The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 77, July 1973 - April, 1974 Page: 48
568 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Mexican War
Walker finished it. Sarony & Major credited the captain with ownership
of the original when they issued their print, entitled The Storming of Cha-
pultepec Sept. 13th 1847 (fig. 42). Harry T. Peters, a noted authority on
lithographs, concluded that this print is one of the best ever produced by
Sarony & Major. "This print was probably the origin, or at least culmina-
tion, of all those stock size prints, by Currier and Sarony & Major, that
record visually the Mexican War," he wrote.51
The lithographers also covered the naval maneuvers of the war. The
United States controlled the Gulf of Mexico from the moment the conflict
began. On April o every important Mexican port on the Gulf of Mexico
was under American control except Tuxpan, which had become a large
Mexican supply depot and center of guerrilla activity. Commodore Perry
set out to conquer the port, which was well-defended with guns taken from
the captured U.S.S. Truxton. In addition, the city was well located, situated
eight miles up the precarious Rio Tuxpan, which narrowed from 300 yards
wide at the mouth to just 150 yards in six miles. At that point a forty-foot
cliff jutted into the river, providing an ideal vantage point for a defensive
battery. Other batteries were located farther upriver.52
Perry sent ground forces to capture La Pefia hill. Walke shows, by the
flag, that it was in American hands by the time the Spitfire dashed nearer
the town and received fire from the Mexicans, with Tattnall and three
other officers being wounded (fig. 44). In Walke's print the ship is return-
ing the fire. Perry had ordered barges dropped for the attack: they can
be seen in the river. The three schooner gunboats are correctly shown under
sail, while the Vixen and Spitfire are accurately shown unmasted. But
Walke made some changes, as Morison points out. He has exaggerated the
heights and telescoped two far-distant points to make them appear to be in
the same scene-much as the artists of the bird's-eye views of cities might
"move" a river to make it appear part of the immediate vicinity of a town.
Hospital Hill, a mile and one half upstream, is invisible from La Pefia, since
it is around a bend, but Walke shows it up close, and triples its size. Tux-
pan is correctly situated, but there is no mountain behind it.3
Perry also wanted to capture the city of Villahermosa, on the Rio Ta-
basco (now Rio Grijalva), and Walke did several views of the conflict
that ensued. On June 14, the U. S. steamers Scorpion, Spitfire, Vixen, and
51Ibid.; Peters, America on Stone, 353-354 (quotation), fig. I29.
52Morison, "Old Bruin," 224-225.
5Henry Walke, Naval Portfolio No. I (New York, 1848). For a discussion of the
Walke prints, see Morison, "Old Bruin," 225-227, 231-232.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 77, July 1973 - April, 1974, periodical, 1973/1974; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117148/m1/66/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.