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By Joseph E. Chance. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991. xiv + 220 pp. $22.95, ISBN 0-87805-504-5.)
The Mexican War Journal of Captain Franklin Smith. Ed. by Joseph E. Chance. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991. xiv + 267 pp. $32.50, ISBN 0-87805-492-8.)
Few military units emerged from the Mexican War with reputations equal to that of the First Mississippi Volunteer Regiment. Known popularly as the Mississippi Rifles because its soldiers carried percussion-cap rifles instead of the standard smoothbore muskets, the regiment fought at Monterrey and elsewhere in 1846 before figuring prominently in the American victory at Buena Vista on February 23, 1847. Jefferson Davis left a seat in Congress to command the regiment, and his presence virtually assured that Zachary Taylor, who remained fond of his former son-in-law, would look favorably on the Mississippians. Following Buena Vista, Taylor lavished praise on Davis and his regiment to the detriment of other deserving troops; Davis himself labored throughout the war to win recognition on the home front for the First Mississippi. The result was a widely held perception that the Mississippi Rifles stood in the first rank of American soldiers in Mexico--and a vastly enhanced national reputation for Jefferson Davis.
Joseph E. Chance's Jefferson Davis's Mexican War Regiment and The Mexican War Journal of Captain Franklin Smith present very different perspectives on the Mississippians and their commander. The regimental history takes a straightforward approach with chapters on mustering troops in Mississippi, the journey to Mexico, camp life along the Rio Grande, campaigning from Monterrey to Buena Vista, and returning to the United States for release from service. A roster drawn from compiled service records in...