Posted on 08/11/2004 10:39:29 PM PDT by SAMWolf
Good morning GailA.
It's amazing how many young officers names show up in accounts of the Mexican War that would later become household names during the War Between the States. So many of the men who ended up on opposite sides fought together.
Guess where my tagline comes from
From the date of the quote it had to be from the Battle of Resaca de la Palma.
His "Killer Angels" was a great read. Looks like another book to add to my list.
Good Morning Mayor.
Morning PE.
2 Services down, 3 to go. :-)
LOL! I sure hope so!
Morning Feather. Is it Friday already????
General Taylor’s official report concerning Resaca de la Palma states: "The enemy had at least eight pieces of artillery and maintained an incessant fire upon our advance. The action now became general, and although the enemy’s infantry gave way before the steady fire and resistless progress of our own, yet his artillery was still in position to check our advance- several pieces occupying the pass across the ravine which he had chosen for his position. Perceiving that no decisive advantage could be gained until this artillery was silenced, I ordered Captain May to charge the batteries with his squadron of Dragoons."
Captain May’s order of the day to his men was to "Remember your Regiment and Follow your Officers." In his official report Captain May describes the action "I...was ordered by the General to charge the enemy’s batteries and drive them from their pieces, which was rapidly executed." Lieutenant Randolph Ridgely, while commanding a battery of American artillery attempting to make progress up the main road in the face of the enemy fire describes the action. " I moved rapidly to the front for about one hundred yards, and returned their fire,, which was kept up very spiritedly on both sides for some time, their grape shot passing through our battery in every direction. So, soon as it slackened, I limbered up, and moved rapidly forward...several pieces fired canister when not distant more than one hundred or one hundred and fifty yards. After having advanced in this manner about five hundred yards, Captain May, Second Dragoons, rode up and said "Where are they? I am going to charge!" I gave them a volley and he most gallantly dashed forward in column of fours at the head of his squadron."
"Lieutenant Sacket and Sergeant Story, in the front, by my side had their horses killed under them, and lieutenant Inge was gallantly leading his platoon when he fell." reports Capt May. " We charged entirely through the enemy’s batteries of seven pieces- Captain Graham, accompanied by Lieutenants Winslip and Pleasonton, leading the charge against the pieces on the left of the road, and myself, accompanied by Lt Inge, Stevens and Sacket those on the direct road- and gained the rising ground on the opposite side of the ravine. The charge was made under a heavy fire of the enemy’s batteries, which accounts for my great loss. After gaining the rising ground in the rear I could rally but six men. With these I charged their gunners, who had regained their pieces, drove them off and took prisoner General Vega, whom I found gallantly fighting in person at his battery."
It's a shame that so many of these men that fought together for America against Mexico would be fighting each other in the WBTS.
Thanks for all the additions Cannoneer. I started a thread on Ringgold after reading about him in one of Sam's threads last year but never could find enough for a biography.
The names are legendary: Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, George B. McClellan, Ambrose Powell Hill, Darius Nash Couch, George Edward Pickett, Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox, and George Stoneman. The class fought in three wars, produced twenty generals, and left the nation a lasting legacy of bravery, brilliance, and bloodshed.
Ringgold Americanized the horse artillery. Frederick the Great had horse artillery, as did George III and Napoleon, but never had horse artillery been so mobile and so disciplined as under Ringgold. The idea that gun drivers should be soldiers and not civilian contractors was fairly novel in 1839. Horses were expensive and the Government was cheap and most artillery companies had no guns at all and served as infantry, or served large guns in coastal fortifications. In the few light batteries guns often were pulled by the men. The Model 1841 6-Pdr Gun was an outstanding piece for its time, and new harness designs and new limbers and caissons made the flying artillery the elite of the Army. They could gallop from one end of the battlefield to the other, unlimber just out of musket range and bring hell fire and scunnion on the Mexicans.
Am posting this thread on my Live Journal ('ladyaubrey')
X-15, world's wildest ride on landing.
If the lower portion of the ventral tail didn't jettison, you dug the world's fastest furrow.
6-Pdr Gun, Model of 1841
"Old Sacramento" finally ended its usefulness in the following manner: Some citizens were drowned in the Kansas river and the cannon was taken down to the banks of that stream to test the theory that the concussion caused by the discharge of artillery would cause the body of a drowned person to rise to the surface. The gun was loaded heavier each time until the recoil wrecked the carriage. Then a charge of three pounds of powder was placed in the cannon and gunny sacks, wet grass, wet clay, etc., were hammered in on top of the powder with a sledgehammer. When the match was applied the gun exploded, the largest piece being blown through the wire mill, while smaller pieces were thrown clear across the river. The main part of the cannon is now in the museum at the University of Kansas.
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