Sheriff Ebenezer G. Cary
Sheriff Cary was born October 6, 1812 and Died in Mexico City, Mexico on January 14, 1848
Death date courtesy of “Mexican War veterans” by William Hugh Robarts
​Served as Sheriff of Grant County from 1837 to 1838
Sheriff Cary's experience in the Mexican-American War
Hazzard's history of Henry County, Indiana, 1822-1906, Volume 2
By George Hazzard
Excerpt from the Mexican War
The Fifth Regiment of Indiana was organized in October, 1847. Captain
Ebenezer Cary of Marion had recruited about forty men in Grant County, and on October 4, 1847, this body of men came to New Castle in wagons, en route to Indianapolis. At New Castle, the following persons from Henry County joined Captain Cary's company: Finley Adams, Elam Armfield, James N. Gary, Harvey Copeland, Charles Fifer, Norviel Fleming, Jeremiah Gossett: David Harker, Chapman Mann, William Mann, Abner Phillips, William H. Roby, James A. Schuman, Henry Shank, George Tarkleson, George W. Thompson, David Warner, Richard Webster, Pvrrhus Woodward.
The greater number of those who enlisted in Captain Cary's company, from Henry County, were from Fall Creek Township. George W. Thompson and David Marker were from Harrison Township; James A. Schuman from Prairie Township; Elam Armfield from Greensboro Township; Abner Phillips and
Harvey Copeland from Henry Township; James N. Gary was from Knightstown. Richard Webster and myself were from New Castle. Amos Brown, a bright young colored man, twenty three years of age, and nearly white, from Fall Creek Township, also joined the company in the capacity of officer's cook. The ages of the men who enlisted from Henry County, as shown by the muster-out rolls now on file in the office of the Adjutant General at Indianapolis, and which have been consulted in the preparation of this article were as follows: Finley Andrews, 20; Elam Armfield, 25; James N. Gary, 24; Harvey Copeland. 19; Charles Fifer, 24; Xorviel Fleming, 18; Jeremiah Gossett, 32; David Harker, 19; Chapman Mann, 22; William Mann, 24; Abner Phillips, 21 ; William H. Roby, 40; James A. Schuman, 18; Henry Shank, 29; George Tarkleson, 43; George W. Thompson, 21; David Warner, 21 ; Richard Webster, 21 ; Pyrrhus Woodward. 25.
Dr. James W. Montgomery, of Lewisville, well known to the older citizens of Franklin Township, had enlisted in another company of the Fifth Regiment and William D. Schuman, of Prairie Township, and a brother of James D. Schuman had previously enlisted in another regiment.
Captain Cary's company remained in New Castle over night, and on October 5, departed for Indianapolis in wagons, going by the way of Knightstown and Greenfield. With the addition of the Henry County recruits the company had about sixty members. On the first night after leaving New Castle we stopped at Greenfield and were taken to the home of the citizens. The next day we reached Indianapolis, where we took the train for Madison, Indiana, going by the new railroad, which had just been completed. Here we went into camp where several companies had preceded us.
The commissioned officers of the company had been selected before the company left Marion and were as follows: Captain, Ebenezer Cary; First Lieutenant Thomas F. Marshall; Second Lieutenant, David Shunk; additional Second Lieutenant. Joseph W. Holiday. At Madison, about twenty recruits from Jefferson County were assigned to our company which now had its full complement of men. The non-commissioned officers of the company were selected at Madison and I was chosen second, or duty, sergeant and Henry Shank third duty sergeant. Captain Cary's company was mustered into the service of the United States on October 14, 1847, as Company H, of the Fifth Regiment of Indiana Foot Volunteers, as the regiment was designated on the records of the Adjutant General's office. The members of the various companies were in the main young men, and imbued with a lofty spirit of patriotism. The stern realities of war had not yet worn oft' the glamour which surrounds a soldier'» life and every company in camp had chosen a name, illustrating at once the ardor as well as the light hearted enthusiasm of new troops, and by these names the different companies were designated upon 'the rolls. The Indiana Guards, from Vernon, commanded by Captain Horace Hull, were mustered as Company A; Captain George Greene's Rough and Ready Guards from Charlestown became Company B ; the Covington Guards from Madison, commanded by Captain Robert M. Evans, became Company C; the Hancock boys from Greenfield, commanded by Captain James R. Bracken, were mustered as Company D ; the Shelbyville Hards from Shelbyville, commanded by Captain Samuel McKinsey, became Company E : the Centre Guards from Madison, commanded by Captain John McDougall, became Company F; Grabbers No. 2, from Lawrenceburg, commanded by Captain Aaron C. Gibbs, were mustered as Company G. Our own Company H, was known as the Washington Guards. The Montgomery boys from Crawfordsville, commanded by Captain Allen May, were mustered as Company I and the Wayne Guards from Madison, commanded by Captain David W. Lewis, as Company K.
The organization of the Fifth Regiment was completed at Madison and our regimental' officers were James H. Lane, Colonel; Allen May, Lieutenant Colonel; John M. Myers, Major; James Baker, was Regimental Quartermaster; James S. Athon, Surgeon and John M. Lord Adjutant. Colonel Lane had entered the army as Captain of the Dearborn Volunteers and had seen service in the Third Regiment, before he became Colonel of the Fifth. He was thirty three years old, a handsome man and a gallant soldier. His subsequent brilliant but stormy career in Kansas and Missouri is well known. Captain Alay of Company J. recruited at Crawfordsville, was promoted to be Lieutenant Colonel and Lieutenant Mahlon D. Manson, afterwards a distinguished officer in the Civil War became Captain of the company. John M. Myers, Major, was twenty-seven years of age, and a very competent officer. A few of the companies were not full and according to E. D. Mansfield's History of the Mexican War, the roster of the Fifth Regiment showed "973 men. The First, Second and Third Regiments of Indiana had enlisted for one year, but the enlistment of the Fourth and Fifth Regiments was for the war.
We remained in camp at Madison about three weeks where we received our uniforms, which were of dark blue cloth, something like those worn in the late war, and we wore caps. The light blue overcoats worn during the late war, were very similar to those issued to our regiment. A letter bearing date October 15, 1857, in the New Albany Democrat and reproduced in the Indiana State Sentinel of October 23, gives a view of the Fifth Regiment at Madison as follows : "Nine companies have arrived and been mustered into the service. The last one, Captain Cary's company from Grant County, was mustered in last evening. All the companies are now in camp and comprise in all something like 700 men, and recruiting for the various companies is going on rapidly. Every one about the camp is in the highest spirits. Every volunteer is elated with the hope of son leaving that they may aid their fellow soldiers in subduing our treacherous and obstinate foe and share in the revels in the halls of the Montezumas—that all absorbing desire of the volunteer that is now being realized in the City of the Aztecs. The clothing of the different companies is going on rapidly and will be completed by the last of next week at farthest." A contemporary notice of the Fifth Regiment in the Madison Courier is as follows: "During the time this body of men have been encamped here, they have conducted themselves with great propriety, and their conduct has reflected credit on the character of the volunteer. Take them all in all, they are a fine looking body of men and appear competent to do good service in the field.”
On Sunday, being the last day of October, or the first day of November, the regiment left Madison for New Orleans. Three steamboats, the Ne Plus Ultra, the Phoenix and the Wave were necessary to transport the regiment down the river. Companies C, H and I, under command of Major Myers, went on the Wave. Company K, not having arrived in camp in time, did not go with the regiment. Our journey of ten days down the Mississippi was a delightful one, in a delightful season of the year, and marred only by flie death of our comrade, David Warner, who fell overboard in the night and was drowned. The boat proceeded on its way, and there was much indignation among the men toward the captain of the boat because he did not stop the vessel and allow the body to be recovered. This sad accident brought to our minds some realization of the horrors of war.
Our regiment remained a day and a night at New Orleans. I regret to say, that while here, two members of Company H, from Henry County, deserted. Their names are not included in the list of volunteers from Henry County and are wholly suppressed in this article. One of them was a young painter who had come to New Castle a short time previous to his enlistment. I knew him slightly and while at Greenfield, on our way to Indianapolis, we took a walk together. He called my attention to a ring on his finger and gave me the name and address of a lady, and asked me, if he should be killed in battle, to send her the ring; and if he should be so badlv shot to pieces as to be unrecognizable, he stated that I might recognize him by an artificial tooth. I think the fellow so brooded over the possibility of being shot to pieces that he thought the Crescent City an excellent place in which to disappear from sight and avoid such a horrible fate. We never heard of him afterward. The other member of the company who deserted was of a good family and his comrades could never understand why he did so discreditable -a thing. At Madison I had been detailed as Commissary Sergeant of the regiment, and at New Orleans, I separated for a time from my company. Several companies of the Fifth Regiment, myself with them, embarked on the steamer Alabama for Vera Cruz. The remaining companies sailed on another vessel. Our voyage across the Gulf of Mexico, lasting some five or six days, was a stormy one. During the height of the storm, there was scarcely a man who did not feel that our vessel would go down. I remember that many of the boys, while the waves surged over the ship, most devoutly prayed, while others sang that good old song, "The Star of Bethlehem." When the waves calmed and the glorious sunshine appeared. I think many good resolutions were forgotten, but it is ever so.
About the middle of November, we came in sight of the grim walls of San Juan de Ulloa, the Mexican fortress defending the city of Vera Cruz, which had been captured by General Scott's army, assisted by the naval forces, seven months before. The sight of land was a joyous one to us after our stormy voyage, even though it was the land of the enemy, but we knew that a friendly garrison was within the walls of the city. Our regiment remained in Vera. Cruz several days, and here we received our arms, which were the old flint-lock muskets.
\'era Cruz was an ancient walled city built by the Spanish invader Cortez. the walls of the city being fortified at intervals. On an island about half a mile out in the Gulf stood the famous fortress of San Juan de Ulloa. This was an enclosed fortification of large size, but the fortress had been captured by Scott's army with out serious difficulty. Everything was new to us ; and here, for the first time, we saw the dark-eyed ^Mexican senoritas of whom we had heard much. The houses were principally two stories high and the streets narrow. There was a fine cathedral here, and the members of the regiment, when not engaged in military duties, spent the time sight-seeing. Nothing here impressed me so much as the vast, illimitable ocean, and almost daily I walked with comrades out upon the Mole, a structure built of stone and cement and extending into the Gulf. Upon the occasion of our first promenade upon the Mole, not understanding the influence of the tides, we were nearly swept off our feet by the sudden appearance of the waves, to the great amusement of the Mexicans who witnessed our discomfiture. The yellow fever and black vomit prevailed in Vera Cruz almost the entire year, and our regiment was anxious to penetrate the interior.
Part II
We now began our long march to the City of Mexico which General Scott had occupied six weeks before. The Fifth regiment had been assigned to a brigade with the Third Tennessee regiment, commanded by Colonel Cheatham, afterwards a distinguished officer in the Confederate army. For the first few miles out from Vera Cruz, the scenery was uninteresting. The country was sparsely inhabited, and to our surprise and regret, it was not a land flowing with milk and honey, and the most active foraging parties met with but little success, but pulque, the native drink of the Mexicans, was plentiful and was prescribed by our surgeons. It was mildly intoxicating, and the use of any other kind of liquors was very unsafe for Americans. It was a common saying in our army that the first case of intoxication for a soldier sent him to the hospital and the second case was certain death.
We marched in light marching order, for during the day it was oppressively hot, but the nights were always cool and we slept under our blankets. The country was filled with roving bodies of Mexican cavalry called Lancers and with numerous bands of guerrillas, but the strong holds of the enemy were in possession of our troops. Each company of the regiment had a wagon in which its tents and
cooking utensils were conveyed. Our rations were crackers, bacon and coffee. It was asserted that some of the cracker boxes bore the date of 1835, while others contended that the crackers were a remnant left from the battle of New Orleans.
The Fifth Indiana led the advance. Then came the wagon train and the Third Tennessee brought up the rear. No cavalry or artillery accompanied our command. We marched in close order and the two regiments were always within easy supporting distance. This was necessary, for as we proceeded on our
March, bodies of Mexican Lancers, sometimes 4,000 or 5,000 in number, often appeared in sight, but as frequently disappeared, without giving us battle. The Lancers were armed with lances and short carbines. They wore gray uniforms, leather leggings and gray sombreneras and were mounted on sorry- little half-starved horses, which bore little comparison with the fine, large horses of our army. They were picturesque horsemen, but poor soldiers. With the enthusiasm of new troops, we were anxious for battle, but before we could effectively fight with our flint-lock muskets, we would have to approach so near the enemy as to see the white of their eyes. The Mexicans, to our regret, never allowed us to get so close.
Our march was over the great national highway from the coast to the interior and over the same road along which General Scott's victorious army had marched. Thirty-five miles from Vera Cruz, we crossed La Puenta Nacional, a splendid bridge, spanning Rio Antiqua. From now on, the scenery was fine, our march being through an undulating country with shade trees and mixed chapparral on either side of the road. We marched from ten to thirty miles a day, depending upon circumstances. If in the middle of the afternoon, we discovered a fine spring of water near our line of inarch, we selected a site for a camp nearby. Otherwise our march was prolonged until a suitable camping place was found when we pitched our tents and built our camp fires. Strict discipline was maintained, yet the nights in camp were always happy and full of the pleasures and diversions of army camp life.
The first important point we passed through was Jalapa, sixty five miles from the coast. This was a city of about 9,000 inhabitants. It was neat and clean, and there were many handsome buildings here, surrounded with orange groves and lovely gardens filled with fruits and flowers. The climatic fevers which prevail on the coasts, were much less fatal to Americans after reaching Jalapa. Here our regiment and the Third Tennessee went into camp for a week. Cerro Gordo is a high spur of the Cordilleras Mountains, fifteen miles east of Jalapa, and General Santa Anna, commander of the Mexican Army, had selected this point as one having great natural advantages for defense against the invading army, but the battle fought here on the i8th of April had resulted in a decisive victory for the American Army.
After a week in camp, we proceeded on our march. Extensive provision trains, carrying supplies to our army in the City of Mexico, wound their slow length along over the broad macadamized road from the coast to the capital, and we crossed several splendid bridges, magnificent specimens of architecture. The Fifth Indiana and Third Tennessee, marched in friendly concord, little conscious of the fact that in less than fifteen years the North and South would be arrayed against each other in deadly conflict. The country was not populous and the inhabitants lived principally in the pueblos or towns and villages. The grandees or owners of the soil, had comfortable habitations, but the peons or slaves, who composed the vast body of the people, and toiled for their masters, lived in mere hovels. The next important town on the line of our march, after leaving Jalapa was Perote. There was a strong fortification here, known as the Castle of Perote, being next in strength to San Juan de Ulloa.
After the capture of the City of Mexico, the Mexican Army was divided into detachments which harassed our army and endeavored to destroy General Scott's line of communication with Vera Cruz, and in December a Mexican force besieged Puebla then held by our troops. The march of our brigade was now rapid in the direction of the beleaguered city, but before our arrival the garrison had marched out of their fortifications and defeated the Mexicans who hastily withdrew.
The country grew more fruitful as we advanced and occasional foraging parties now went out, but had always to be on the lookout for the Mexican Lancers, who continued to hover on our line of march. I remember that upon one occasion on our march. Captain Manson of Company I was so ill that he had been obliged to ride in an ambulance, but when the enemy's cavalry came in sight and a fight seemed imminent, he alighted from the ambulance with difficulty and placed himself at the head of his company, much to the disappointment, as I afterwards heard, of the First Lieutenant, who had hoped to command the company in case of an attack.
After a forced march of several days our brigade marched into Puebla. The Fourth Indiana Regiment, commanded by Colonel Gorman, and a body of regular troops were stationed here, and the beleaguered garrison had only three or four days before our arrival repulsed the Mexicans. Here I met Oliver H. P. Cary and Decatur Cary, brothers and members of the Fourth Regiment, both of whom
I had previously known, for they had both lived at Knightstown and afterwards removed to Grant County. They were brothers of Captain Ebenezer G. Cary, who commanded our company and also of James N. Cary, a member of our company from Henry County. These four brothers held a happy family reunion here. Later on, I met in the City of Mexico another brother, John T. Cary, who was serving in the regular army. Fourteen years later, Oliver H. P. Cary and I again marched under the flag, I, as Captain of Company C of the Thirty Sixth Regiment of Indiana, and he, as the Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment. He was a brave and gallant soldier.
The city of Puebla is the capital of the State of Puebla and the second city in population in the Republic. The city was situated upon a vast plain 7,000 feet high, and while wholly within the torrid zone is called tierras frias or cold lands. Wheat of fine quality, Indian corn, barley and fruits peculiar to this region, grew in abundance here. The country around is volcanic and there was little beauty of foliage. The cactus called the prickly pear was frequent and there were some palm trees growing along our line of march. In the neighborhood of Puebla were many cultivated fields, but the methods of farming were most primitive. The native Mexican plowed with oxen using a plow similar to those used 2,000 years ago. He seemed to have no desire for better methods and looked with contempt upon all improvements. We had now reached a volcanic region, and near our line of march, after leaving Puebla, we passed a slumbering volcano from which smoke was issuing. Several members of our company ascended the mountain and looked into the crater, but I did not.
Our march after leaving Puebla was through Plan del Rio Frio. The pass of Rio Frio afforded excellent opportunities of defense. Neither ancient Greece nor Switzerland with their mountain defiles offered better opportunities for repelling an invader. As Mr. Marcy the Secretary of War said: "Perhaps no country interposed so many and such formidable obstacles to the progress of an invading army as Mexico." Santa Anna determined to make a stand at the fortified camp of Contreras and on the heights of Churubusco. not far from the City of Mexico. But with all the advantages of their position, General Scott attacked the Mexican strongholds and had won decisive victories at Contreras and Churubusco on the 20th of August.
Shortly after passing through the village of Rio Frio, the plain of Mexico burst upon our view. In the distance was the historic city with its lofty steeples, its modern splendor and ancient magnificence. Upon every side were its magnificent lakes. The view was strand and an air of romance gave everything a vivid coloring. The great lake Tezcuco lay to the east. To the south, we beheld in the hazy distance, the extinct volcano of Popocatapetl. We were strangely happy. It was the land of romance surrounded with the glamour of war.
Our regiment had been anxious to reach the City of Mexico before Christmas, and in the afternoon of December 23, our march of two hundred and sixty miles from Vera Cruz to the capital came to an end. and with bayonets gleaming in the sunlight we joyfully entered the historic city of the Aztecs and later of the Spaniard. Our regiment marched to the famous old Convent of Santa Clara, where we were quartered. The convent was a two story building, and occupied, as I now remember, a square. The interior was a court-yard with a fountain, and there were walks lined with flowers. There were numerous apartments in the convent and these were occupied by the different companies, the officers occupying for their quarters, separate apartments. A portion of the convent completely separated from our quarters was occupied by nuns and Sisters of Charity.
Everything, to us, was new and strange. The people, the language, the styles of architecture, the manners and customs, profoundly impressed us. No city upon the continent possessed a history so strange and romantic. Its antiquity was venerable, and long before the discovery of America a high state of civilization had existed here. The history of the city goes back as far as 1325 or 1327, when the Aztecs were directed after their long wanderings to settle here. A century later, with the progress of Aztec culture, the city had greatly improved and the rude habitations of early times were replaced with splendid stone structures built principally upon the small islands of Lake Tezcuco. The Spanish invader Cortes captured the city in 1520. It had then reached its highest splendor and contained 500,000 inhabitants. Numerous canals intersected the city which was connected with the mainland by splendidly constructed causeways. Montezuma, descended from an ancient imperial race, was emperor. Cortes, its conqueror, described the city as "like a fairy creation rather than the work of mortal hands." Two years after its capture the city was almost wholly destroyed. The city as we saw it was rebuilt on the same site, although Lake Tezcuco seems to have greatly subsided. From 1521- to 1821 Mexico was a dependency of Spain. It was a country filled with gold and silver, and its inhabitants were looked upon by their conquerors as slaves fit only to dig the precious metals out of the earth and pour them into the Spanish treasury. For three hundred years viceroys from Spain governed the City of Mexico and the surrounding country, living in kingly splendor; but in 1821 the Mexicans threw off the yoke of Spain. But the Spanish civilization, modified by the traditions and superstitions of the Aztecs, had left its indelible impress upon the great city. It was the romantic history of the Aztecs, and the sight of the mountains and lake in the midst of which they had dwelt, that inspired a young lieutenant of the Third Regiment of Indiana, commissioned as Lewis Wallace, to write the beautiful story of "The Fair God."
The modern City of Mexico as we beheld it contained more than 100,000 inhabitants and was 7,500 feet above the sea-level. Its streets all ran at right angles and its main thoroughfares converged on the central Plaza or Main Square. The plaza contained fourteen acres artistically laid out and filled with trees and flowers and adorned with marble fountains. The public buildings were built upon the plaza, and towering above the government buildings and facing to the North was the great Cathedral, the largest church in America. This magnificent edifice was begun in 1573 and completed in 1657. On the east side of the plaza was the National Palace, with a frontage of 657 feet. This building was formerly the residence of the Spanish viceroys, but was then occupied by the government offices and contained the government archives. The Mexican Congress also convened in the building. One half of the city seemed to be composed of convents, churches and other ecclesiastical structures. But with all the splendor of the buildings on the plaza, the buildings in the outskirts of the city were principally one-story houses and mere hovels. One singular thing which we noticed was that there were no chimneys and I did not see a grate or stove while in the city. The people warmed and cooked by ovens and the smoke escaped through openings in the roof.
There were some fine promenades in the city. One was the famous Alameda, planted with stately beeches. Another fine avenue extended out to the Castle of Chapultepec. Along these promenades and in the plaza the soldiers were accustomed to saunter. The back streets were very narrow and the sidewalks just wide enough for two. It was the custom of the soldiers to go in twos, and when they met a Mexican he was usually shoved into the street. Fully one half of the population were full-blooded Indians, descendants of the aboriginal inhabitants; about a fourth were half-breeds, being half Spanish and half Indian. The remainder were pure whites, descendants of the Spanish conquerors.
Our surroundings at Santa Clara were very pleasant, yet two things made our lot less agreeable. We were unacclimated, and on account of the exhalations from the lakes and the bad sanitary condition of the city, much sickness prevailed, and many members of the regiment were sent to the hospital. Our rations were also far from satisfactory both as to quantity and quality.
For several reasons our army, while in the City of Mexico, was poorly fed and poorly clad. One of the reasons for this state of affairs was the great distance from the base of supplies and the difficulties in the matter of transportation. To our scanty rations of hard bread, bacon and coffee, a limited supply of Mexican beef was added, but we were still inadequately supplied, and there was considerable dissatisfaction throughout the regiment. Colonel Lane was a good officer but a strict disciplinarian, and on this account, was not, in the beginning of our service, altogether popular with the men just out of civil life and unused to military restraints, and while the Colonel was young in years as well as in appearance, he was known throughout the regiment as "Old Jim."
One day the members of Company H held a meeting in the old convent and passed some resolutions respecting our limited supply of rations. While this proceeding was altogether unmilitary, yet the resolutions were respectful and called upon our commanding officer to remedy the evil, if possible. As I was now orderly sergeant I was designated to present the resolutions to Colonel Lane. With a good deal of trepidation, I went to headquarters. Saluting the Colonel, I briefly stated the object of my visit and presented the resolutions. He was rather curt, but read the communication carefully. He then turned the paper over and wrote that he had done everything possible to secure better rations for the men, and had importuned and even demanded of the commissary department better supplies, but without avail. He then ordered me to form the company in line and read his communication to the men. I did so, and reports of the affair spread throughout the regiment, and while our rations were not increased the Colonel's popularity steadily grew.
Part III
Amos Brown, the young colored man from Fall Creek Township, continued to act as cook for the officers of Company H. He had always desired to be regularly mustered into the service and the officers of the company were not unwilling to have him paid by the Government, rather than out of their own pockets. As I was supposed to have some prejudices on the color line, some of the members of the company, while in the City of Mexico, asked me to interpose no objections to his being mustered into the service, and I made none, and on December 31, as shown by the muster rolls, Brown was mustered into the service of the United States as a member of our company. And thus a colored man from Henry County became a soldier fifteen years before colored men were enlisted in the great Civil War.
On Sundays many members of the regiment attended the old cathedrals and beheld for the first time, the impressive religious ceremonies of the Catholic Church, while others attended in the afternoon the bull fights and witnessed the exciting contests of the arena, which never failed to attract the attendance of the Mexican aristocracy. Many members of the regiment, most of whom were unmarried, cultivated the acquaintance of the senoritas many of whom were handsome, with their dark eyes and olive tints, but the freedom of their manners was always a complete surprise to an American. Even the higher classes of Mexican women who were supposed to live most secluded lives, restrained by the traditional customs of the Spanish race and the most punctilious forms of etiquette, were nothing averse to little flirtations with our soldiers.
As upon shipboard, the slightest incidents relieve the monotony, so, unimportant incidents in our garrison life varied the monotony from day to day. While in the City of Mexico, our regiment was paid off, our monthly wages being counted out to us in silver. For risking his life in this dreadful climate, ten fold more destructive than the enemy’s bullets, the private soldier received seven dollars per month. Pay day to the soldier was an event of no little importance, and the ill fed soldiers, who a few weeks before, had left comfortable homes in Indiana were wont to frequent the restaurants so long as their money lasted and indulge in Mexican dishes of doubtful origin. We received our mail once a month and news from home was always joyfully received. But the return mails too often carried to homes, in the North, sad tidings of the death of some loved one.
An event which threatened for a time to lead to the most serious consequences now occurred. A portion of the old convent of Santa Clara where the Fifth Regiment was quartered was, as I have before stated, occupied by a body of nuns of the Catholic Church. Their apartments were completely isolated from our quarters and were in a remote part of the convent. A soldier without evil intent, but with a desire to play a practical joke, managed to surreptitiously gain admittance to their apartments, to their great surprise and consternation. The news of this affair, so sacrilegious to a Catholic, spread through the city and profoundly excited the populace. The act was regarded as an insult to their religion and a violation of the most sacred of its institutions. The excitement among the Mexicans was ver\- great and there were ominous threats. There were perhaps, not to exceed 10,000 American troops in the city and its suburbs and these were quartered remotely from each other. At the time of the greatest excitement I was in charge of the guard at the Custom House where eight hundred Mexican women were engaged in making clothing for our troops. Half of the guard was withdrawn and ordered to report at the convent where an attack by the infuriated populace was threatened. Fortunately the excitement subsided without serious results.
The rations doled out to the regiment at Santa Clara showed no improvement. All of our money was spent since the last pay day and so with a boldness born of impecuniosity and a hunger never quite satisfied, I entered a bakery and asked for bread. The baker placed several loaves on the counter. With my limited knowledge of Spanish, I said to him, A poco tiempo, meaning that I would pay for it in a short time. The baker reached for the bread, but I anticipated him and picked up the loaves. I wrote my name on a slip of paper and handed it to the baker, who placed it in a drawer. I took the bread to our quarters and for two or three days our mess fared sumptuously. A few days afterwards, our regiment was paid off and with my monthly stipend in my pocket, I went to the place of business of my friend, the baker, who remembered me, and to his great surprise, paid for -the bread. The news of this little transaction spread among the dealers along the street, and my credit was so well established, that I could, 1 think, have bought all the bakeries on the street, on time.
Death was decimating the ranks of our army. Men out of an equable climate of the North temperate zone could not withstand the fevers of a plain in the torrid zone, 7,500 feet above the level of the sea. To the dangers of the climate to an American, were added those of the bad sanitary conditions of a great city. Many members of the Fifth Regiment were in the hospital. Captain Cary and Lieutenant Marshall died in the City of Mexico and Lieutenant Shunk was promoted to the captaincy of Company H. The bodies of our dead officers were placed in metallic coffins and taken to Vera Cruz, whence they were to be transported to their homes at Marion, but the superstitious sailors would not allow the corpses to be brought on shipboard, and their remains were buried in the cemetery at Vera Cruz where several hundred American soldiers were buried. There was an ancient cemetery connected with the convent of Santa Clara,or every ecclesiastical edifice of importance had its burying ground. Here in this cemetery, 2,500 miles from home, many members of the Fifth Regiment were buried. Every cemetery of importance, whether in peace or war, is apt to have its grave robbers. It was discovered that Mexican ghouls were despoiling the graves of our dead comrades. No valuables were ever buried with the bodies of our comrades, but their graves in numerous instances had been opened and the corpses stripped of their clothing. I was ordered one night to take a squad of men and capture the wretches if possible. We stealthily approached the cemetery under the cover of night, but the ghouls who had opened three graves and stripped two bodies, had confederates, and fled into the chapparral.