Bayview Cemetery, shown here and located just north of downtown Corpus Christi, is the site of several upright
wooden slabs said to mark the graves of seven of the soldiers killed in the explosion of the steamboat Dayton
in September 1845. Photograph by Steven R. Butler.
eastern boundary, following the shoreline
of Corpus Christi Bay, is certain.
In Artesian Park, in the heart of down
town Corpus Christi, stands a monument
to Zachary Taylor. Both the monument
and a nearly Texas State Historical marker
commemorate the 1845-46 presence of the
"Army of Occupation". It is said that Taylor
ordered his men to drill a well in what
is now Artesian Park and that his headquarters
were on nearby Water Street, in
an old adobe house that was later torn
down to make room for a warehouse.
Copyright 1995 by The Descendants of
Mexican War Veterans.
Adapted from the author's forthcoming
book "Historic Sites of the Mexican War in
the United States".
Steven R. Butler, an instructor at Richland
College, is founder and president of The Descendants
of Mexican War Veterans, a nonprofit
national lineage society.
Suggested Reading:
William S. Henry. "Campaign Sketches of
the War with Mexico" (New York: Harper
& Bros., 1847).
Steven R. Butler: "A Documentary History
of the Mexican War" (Richardson, Texas:
Descendants of Mexican War Veterans, 1995).
14 HERITAGE -FALL 1995
