The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1897-10-15
HEROES OF BUENA VISTA.
Their Sadly Neglected Burial Ground
Near SaItiIlO, Mexico.

near MEXICO.
The hardy young Americans who left
their comfortable homes in the United
States more than half century ago
and came to Mexico with Gen. Tay Tor to
fight against the people of this country
probably did not think that should they
fall in battle their bones would be left
to crumble to dust in an unmarked
spot in this distant land. But to-day the
dead heroes of the Buena Vista battle
field lie under but few feet of earth
in a neglected place just outside this
city. At the time of their hasty burial
their devoted comrades evidently sought
to make the spot somewhat sacred by
constructing an adobe wall around it.
This wall is fast succumbing to the raw.
ages of time, and in places it is COM
plejely gone Visited the burial ground
of the dead heroes recently. A tram.
car took me as far as the pretty San
Francisco plaza and from there walked
through a dirty, narrow street until l
came to an arroyo, on the other side of
which the faint marks indicating the
cemetery may be seen. Had l not re-
ceived careful directions | would have
passed the place unnOticed. On the side
toward the city the wall is entirely gons
for the most part, and a much travelled
wagon road passes through the place
and over the sacred dead. The place
which had once been inclosed by the
adobe wall embraces probably two
acres, but investigation shows that
many we're buried west of the wall and
up close to the arroyo.
Some time ago the report was pub
lished in the press of the United States
that The bones of the buried soldiers
we're protruding from the ground, and
that the place presented a sickening
spectacle. This report was not strictly
true, bat It is undoubtedly a fact that
parts of many of the skeletons have
come 70 the surface. The ground is
serewn with fragments of bones. and it
Is evident that they come from the men
who were buried there. None of these
bones is large, as the heavy traffic
through the place has broken them up
into small pieces. If any skulls came to
the surface they were no doubt quickly
lOANCb w lllC -'ACA1CcA w llO were
about, and made innocent playthings
OF. Had they ever appeared they GER
tainiy would not have remained intact
on the surface long. In the arroyo,
through which floods of water pass at
times and wash one side of the burial
ground. there are also many pieces of
bones among the rocks, and among
them / saw an unbroken rib bone which
looked like that of human.
There is not a spear of grass nor a
sign of vegetable life within the inclo-
sure. 1t is perfectly barren. The place
should certainly receive attention at the
hands of the United States congress,
even if nothing more is done than to
take such steps as will stay the ravages
of time and weather on the treacherous
soil. and permit the bodies lying there
10 rest undisturbcd. 1t could easily be
made an attractive and even beautiful
place by laying it out in walks and
planting trees and plants. The ravages
OF the floods in the arroyo on the soil of
the cemetery could be checked by the
building of a substantial wall along that
| side. In addition to the several hun
! drcd who were killed in battle, all of the
soldiers who died in the hospital here
Were aiso buried there-St. Louis Globe
Democrat