[1-13] 14-103 81-96 120-128 pp., fourteen woodcut text illustrations (all included in pagination).(8vo), 22.5 x 15.3 cm (8¾x6"), original red blind-embossed cloth, spine extra gilt. First Edition.
One of the most enigmatic U.S. works about the war, the bibliography of which has never been satisfactorily explained, but one of the most useful. Josiah S. Colgate’s pencil signature dated May 27, 1850 on front free endpaper. Rare in commerce.
The author moves quickly through his subject, generally devoting only a few pages to each encounter. The most ink is spilled on the Battle of Monterrey, and one suspects the author was a participant. In general, because of the carnage described, the work is basically anti-war: “We present these pages to the public hoping the tragical scenes here described may deter others from imbibing a war spirit. We exhort them not to be influenced by the martial array, the din of battle and the clash of arms, and all the exciting paranalia [sic] of war” (p. [12]).
Robert McCoy in his introduction to the 1965 Rio Grande Press reprint of Nathan Covington Brook’s 1849 Complete History of the Mexican War, to which this work is added as an appendix, was unable to discover the author. According to McCoy, the work contains the only casualty list of the Mexican War outside War Department files. Espinosa, in his introduction, believes the work to have been done by several hands, and deems it to be generally accurate.