Press enter after choosing selection

Letter From Captain Van Arman

Letter From Captain Van Arman image
Parent Issue
Day
21
Month
April
Year
1848
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

By the politeness of Mrs. Van Arman, of this place, we have been furnished with an extract of a letter from her husband, Captain J. Van Arman, of the Michigan volunteers, dated Vera Cruz, March 13, 1848. We landed at this place, after a very prosperous voyage of seven days, on Saturday evening the 11th, instant, and immediately encamped in the neighborhood of the city. We march the day after to-morrow to the interior of Mexico. Our destination is a city of some 40,000 inhabitants, lying about eighty miles West of here, and some thirty miles from the direct route to the city of Mexico, called Orizaba. It stands at the foot of a mountain of the same name, and whose tall peak, capped with eternal snow, was visible to us far out at sea, as we approached this place. Vera Cruz s rather a splendid city; it is a walled town about two miles in circuit, built in the most substantial manner, and some part of it in a very handsome and expensive style of architecture. The buildings are mainly two stories high, and built almost exclusively with a kind of flat bricks. The public buildings alone seem to have been permitted to exceed the usual height, and many of these, and particularly the churches, are lofty and magnificent structures, rearing their old time-worn and moss-grown towers to an enormous height. The streets are very narrow, and paved with stone the entire width. The exterior of the town presents the appearance of one continuous battery and embrasures for cannon; and loops for musketry, with lofty barricades on the summit of the walls, give it a most formidable appearance. Indeed, in the hands of men it would be nearly impregnable. I have just returned from the city, whither I went to purchase some few articles preparatory to my march. Among the rest, a broad brimmed hat, which is indispensable in marching under the burning sun of this climate and over the sand and mountains. Indeed ït is very hot here, and the whole country around here sterile and sandy in extreme; still the city and country around are interesting, and will repay the trouble of the visitor. Our camp is about eighteen miles from the city, and is surrounded by chapperal, which is infested with guerrillas. Many men have been shot by them almost in sight of the camp. A Lieutenant was way-laid and shot but a few days since, and this evening Captain Dean, of our battalion, and the Surgeon and another man, were fired at by some guerrillas from behind some ruins between here and the city. - The Adjutant and myself passed a few moments after, and expected them to fire upon us, but being armed they did not attack us. - We cannot leave our camp in safety, without arms and pretty well accompanied. There are many rumors of peace here, and it is probable that a peace will be made in the course of the summer; but it cannot be lasting. Even now, the Mexicans have agreed to an armistice, and yet they carry on a constant warfare. There is no faith to be kept with them; and we shall undoubtedly find in the end that a permanent peace can be obtained only by occupying and subduing the whole country. The Mexican government pretends to discountenance the acts of guerrillas, and yet eight hundred of them are now assembled at the pass of the mountains on our route to Orizaba, and are supplied with cannon, and attacked the last train that went through, and killed several of them, and all this since the armistice, and the Mexicans look on. This body of guerrillas occupy a strong pass in the mountains, on our way. We shall go about four hundred strong, well supplied with artillery, and well disposed to do them justice. - They will.however, be very like to keep clear of us, unless they can surprise us at night. - Our destination is one of the most healthy and delightful places in Mexico. The troops are in good health. The news this morning looks still more like peace. Captain Cortenius, of Kalamazoo, will return in about six weeks.