The subjoined letter, hitherto unpublished, requires little comment. It is now in the possession of Mrs. Henry M. Manigault of Summerville, S. C., to whose father-in-law it is addressed. Written in a fine and remarkably clear hand, it is still easily legible, except for two or three words where the fold occurs. In copying it I have taken care not to change spelling or punctuation.
Its author, Arthur Middleton Manigault, born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1824, became in 1846 first lieutenant of the Charleston company in the Palmetto Regiment, South Carolina Volunteer Infantry. In this capacity he served throughout the Mexican War. In the Confederate Army he was first an inspector general on General Beauregard's staff, then colonel of the Tenth Regiment, South Carolina Infantry, and in 1863 became a brigadier general. He was elected in 1880 adjutant general of his native state, and held that office six years till his death, which was hastened by a wound in the head that he had received in the battle of Franklin. A fuller sketch of his life is to be found in Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography.
Camp near Vera Cruz, April 9th 1847. Dear Brother Henry
I was very glad to receive your letter which arrived here about 10 days ago, I would have answered it before, but the next morning we marched off for Alvarado from which place we only returned two days since.
I am glad to hear that you are all well at home &that things are going on smoothly, we occasionally receive a paper here &a Charleston Courier creates a terrible excitement in camp, the possessor must quickly sneak off behind some hill, &there peruse it, or he is very apt to be embroiled in more than one squable for the possession of it, I am much amused at times with some of the speculations of the editors relative to occurrences among us, which often shoot wide of the mark &in future I will know just how much of the contents of a newspaper can be relied on. Edward I see has obtained a captaincy in one of the new 10 Regts. which I was very glad to hear of. I think that he will be pleased with the life; I am, &he has every advantage not only in rank, but in serving as a regular instead of Volunteer, which service of all others is least agreeable to the officer, the general impression here is that the war will not last much longer &that it will not be necessary to advance further into the country than Jalappa, at that place we will remain some time in all probability, it is said to be the most agreeable climate in all Mexico, it is usually spoken of by the natives as the Heaven of Mexico Vera Cruz, the hell, Genl Scott if he succeeds in taking that place will there remain until he receives supplies for his army &additional forces, as the time of several of the Volunteers Regts. expires in the course of two months &their place I suppose will be filled up by these new regiments. As I mentioned before, we are at the present moment encamped on the plain to the South of Vera Cruz, within a quarter of a mile of the city, resting after a most severe march to &from Alvarado, which place to our great chagrin, on hearing of our approach yealded, without fireing a gun, to a midshipman &four men, who happened to enter the river in the boat, of a small war steamer; he was much surprised as he approached the town to see a boat &white flag, making for him with the Alcaldi, who surrendered to him everything, Genl Quitman was there within 15 miles of the town with 2,000 men, &when the news reached him, the very day he arrived there, he was not a little mortifyed, it was more than Comodore Perry &himself could bear with, who had entered into an agreement with each other, that they both should make their appearance at the same time &have all the credit to themselves, but they were forestalled by one of inferior rank, &the unfortunate subaltern has been arrested to stand a court martial, some go as far as to say that the despatches had actually been written, but of that I know nothing, we made up for our disappointment as we best could unfurled our banner &marched like heroes through the deserted town, took up our quarters in the different houses, in nearly all of which we found a number of Game Cocks, which in the hurry of their departure they were obliged to leave behind them. I am satisfied they found them not on their return, for the ravenous Volunteers dispatched most of them, We were glad to leave the place two days after, carrying with us a most astonishing number of fleas, with which, this place like most other small Mexican towns are infested, We were marched back in a deuce of a hurry (why we know not), over a most abominable road, the sun as hot as with us in July, &no shade or water, two days &a half was the time, &the consequence was that many of our men were knocked up by it, several of them are now very ill &no possibility of their recovering (I speak of the regiment generally &do not allude alone to our company). Our medical staff is a most inferior one, not fit for the service, they are unaccustomed to hard work, do not like to soil their hands, but perfer being either in Vera Cruz, or at some other business more agreeable, it makes me vexed when I think of them, for I really think that some have died thro neglect, they are literally not worth a d m. poor Dickson, son of Dr. Dickson, was buried this morning, he was afflicted with the disease so prevalent among soldiers, we left him with other sick when we left for Alvarado in charge of one of the surgeons, in a convalescent state, the morning after our return, we heard of his death &on questioning the surgeon he did not even know of his sickness until 12 hours before he died. Since our Landing in Mexico, we have been leading a sort of savage life, being without tents &little to eat, I had one of those large blankets given me by Mama, &I have found it most comfortable, place yourself on the edge of it; spread out on the ground, hold on to it &take three good rolls over &over &you are fixed off for the night, covered from head to foot &neither dew or rain can wet you, you may however wake up in the morning &find yourself covered over with sand, should a norther happen to spring up, which happens frequently.
Vera Cruz looks very differently now from what it did when we first entered it, the streets there were strewed with rubish, fragments of shell, cannon balls, &filth in some parts of the city there was a most intolerable stench from the dead bodies which had remained for days exposed, there being no place to bury them or not having time, now however everything has a more cleanly &busy appearance and inhabitants that left before the bombardment have mostly all returned &have opened their shops, there are one or two very fair hotels, on the Plaza, where you see crowds of officers all day long, lounging about, most of the Generals have their quarters in the City, &may be easily distinguished, by the crowd about the door, Aid de Camps, gathering in every direction, squadrons of dragons pattrolling the street, it has a fine appearance, &I have sat for hours in the piazza of the hotel, observing what was going on, General Worth is now Governor of the city, &has all the idle Mexicans employed in cleaning the streets etc. the city has been in our hands only 20 days &there is an American Theater open, a newspaper daguerreotype taker, &several coffee houses kept by Americans, I was at the Theatre last night &upon the whole the performance was very tolerable, their Theater surprised me on entering it, it is one much larger than, the one in Charleston, in the interior but little inferior, &the front upon the street is one of the handsomest that I have ever seen, The old &antique appearance of the city makes it very interesting, the houses all of stone or brick, little or no wood about them, their floors are all paved, &roofs covered with tiles, there are some very handsome &chaste buildings &in good repair, but in general they have an old appearance &much worn by time. Our shell &shot made great havoc amongst the houses, scarce one that does not show some bullet hole or other damage, some parts of the city can never be built up again, &fortunately it is in rather an inferior part of the town, principally in and about the fortifycations, which deserved most to suffer.
I have been twice to the castle &been each time much pleased, I saw Quebec once, &tho of a very different character from this fortifycation, it cannot compare in immenseness with this place, it is so intricate &so large that altho I have twice been there &observed it narrowly with a view of putting it down on paper, I found it impossible to do so &could not retain it with any degree of correctness in my mind, when next I go there I will carry a pencil and paper in my pocket.
We are now leading a very lazy life &our time is at our own disposal to which you are indebted for this long letter, which you will no doubt be tired of reading before arriving at the end, I wrote Mama a long letter some days ago, informing her that I was safe, as she must have been uneasy about me, I am much obliged to you for wishing me all honour &glory but as for the flesh wounds in the legs I would much rather be without them, whatever the consequences may be, I hope you will answer this &let me know what is going on. Give my love to Mama, to Sister Susan, Brother [Pe]ter &the whole family.
Your afft Brother, A. M. Manigault.
How to cite:
"A LETTER FROM VERA CRUZ IN 1847 ", Volume 018, Number 2, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 215 - 218. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v018/n2/article_5.html
[Accessed Sun Nov 23 3:05:09 CST 2008]
