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The Toilsome March: An Indiana Soldier’s Experience in the The Toilsome March: An Indiana Soldier’s Experience in the
Mexican War Mexican War
Nathan B. Sanderson
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
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1
e Toilsome March:
An Indiana Soldier’s Experience
in the Mexican War
Nathan B. Sanderson
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Abstract
Historians have produced a number of full-length monographs on the Mex-
ican War, yet virtually all of them cover the military action between the cap-
ture of Mexico City in September 1847 and the signing of the Treaty of Guada-
lupe-Hidalgo in February 1848 in just a few pages. Overlooked are the soldiers
who enlisted for military service, yet did not experience combat. Unnoticed are
those whose lives were shaped by time spent in camp, on the march, and fi ghting
boredom, instead of enemies. Many soldiers who dreamed of honor and prestige
failed to fi nd even a hint of their naïve dreams. Men who yearned for battlefi eld
glory or the grandeur of heroic service often found themselves pulling garrison
duty in a poor, boring, insignifi cant Mexican village instead. John Towner was
one of these men. Seeking fame and adventure, he enlisted in the fall of 1847,
though he could never guess how his term of service would turn out.
Towner did not win glory, honor, or treasure. He did not fi ght in any ma-
jor battles, engage in any key military movements, speculate about the political
ramifi cations of the army’s actions, advocate Manifest Destiny, or provide out-
standing leadership to his fellow troops. Towner’s experiences refl ect those of
many soldiers who did not see combat, and thus defi ned war by their time spent
in camp and on the march. A study of John Towner’s experiences will demon-
strate how non-combat service signifi cantly shaped the lives of many American
soldiers in the Mexican War.
N B. S2 A I S M W 3
Only seventy years after the Declaration of Independence, the
United States needed just one more piece to complete a vast con-
tinental jigsaw puzzle. By 1846, the American dream of spanning
the North American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacifi c was
nearly fulfi lled. Beginning with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and
followed by the acquisition of Texas and the Oregon Territory, the
country more than tripled in only four decades. e relatively easy
addition of thousands of square miles made many government offi -
cials eager to realize the country’s Manifest Destiny. eir quest was
nearly complete.
is rapid expansion did not go unchallenged, however. Mexico
considered the Republic of Texas a rebel province, not an indepen-
dent nation, and for years had threatened war if the United States
tried to annex that territory. When Texas became a state in 1845,
Mexico sent troops north to reclaim its lost lands. With the defense
of Texas as justifi cation, the stars and stripes went to war with Mex-
ico for a single purpose: to claim territory for the United States.
1
In the brief war that followed, 104,556 men served in the army and
13,768 of those lost their lives. is death rate ranks higher than any
other American war.
2
Political motives and casualty statistics do not tell the story of the
men in uniform, however. Soldiers who enlisted for military service
while dreaming of honor and prestige often failed to fi nd even a hint
of their naïve dreams. Men who yearned for battlefi eld glory or the
grandeur of heroic service often found themselves pulling garrison
duty in a poor, boring, insignifi cant Mexican village instead. John
Towner was one of these men. Seeking fame and adventure, he en-
listed in the fall of 1847, though he could never guess how his term
of service would turn out. Towner did not win glory, honor, or trea-
sure. He did not fi ght in any major battles, engage in any key mil-
itary movements, speculate about the political ramifi cations of the
army’s actions, advocate Manifest Destiny, or provide outstanding
leadership to his fellow soldiers. Towner’s experiences refl ect those of
many soldiers who did not see combat, and thus defi ned war by their
time spent in camp and on the march.
Most recent Mexican War histories mention the suff erings of
common soldiers. John Eisenhower, in So Far from God, observes
that for the American troops, “only about one death in eight came
from enemy action.”
3
K. Jack Bauer notes that while “battle deaths
amounted to only 1.5 percent of the troops, those from disease and
other non-combat causes were nearly 10 percent.”
4
Although the
conquest of Mexico was “disappointingly easy” in Alfred Hoyt Bill’s
estimation, “the conditions that [General Winfi eld Scott] found
prevailing among the troops along the Rio Grande were the reverse
of satisfactory.”
5
Robert Johannsen’s study of the war in the Amer-
ican imagination, To the Halls of Montezuma, describes how soldiers
endured “unsanitary conditions, strange and unclean food, pollut-
ed water,” and faced “death and disability” from “Amoebic dysentery
and diarrhea.”
6
ese and virtually all other Mexican War mono-
graphs cover the military action between the capture of Mexico City
in September 1847 and the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hi-
dalgo in February 1848 in just a few pages.
Unnoticed are those whose lives were shaped by time spent in
camp, on the march, and fi ghting boredom, instead of enemies. e
brave men who enlisted to defend their country, not a small adobe
shack, have been long ignored. A study of John Towner’s experienc-
es will demonstrate how non-combat service signifi cantly shaped the
lives of many American soldiers in the Mexican War.
Towner left his tiny hometown of Brookville, Indiana at one
o’clock p.m. on September 22, 1847, making for the Ohio River city
of Lawrenceburg. He walked quickly, excited by the hope of sign-
ing up with the Fifth Indiana Volunteer regiment. In only a few
days the Fifth would depart for Mexico, and the young man meant
to leave with them. Towner was only fi fteen years old that fall and
ever since veterans of the ird Indiana Regiment, participants at
the famous Battle of Buena Vista, had returned home in July and
told romantic tales of Mexico and battle, his excitement rose to the
point “that my studies were neglected and the thought of becom-
ing a soldier haunted me day and night.” roughout the summer
he dreamed of “war and brilliant uniforms and strains of martial
N B. S4 A I S M W 5
music” constantly and for more than two months “neither thought
nor talked of anything but Mexico.” An intense desire to experience
battle consumed him. e quest to earn glory on a Mexican battle-
fi eld became his “sublime passion.”
7
In the months before he left, Towner had often read newspa-
per accounts noting the bravery of the men fi ghting in Mexico. e
April 30, 1847 Indiana American contained an article titled, “Who is
General [Zachary] Taylor?,” which featured a short biography of the
famous General that noted several tales of his dangerous and excit-
ing upbringing. e author posed the following question: “Who can
say what an aff ect a boyhood so passed [fi lled with danger] had in
the formation of the character which has so wonderfully displayed
itself in Mexico?”
8
To his adolescent mind, the battlefi eld experienc-
es that helped make General Taylor a successful, popular man must
have seemed like a way to earn such recognition for himself. Town-
er’s desire to fi ght Mexicans and earn laurels no doubt had its origin
in such ideas.
On the previous day, the starry-eyed youth had overheard men
talking about volunteers gathering in Lawrenceburg and told him-
self, “Well I will go and strive to become what they were and per-
haps if I fall I will be as highly honored.” Hoping to enlist “in time
to assist in taking the city of Mexico,” Towner developed a plan.
9
In
the morning, he would walk to Lawrenceburg and join the regiment
headed for Mexico.
Everything about the military fascinated Towner, especially the
bands, the uniforms, and the opportunity to earn glory and distinc-
tion. Although the soldiers’ stories excited him, his grandfather, John
Hackleman, had served honorably in the War of 1812 and very like-
ly fi lled his eager young grandson with stories of his own military
exploits.
10
Hackleman’s tales probably served as the main infl uence
behind Towner’s decision to join the army because he was the teen-
ager’s strongest male role model.
John Towner’s parents, Dr. Homer L. Towner and Perlina Hackl-
eman-Towner, had married on December 11, 1830. Only fi ve months
later, Dr. Towner abruptly died.
11
is unfortunate situation left Per-
lina, then only eighteen years old, pregnant and widowed. Within
six months of the doctor’s death, Perlina’s fi rst child, John H. Town-
er was born. Her father, John Hackleman, assumed responsibility for
his daughter and her tiny child, and for more than eight years helped
raise his grandson on a small farm four miles south of Brookville.
In September 1839, two months before Towner’s eighth birthday,
his mother married a local constable, Jeremiah O. St. John. Even with
a new father fi gure, Towner remained close to his grandfather. Over
the next fi ve years, the rural Indiana boy grew into a young man. He
attended school, worked on his grandfather’s farm, and developed an
intense fascination with the military. After the Buena Vista veterans
returned in the summer of 1847, Towner found a number of power-
ful role models and a way to distinguish himself. His grandfather’s
service record, the veterans’ grand stories of battle, romantic news-
paper stories, and his desire to earn glory all led Towner to run away
from home and enter the military.
Early on the bright, clear morning of September 22, Towner “saw
an account of some battles that had been fought near the city of
Mexico” that “added fuel to the fl ame that already burned within my
bosom.” He ate breakfast and left for school, brimming with excite-
ment. During class, his mental preoccupation very nearly gave away
his plan. Caught up in his obsession with the war, he “scarce looked
over my lessons at all” and “received a good lecture when I went in to
the school board to recite.” Over the course of the morning, Towner
informed only a few select friends of his intentions, “(knowing that
if they were made public my career would be stopped),” and passed
the next few hours in restless anticipation.
12
At noon, Towner made
for home, presumably to eat lunch. e crafty teenager did not in-
tend to return, however. Finding the house empty and his family on
an afternoon trip to his grandfather’s farm, he grabbed a few clothes,
fi lled his pockets with bread and meat, and started off .
13
About the time Towner was skipping class to join the Indiana
Volunteers and “assist in taking the city of Mexico,” General Win-
fi eld Scott and his victorious army were busy with the occupation of
that very city. Only a week earlier, his troops had stormed the capi-
tal and drove off the Mexican army, securing the fi nal objective that
would force the disorganized Mexican government to sue for peace.
N B. S6 A I S M W 7
Although a treaty would not come for more than four months, all
the major battles in the Mexican War were over. Towner could have
no idea that his dreams of earning glory and honor on the battlefi eld
would go unfulfi lled. His service in the military would not be any-
thing like he planned.
As he headed out of Brookville on September 22, the determined
young man vowed to win glory on the battlefi eld, even if it cost him
his life. “It is,” he thought to himself, “perhaps the last time I should
ever see my mothers home [sic].” As he crossed the bridge out of
town, the school bell rang, which to John, “seemed like my knell for
eternity.” He very nearly turned back, but immediately “thought of
the jeers of my companions if I acted the coward” and “determined
to go at all hazards.”
14
Upon reaching Lawrenceburg the next day, Towner found Cap-
tain Aaron Gibbs and immediately joined his company. Two nights
later, on Saturday, September 25, Gibbs’ company boarded the Swift-
sure No. 4, a steamboat that would take them down the Ohio River
to Madison, the rendezvous point for the companies of the Fifth In-
diana regiment. Towner had never been on a steamboat before, and
though he knew he should try to rest, “the glorious scene of a no-
ble river, a splendid steamboat lighted up by the full moon in all her
magesty [sic] and glory throwing her light over the scene and the
thoughts, — the glorious thought of fi ghting for my country would
not let me sleep.”
15
Upon arriving in Madison, he discovered that several other com-
panies were still enroute, so for more than a week, Private Towner
found himself with ample free time. One afternoon, he and a friend,
Asa McManaman, left the city to search the woods for apples. On
their return, an argument developed between the two, and a bru-
tal fi ght broke out. Towner snatched up a rock and knocked down
his adversary three consecutive times with blows to his ribs. Towner
did not severely wound the other private, though once they returned
to camp, McManaman reported him to their captain, who, luckily
for Towner, dismissed the incident as simply a scuffl e between boys.
McManaman, however, did not let the issue drop so easily and “bor-
rowed a pistol and carried it about two week[s] with the avowed pur-
pose of blowing my brains out.” Eventually, McManaman returned
the gun and Towner escaped without injury, but this would not be
the fi rst time his love of fresh fruit would get him into trouble.
16
In October, Towner experienced another “fi rst.” He had already
taken his fi rst steamboat ride, joined his fi rst military unit, and seen
his fi rst “action” while in uniform, so he felt no qualms about tak-
ing the next important step toward becoming a soldier: drinking.
e youthful Towner “had never been in the habit of getting drunk,”
but one evening he proposed to another private to “take a spree.” e
boys “got pretty high and cut a good many capers.”
17
Already Town-
er’s experiences were shaping his image of military service.
On October 31, after a month of training, long walks, fi stfi ghts,
“sprees,” and war preparations, the Fifth Indiana boarded another
steamboat for the much longer trip to the Gulf of Mexico. Only two
days into the journey, Towner took sick “with the diorea [sic] and
was confi ned to my bed nearly all the way to New Orleans.” In this,
he had the unfortunate opportunity to partake of another occurrence
common for enlisted men.
e Fifth Indiana docked in New Orleans in early November and
after a week of preparations, departed for Vera Cruz, Mexico. ey
arrived on November 16 and took up residence within the city’s
public buildings. e next day they moved about two miles outside
the city to Camp Butler, where several thousand men made camp.
Towner quickly realized that life in the infantry often consisted of
living in miserable quarters. e camp rested on a sandy, chaparral-
covered plain about a mile from the gulf. Its location forced soldiers
to carry water more than a mile and a half and nearby, he noted hun-
dreds of little white crosses marking a crude cemetery. As the crosses
demonstrated, the region’s prevalent yellow fever and the other dis-
eases common to an unsanitary camp could take a toll far greater
than enemy bullets.
One day, as a dejected Towner sat by the cemetery, “thinking of
the instability of human aff airs,” he saw three Mexican women car-
rying the naked corpse of an Indian who had died of yellow fever.
e women “dropped him rudely into the grave and covered him up.”
Towner, the young man who dreamed of war in “the land of the rob-
N B. S8 A I S M W 9
ber and beggar” as glorious, received a severe reality check, for “this
shocked my feelings very much as I had never seen the dead treated
so roughly before.”
18
e Fifth Indiana “took up the line of march for Mexico” on No-
vember 26 and Towner immediately “found that marching was ex-
tremely tiresome.” Following the dusty National Road, they marched
all that day and the next, stopping only at night to make camp. Dirty
and monotonous, the march in the ensuing days drained the spirits
of the green troops. On the fourth day the regiment reached Jalapa,
“a delightful valley remarkable for its fertility,” and passed by numer-
ous trees where “oranges bananas and almost all kinds of both trop-
ical and temperate fruits here grow in the greatest abundance.” Al-
though the offi cers gave strict orders for the men to stay in ranks,
Towner, fatigued, bored, hungry, and thirsty, “determined to partake
of some tropical delicacies.”
19
His quest for fresh fruit earned him a fi stfi ght, and nearly a bullet,
in his previous venture, but military justice for insubordination could
prove far harsher than fi sts. He dismissed the danger of a court-mar-
tial and, when opportunity allowed, slipped out of rank, leaped over
a low stone wall, and concealed himself beneath some thick foliage.
Unfortunately, just as he cleared the wall, a thorny briar struck his
face, causing a great deal of pain. He did, however, succeed in getting
as many oranges as he could eat, and fi lled his cap, haversack, and
pockets for his comrades. Towner followed the column three miles
to camp and rejoined the regiment without being discovered, though
the injury would bother him for months afterwards.
Weeks in a military camp with poor rations can serve as power-
ful motivation to locate fresh food, and the next day he returned to
Jalapa to secure more oranges and bananas. On this trip, the orchard
he entered was “surrounded by a stone wall one side of which was
built on the side of a steep bank so that on the side next to the street
it was very low but on the inside it was some fi fteen or twenty feet
high.” He climbed “carefully down the wall and was soon staying my
stomach by partaking of the delicious fruit. As soon as I had eaten as
many oranges and bananas as I wanted I began to look about me for
a place of egress. I soon found that I was in nearly as bad a fi x as Col.
Crockett was in the bears nest.”
20
e high stone wall complete-
ly enclosed the orchard, providing no point for escape. Eventually,
he managed to climb out and return to camp. He seemed to have
learned his lesson, for there would be no more independent missions
to fi nd food.
e Fifth Indiana marched for more than ten days, frequent-
ly with empty canteens, until they arrived at the village of Puebla.
After resting for one day, the regiment continued toward Mexico
City, with Towner’s company as rear guard. Before they left, however,
many of the men fi lled their canteens with whiskey instead of water,
and “had not proceeded many miles before most of the company was
in a state of intoxication.” eir drunkenness quickly led to fi ghts
breaking out, soldiers lying down to sleep, and general chaos in the
unit that was supposed to be providing rear guard. It could not have
come at a more inopportune time. e Fifth “had not traveled more
than about two miles from Puebla before we saw something like a
thousand Mexicans standing in battle array . . . many of our number
were still laboring under the eff ect of liquor and we numbered only
about thirty seven men in ranks.”
21
With the main body of troops
more than fi ve miles away, it looked as if Towner would get his op-
portunity to fi ght, although the odds seemed decidedly unfavorable.
After a two-hour standoff where the tense American soldiers faced
a group of Mexican guerrillas, though almost certainly far fewer
than the thousand Towner claims, two of the forward units returned
to support the beleaguered company. e Mexican force withdrew
without fi ring a shot. After an exceedingly long and eventful day, the
company stumbled into camp at ten o’clock that night.
22
Towner’s regiment marched for another three days, passing ex-
tremely cold nights with little fuel for their fi res—on two occasions,
the soldiers burned fence rails and church pews to stay warm. Final-
ly, on December 17, 1847, nearly four months after he left home,
Towner entered Mexico City. Upon arrival, the Fifth began garrison
duty, and spent their time patrolling the streets for guerrillas waging
personal wars against the victorious American army.
Although the Fifth “again experienced little except for the mo-
notony of camp, occasional skirmishes with guerrillas, and the inevi-
N B. S10 A I S M W 11
table harassment [sic] of the disease and climate,” Towner very near-
ly became a casualty, although not on the battlefi eld.
23
One evening
as he and two friends, Privates Wood and Jona, were returning from
a small village four miles outside of camp, they “discovered about fi f-
ty Mexicans standing at the church door headed by a priest dressed
in his sacred robes.” Without warning, the priest “raised a carbine
and fi red.” Initially they thought to stand and fi ght, but Towner “had
but three cartridges and my companions were likewise poorly fur-
nished and neither of us had a bayonet, and we concluded that it was
best to retreat.” He felt a “chill of horror [pass] through my frame as
I saw their fi red and savage countenances, which were rife with plea-
sure, for they evidently considered us as certain prey.”
24
e young soldiers immediately sprinted for safety. During the
frenzied run for their lives, Wood lost his shoes, a terrible misfor-
tune, for they were traveling through sharp briars and other foot-
tearing underbrush. ey ran as fast as they could for a mile and a
half until Wood, unable to keep up and “about 100 yards behind me
began to cry aloud for help.” Towner “instantly turned and went back
to his assistance,” while Jona continued to run. Towner soon found
“the brave fellow keeping the enemy at bay with his musket. ere
were about 30 all within 35 yards of us, but Wood was a determined
fellow.” e Mexican guerrillas “fi red on us several times and hurled
stones, bricks and muskets at us and the balls whistled close to our
heads but done us no injury.” Suddenly, a large man “who appeared
to be a leader of the gang came close to me and began to stone us
with a vengeance.” Towner raised his musket to fi re. Before he could
shoot, the man “leaped into a deep ditch near by, and our being some
twelve feet from the ditch I could not see him except when he would
rise to throw.”
25
He “took aim about the place I knew he must come up, and as he
raised I saw at a glance that my aim was correct,—and pulled the
trigger; he sprang about four feet into the air gave a horrible scream
and fell back dead.” Private Wood also fi red at a Mexican on horse-
back, but missed. e two then sprinted for camp, “loading our guns
as we went.” Eventually, they met Jona, and immediately, Wood and
Towner accused him of cowardice. ey did not press the issue, in
part because Towner believed that Jona “was struck by a sudden pan-
ic or he surely would not have left two comrades in as great dan-
ger as ours.” All three relieved young men reached camp without any
further incident.
26
Towner’s lucky escape marked the only time that he exchanged
shots with an enemy. He spent the remainder of his time in Mexico
in the same manner as the other soldiers, where “boredom, fatigue,
and camp disorders dominated their lives.”
27
When the Mexicans
signed the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in February, the war offi -
cially ended. Early in the spring of 1848, Towner and the rest of the
Fifth Indiana regiment mustered out and returned to a hero’s wel-
come in their home state.
Combat did not characterize Private John Towner’s service in
Mexico. He defi ned his experiences through day to day routine:
marching, making camp, writing, taking walks, rough-housing with
friends, standing post, fi nding better food than his rations could
provide, waiting, and seeking entertainment wherever he could fi nd
it. Towner’s military campaign proved far diff erent than he imag-
ined. He did not earn glory or win medals for his bravery. He did
not fi ght in a major battle, repel an enemy charge, or provide out-
standing leadership to his fellow soldiers. He did, however, get diar-
rhea, march from Vera Cruz to Mexico City, and break military rules
while trying to improve his diet and enjoy himself under trying cir-
cumstances. He professed his eagerness for battle, but never saw any
real action. e battlefi eld did not shape Towner’s war experience;
his concept of military service emerged from his time on the march.
As the Fifth Indiana prepared to leave Mexico and return home,
they were called to order at Camp Reynolds to receive their regi-
mental fl ags. General David Reynolds, the camp’s namesake, ad-
dressed the troops, closing with these words:
Be assured that whether in the toilsome march, slumber-
ing in your white pavilions beside your blazing camp fi re,
or mingling in the scenes of carnage on the fi eld of bat-
tle, my ardent prayer shall ascend to the God of nations, of
N B. S12 A I S M W 13
arms and battles, that He may preserve your lives and your
honor and guide you to a high and honorable and glorious
destiny.
28
at Towner and the troops of the Fifth Indiana defi ned war by
the “toilsome march” and the “blazing camp fi re,” not by “mingling
in the scenes of carnage on the fi eld of battle,” makes them no less
soldiers than those who died in combat. Although Towner never ful-
fi lled his boyish dreams of glory and honor, his experiences refl ected
those of many veterans who returned home. He discovered that war
is more than martial music, brass bands, or colorful uniforms; war
includes the events that take place on the toilsome march.
Works Cited
Primary Sources
Franklin County Probate Court. Probate Court Order and Minutes, B o o k
C. Franklin County Courthouse, Brookville, Indiana.
Grant, Ulysses S. Edited by Simon, John Y. e Papers of Ulysses S.
Grant, 1837–1861. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University
Press, 1967.
Hackleman, Phyllis A. Hacklemans in America, 1749–1988. Interlaken,
NY: Heart of the Lakes Publishing, 1988.
Towner, John H. Towner’s Mexican War Journal, 1847–1848. Hackl-
eman-Towner papers, 1847–1861. Indiana Historical Society, Indi-
anapolis, Indiana.
Newspapers
Indiana American
Secondary Sources
Bauer, K. Jack. e Mexican War, 1846–1848. Lincoln, NE: e Univer-
sity of Nebraska Press, 1992.
Bill, Alfred Hoyt. Rehearsal for Confl ict: e War with Mexico, 1846–
1848. New York: Cooper Square Publishers, Inc., 1969.
Eisenhower, John S. D. So Far From God: e U.S. War with Mexico,
1846–1848. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989.
Johannsen, Robert W. To the Halls of the Montezumas: e Mexican War
in the American Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press,
1985.
McCormick, David I. and Wilson, Mindwell Crampton, eds. Indiana
Battle Flags: A Record of Indiana Organizations in the Mexican, Civil
and Spanish-American Wars. Indianapolis: Indiana Battle Flag Com-
mission, 1929.
Reifel, August J. History of Franklin County, Indiana: Her People, Indus-
tries and Institutions. Indianapolis, IN: B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc.,
1915.
Watt, William J. and Spears, James R. H. Indiana’s Citizen Soldiers. Indi-
anapolis: e Indiana State Armory Board, 1980.
N B. S14 A I S M W 15
Notes
1 See K. Jack Bauer, e Mexican War, 1846–1848 (Lincoln, NE: e Universi-
ty of Nebraska Press, 1992), xxv and John S. D. Eisenhower, So Far from God:
e U.S. War with Mexico, 1846–1848 (New York: Oxford University Press,
1986), xviii.
2 Bvt. Major General Emory Upton, e Military Policy of the United States
(Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Offi ce, 1917), 216–218 as cited
by Eisenhower, So Far from God, xviii. Eisenhower’s fi gures estimate the per-
centage killed at approximately thirteen percent. Bauer lists 118,119 served
and 12,876 dead, or nearly eleven percent killed, in e Mexican War, 397.
3 Eisenhower, So Far from God, 369 (footnote).
4 Bauer, e Mexican War, 397.
5 Alfred Hoyt Bill, Rehearsal for Confl ict: e War with Mexico (New York:
Cooper Square Publishers, Inc., 1969), 167, 187.
6 Robert W. Johannsen, To the Halls of the Montezumas: e Mexican War in the
American Imagination (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 89–90.
7 John H. Towner, Mexican War Journal, 1847–1848 [Hackleman-Towner pa-
pers, 1847–1861], Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis, Indiana.
8 Indiana American, 30 April, 1847.
9 Towner, Mexican War Journal.
10 Phyllis A. Hackleman, Hacklemans in America, 1749–1988 (Inter laken,
NY: Heart of the Lakes Publishing, 1988.), 112.
11 Ibid, 60.
12 Towner, Mexican War Journal.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid.
23 Watt and Spears, Citizen Soldiers, 48.
24 Ibid.
25 Towner, Mexican War Journal.
26 Ibid. Towner’s journal consists of two parts. e fi rst appears in a book-type
format, with a table of contents and chapters with titles. In the back of this
fi nished copy is a much more ragged text, which appears to be the original
journal. e fi rst part could not have been written long after the war, if that
is the case, for Towner died at age twenty-two, less than fi ve years after re-
turning from Mexico. e second part of the journal, however, appears to be
his entries from his service in Mexico and written at that time. Towner re-
corded this incident in the second part, but it does not appear in the fi rst.
27 Watt and Spears, Citizen Soldiers, 38.
28 David I. McCormick and Mindwell Crampton Wilson, eds. Indiana Battle
Flags: A Record of Indiana Organizations in the Mexican, Civil and Spanish-
American Wars (Indianapolis: Indiana Battle Flag Commission, 1929), 26.
