved
steadily and silently across the plains towards
the heights. Suddenly the American batteries
became silent, Suddenly Lieut. Reid, sword
in hand started from his place in the front
rank Of his regiment and ran swiftly across
the rough ground towards the heights. He
caught up with the storming party just as it
reached the foot of the hill, pushed his way
to the 'front.' and was the first man on the
great stone wall of the fort Shot thrice
through the body and wounded once or twice
in the limbs, he was carried down the hill on a
bloody stretcher
loved, and not the sad-eyed homicide, who was
borne back to his quarters in his blood. Still,
the hasty act which he SO deeply regretted
clouded his whole life