Our First Foreign War: Mexico (June 1966 | Volume: 17, Issue: 4)

Our First Foreign War: Mexico

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Authors: William H. Goetzmann

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June 1966 | Volume 17, Issue 4

 

On September 13, 1847, under the brilliant blue of a noonday sky, a horde of dusty, red-stained soldiers dashed down from the heights of Chapiiltepec, over an ancient Aztec causeway, and hurled themselves into a curtain of smoke and fire at the Belén Garita, the last stronghold before Mexico City. As the men pressed forward, the desperate fire of Mexican artillerists barricaded in a strong stone citadel near the city gates took a fearful toll. One of the blueclad regulars who fell wounded in this, the last battle in America’s first foreign war, was Private Barna Upton of the Third United States Infantry.

Today, if it is remembered at all, the war with Mexico is thought of as an antique skirmish—a prelude to the Civil War in which the future heroes of that great conflict first had a chance to test their prowess. An atmosphere of remoteness hangs over the Mexican War, and its lingering images are almost always those of grandeur and larger-than-life heroism. There was young Sam Grant recklessly leading the charge on San Cosme Gate; stern, serious Tom Jackson calmly directing artillery fire amid a shower of grapeshot before Chapultepec; Robert E. Lee scouting the Mexican flank at Cerro Gordo Mountain a scant few feet from the enemy headquarters; and Jefferson Davis leading that gaudy charge of the Mississippi Rifles that broke the Mexican Army on the windswept plateau of Buena Vista.

 

But the Mexican War had a life of its own, and like all other wars in history it was fought primarily by the common soldier, both regular and volunteer. Unlike Johnny Reb and Billy Yank, Johnny Doughboy and G.I. Joe, the rank and file of the Mexican War have been relatively uncelebrated. The chief reason for this is that they have rarely left a historical personality that commands the attention of the popular mind. It is precisely because they contribute toward this much-needed insight into the personality of the rank and file, vintage 1847, that the letters which follow, written by Private Upton, a farm boy from Charlemont, Massachusetts, are published here.

Upton’s letters were invariably filled with the details of the everyday life of the United States regular. His was the novice’s point of view: the education, as it were, of a New England farm boy into the realities of the world outside and ultimately into the mysteries of battle and death. And because his experience parallels so closely the mainstream of American experience, Barna Upton’s own education perhaps takes on a somewhat wider significance. His were the adolescent confidence and unself-conscious optimism of the typical American of his time. He was brash and bold and frequently sentimental. He believed in dreams and portents and destiny. He was likewise unaware of many things. He was, in fact, young America in the high noon of our national history.

 

Barna Upton was born on July 26, 1820, the eldest son of Nehemiah Newhall Upton,