Excerpt from Journal of Francis Collins: An Artillery Officer in the Mexican War

The original mss. Is in the possession of his niece, Maria Clinton Col lins, Cincinnati, Ohio. The transcript thereof is exact with the exception of a few changes made in orthography and punctuation for the sake of clear ness.am thankful, I have not many) and write out all these thoughts in such a familiar way as would make it like talking with an old friend of the almost forgotten incidents of our by-gone years. But as I cannot do this in so quaint and pleasant a way as the delightful Frenchman has done, in giving us the fruit of his experience, I will content myself with saving from forgetful ness what will, perhaps, in time to come reward me for my labors.

In the month of June, in the year 1841, I was entered a cadet in the United States Military Academy at West Point. I re mained through the regular term of four years, and was duly graduated in June 1845, when I received a commission as Brevet Second Lieutenant in the U. S. Army, and was attached for duty to the Fourth Regiment of Artillery. After receiving my diploma at West Point, a furlough of three months was granted me. At the expiration of my furlough October 1, 1845, I joined the army at Old Point Comfort, Va., and was assigned for duty to Company F. Commanded by Brevet Major John L. Gardner. The Fourth Regiment of Artillery was commanded at that time by Col. John B. Walbach and had its Head Quarters at Fort Monroe, Va.

I remained in this garrison until May 1846, when war being declared against Mexico, z all our small force was sent into the field. The regiments were mere skeletons, and in order to fill them up as rapidly as possible all the officers which could be spared were distributed through the different states on the Recruiting Service. I was sent first to Raleigh, North Carolina, where I remained about two months, and then visited different towns west of Raleigh.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.