Returned to our quarters, and just in time for dress parade, and in time to save our reputation as truthful and obedient soldiers.
To-day I mailed the following letter:
| San Angel, near the City of Mexico | |
| January 13, 1848. |
To Henry Strunk.
Dear Friend:—It is with pleasure I take my pen in hand to inform you that I am well, and I know you all will be rejoiced when you receive this letter from one of your old schoolmates, now so far away from home, battling for our old flag, the Stars and Stripes, in this tierra calientes.
From the present surroundings no one would believe that war or hostility had ever been raging between our soldiers and the Mexicans. We associate together and have many a social talk and party together, yet at the same time we are drilling and preparing for more war and to do bloody work. Although a large number of us are quite contented with what we have done, yet at the same time we are willing to go on so long as necessity requires it and our country demands it; but I regret to state that our present Congress, now sitting in Washington, is not giving us soldiers much credit for our toilsome marches and glorious victories fought in this country. In place of legislating for the benefit of us soldiers in Mexico, they are wrangling about something else of no consequence whatever. They should cast their deliberations on those few brave hearts who first entered this hostile country of the Aztecs, with our brave Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Winfield Scott, and those who stood by the glorious Stars and Stripes until they were strongly and triumphantly planted upon the halls of Montezumas. But we have reason to believe that our Congress will not forget us in the future, as we have done the work assigned to us so far, to suit the wishes of our employers, and are willing to go wherever our employers see fit to send us.
