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The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters Volume 31 Number 4 Parameters Winter 2001 Article 2 11-20-2001 From the Archives: Another Campaign Commences Far from Home Parameters Editors Follow this and additional works at: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters Recommended Citation Editors, Parameters. "From the Archives: Another Campaign Commences Far from Home." The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters 31, 4 (2001). https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol31/iss4/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by USAWC Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters by an authorized editor of USAWC Press. From the ArchivesFrom Parameters, Winter 2001-02, inside back cover.Another Campaign Commences Far from Home Early in 1847 General Winfield Scott collected his invasion army on a small speck of land just off the Mexican coast,called the Isle of Lobos. The 2d Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers formed part of that force. At 9:30 a.m. onMarch 3, the regiment set sail for Vera Cruz. Six days later, at ten o'clock in the evening, the 2d PennsylvaniaVolunteers landed on the beach, as part of Gideon Pillow's brigade of Robert Patterson's division.Company C of that regiment was a uniformed militia unit known as the Columbia Guards, and it hailed primarily fromDanville, Columbia County, Pennsylvania. Second Lieutenant Edward E. Le Clerc of that company recorded hisimpressions of what followed the landing in a letter to his parents:Camp Washington, near Vera Cruz, March 28, 1847.The day after we landed, our company had a smart skirmish with the enemy, without sustaining any lossupon our side. After receiving their fire, and giving them ours in return, the order to charge was promptlyand cheerfully obeyed, and the enemy were completely routed. Our Company is the only one of thesecond Pennsylvania Regiment that has had an opportunity to test its bravery with the enemy. ColumbiaCounty will not be ashamed of her boys. We have not had our clothes off for nearly three weeks, and dayafter to-morrow will be three weeks since my boots have been off my feet, yet never did I enjoy betterhealth. We have not had a tent since we landed. We sleep upon the sand, with a knapsack, a log, or anexploded shell for a pillow. I send in this letter a flower for each of the girls, which I pulled from a gravein a beautiful cemetery just without the city, placed there perhaps by the hand of love, and plucked fromtheir stems to be love's messenger. In a few days we leave here for Jalappa and thence to the halls of theMontezumas.Adieu. L. Source: Richard J. Sommers, ed., Vignettes of Military History, Volume III (Carlisle Barracks, Pa.: US Army MilitaryHistory Institute, February 1982), Vignette No. 151, contributed by Randy W. Hackenburg, drawn from The DanvilleIntelligencer, May 7, 1847.Reviewed 20 November 2001. Please send comments or corrections to carl_Parameters@conus.army.mil

From the Archives: Another Campaign Commences Far from Home

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From the Archives: Another Campaign Commences Far from Home

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