The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 73, July 1969 - April, 1970 Page: 331
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Camp Life in the Army of Occupation
The position taken by Gen. Taylor is one of extreme beauty; and when
the eye first rests upon his camp, clustered with a thousand spotless white
tents, along the shelly margin of the shore of Corpus Christi Bay, irre-
sistible bursts of admiration follow! It is a position of security as well as
of beauty.8
The tents occupied a distance along the shore of about one and a half
to two miles. Three-quarters of a mile inland 12o Texas Rangers under
the command of John Coffee Hays served as an out-guard. General
Taylor named the encampment Fort Marcy."
This idyllic state of affairs was altered by what first had been be-
lieved to be such a bonanza-the weather. Late summer and fall
brought heavy rains and sudden cold spells. Wood was scarce, barely
enough existing for cooking, much less for warmth or drying out,
and the rate of sickness in camp soared.
On August 24 a frightening thunderstorm accompanied by torrents
of rain lashed at the troops. "A few more such storms, and feather-beds
will be in demand," recorded Captain Henry in his diary. "They are
perfectly awful-take your breath away and make you sit bolt upright
in your chair, feet on the rung, as if your life depended on it," he
continued. During the storm a bolt of lightning struck two of Lieu-
tenant Braxton Bragg's Negro servants, killing one and injuring the
other. Colonel David Twiggs' 2nd Dragoons, drawing near to General
Taylor's forces after an overland journey across Texas, mistook a
loud electrical storm for a Mexican artillery attack on the Americans.
Wearied by their difficult and lengthy journey, Colonel Twiggs' men
nevertheless mustered sufficient spirit to charge into camp on horse-
back to "rescue" their supposedly beleagured comrades.20
As late as October, though, Lieutenant George G. Meade wrote
enthusiastically to his wife about the weather, "You may imagine how
healthy a place this is, when we have collected here, nearly four
thousand men who have come from all parts of the country . . .
and yet until this time there have been only two or three deaths from
disease."1 As a minor complaint, however, he noted that "nearly all"
the troops had been affected by mild cases of diarrhea.
"Ilbid.
"'Mexican War Correspondence, 99.
"Henry, Campaign Sketches, 32; Niles' National Register, LXIX (November 1, 1845),
133.
"George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, edited by George
Gordon Meade (2 vols.; New York, 1913) , I, 29.331
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 73, July 1969 - April, 1970, periodical, 1970; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117147/m1/367/: accessed April 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.