Matamoros, 11 June 1846. Original Quarto manuscript ca. 25x20 cm (9 ¾ x 7 ¾ in). Brown ink on blueish wove paper. Fold marks and creases, paper with several mild stains, but overall very good.

Camargo, 29 May 1847. Original Octavo manuscript (signed duplicate) ca. 16x20 cm (6 ¼ x 8 in). Brown ink on blueish wove paper; docketed on verso. A mild centrefold mark, otherwise a very good manuscript.

Parras, March-May 1848. Four original Oblong Folio manuscripts, each ca. 22,5x34 cm (9 x 13 ½ in). Printed forms, completed in brown ink, three are signed by “G. Wm. Adams, Captain, Company C, Battalion of T.V. Cavy.,” one is signed by “A.M. Vanlandingham, Company C, Battalion of Texas Cavalry.” Three documents with additional manuscript text on verso. Fold marks and mild creases, paper slightly age-toned and with several stains, but overall very good.

Monterey & Merin, June 1, 1848. Two original Quarto manuscripts, each ca. 25x20 cm (9 ¾ x 8 in). Printed forms, completed in brown ink, both are signed by “W.K. Baylor, Lt. Comdg. Detachment Texas Rangers;” both are docketed on verso. Mild fold marks, otherwise very good manuscripts.

Interesting collection of rare original documents regarding the Siege of Fort Texas and the service of Texas Rangers during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), all created on the then-occupied territory of Mexico. The earliest piece is the original manuscript account of equipment loss at the Siege of Fort Texas (May 3-9, 1846), which launched the war. Dated June 11, 1846, the document is written and signed by Charles Heitman Hanson (1818-1847), First Lieutenant of the 7th U.S. Infantry. He was promoted Captain in February 1847, killed during the Battle of Contreras on August 20, 1847, and buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington D.C. (see Hanson’s record in: Robarts, W.H. Mexican War Veterans: A complete roster of the regular and volunteer troops in the war between the United States and Mexico, from 1846 to 1848. Washington, D.C., 1887, p. 23). Hanson’s testimony is endorsed by a “master mechanick” John Flynn.

The text of the document:
“Matamoras [sic!], June 11th, 1846.

This is to certify that during the siege of Fort Brown a great many wall tents, wall tent flies and common tents were cut up by order of the Commanding officer for the purpose of making sand bags for the defences [sic!]. I do not know who was responsible for them. C. Hanson, 1 Lieut. […?]

[In different handwriting]: We the undersigned master mechanicks [sic!] herby [sic!] certify that the tents drawn by H.G. Catlett Forage Master U.S.A. of Major J. Mac Ree in March last were left in our use & charge by said Catlett when sent on duty by Genl. Taylor and that they were taken and used by the order of Leut. [sic!] Hanson in Fort Brown for sand bags during the siege. Richard O. John Flynn.”

The second document is a receipt for forage bags, signed by 1st Lieutenant William Glenn Jett (1821-1872), then the acting commander of a detachment in the Texas Rangers. The text of the document: “Received Camargo, Mex., May 29th 1847 of Maj. G.H. Crosman, Q. Master, U.S.A. 8 eight forage bags. Signed duplicates. Wm. G. Jett, 1st Leut., comdg. Detachment, Texas Rangers.” The receipt mentions Major George Hampden Crosman (1799-1882), a U.S. Army officer who served primarily with the Quartermaster Corps throughout his career.

Four other documents are the original return forms for Company C of the Texas Mounted Volunteers, with three signed by Captain George William Adams (ca. 1815-1853) and one – by 1st Lieutenant A.M. Vanlandingham. Compiled during the battalion’s station in Parras, Mexico, in March-May 1848, the returns record the number of servicemen (total, for duty, sick, in arrest or confinement, on furlough, &c.), with additional manuscript notes, providing more detail, i.e.: “1 sick at Chiua, Mex., Apr., 12th, 1847,” “1 supposed to be killed,” “1 detached service in Satillo,” &c. Three documents list the company’s commissioned officers on verso (Captain Adams, 1st Lieutenant Vanlandingham, and two 2nd Lieutenants James W. Morrell and William Winlock/Wynlock); two documents also have the names of the privates who were killed or died: “Follett, Robert, private, Nov. 47. Last seen in Parras Mexico when the Company was in that neighborhood, and has not been heard of since, supposed to have been killed;” “Vernon, Thos, private, May 21, 1848, [died] in hospital.”

There are also two return forms – for fuel and forage - signed by Second Lieutenant Walker Keith Baylor (1821-1891), “commanding a detachment of Texas Rangers.” The return for forage, dated “Merin, Mexico, June 1st, 1848”, records the receiving of “five bushels of corn” from the U.S. Army Assistant Quartermaster, Captain Alexander Welch Reynolds (1817-1876; during the American Civil War, served as a Confederate Army brigadier general; later – as a staff officer in the Egyptian Army). A manuscript remark reads: “twenty horses of Capt. Baylor’s Company of Texas Mounted Volunteers on escort duty under command of Seargt. W.H. Blair, between Ceralvo and Monterey, Mexico.” The return for fuel, dated “Monterey, Mexico, June 1st, 1848”, records the receiving of “four feet of wood” from the same Captain Reynolds for “eighteen men performing escort duty under the command of Lieut. Baylor, Texas Mounted Vols.”

Overall an interesting collection of rare original sources on the history of the Siege of Fort Texas and the service of the Texas Rangers during the Mexican-American War.