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Mexican War memoirist and rogue dies
On this day in 1908, soldier-adventurer-artist Sam Chamberlain died at
the age of seventy-eight. Chamberlain was born in New Hampshire in 1829,
moved to Boston with his family at an early age, and ran away to
Illinois in 1844. Shortly after the outbreak of the Mexican War he
joined a volunteer regiment and came to Texas, where he transferred to
the First United States Dragoons of the regular army. Chamberlain had
many rollicking adventures in Mexico, fighting guerillas, drinking in
cantinas, and having countless love affairs with Mexican women. He also
participated in and painted numerous pictures of the battle of Buena
Vista. In 1849 he was listed as a deserter, and subsequently rode with
the notorious scalp-hunter Jack Glanton all over northern Mexico.
Chamberlain had moved back to Boston by 1854. He returned to military
service during the Civil War and rose to the rank of brevet brigadier
general. He led the all-black Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry to
Clarksville, near the mouth of the Rio Grande, after the war had ended.
Chamberlain's My Confession: the Recollections of a Rogue,
published in 1956, is perhaps the most vivid, revealing, earthy account
of the life of an enlisted soldier in the war with Mexico.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- CHAMBERLAIN, SAMUEL EMERY
- MEXICAN WAR
- GLANTON, JOHN JOEL
- CIVIL WAR
- Links to other Web sites (will be opened in new browser window)
- SAMUEL E. CHAMBERLAIN'S MY CONFESSION
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- The President's Ranch Trail is dedicated to LBJ (1967)
- Battle of Stone Houses (1837)
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