Title: Mexico under fire
First published: 1994
Description: Colonel Samuel Ryan Curtis, engineer, lawyer, and graduate of West Point, arrived in Mexico in July of 1846 as commander of the 3rd Ohio Volunteer Regiment to find a volatile and chaotic situation in occupied towns along the Rio Grande. American civilians of the lowest sort - men and women - mingled with Mexican townspeople, robbing, murdering, and raping. Neither civil nor military law made provisions for governing municipalities under such conditions.

Nor was the U.S. military prepared for a struggle against Mexican guerrilla forces and desperate bandits. Colonel Curtis was a diary keeper, and this record of his experiences in Mexico gives a clear picture of his efforts to restore and maintain order under nearly impossible conditions: of death and suffering in his regiment from disease, not fighting, and of the tedium of army camp life.

A reflective man as well as an educated one, Curtis was a keen observer. He documented social and economic circumstances, flora and fauna, and the weather, even as he chronicled political conditions and martial unrest. The resulting diary is a major contribution to studies of the Mexican War.
Subjects: United States, Diaries, Mexican War, 1846-1848, Campaigns, Personal narratives, American, American Personal narratives, United States. Army. Ohio Infantry Regiment, 3rd (1846-1847), Soldiers, Mexican war, 1846-1848, personal narratives
Places: Mexico, Ohio
People: Samuel Ryan Curtis (1805-1866)
LC classification: E411 .C87 1994