Page:Notes of the Mexican war 1846-47-48.djvu/357

Rh along the road in which Capt. Walker's men and Maj. Lally's cavalry went was covered with the dead and wounded enemy.

Thus, the death of Capt. Walker has and will cause the life of many a poor innocent Mexican. Our men look upon Capt. Walker's death as murder. All soldiers killed when no armed enemy is near is murder, and the guilty ones are treated as murderers.

Thus this great Captain has suddenly met his death, and full too soon to gather the honors ripe for the more mature years of soldiers of daring and ambition. In our continued and varied experience in the army it has never been our fortune to meet a grander and nobler soldier than Capt. Walker. He was brave, faithful and obedient to his superior in rank and kind to his men. He was, without doubt, one of the bravest officers in our army; in fact, to recklessness in all dangers, and it may well be said that no one could be more sadly missed from our army. Our whole regiment condoles with the company in its irreparable loss; all feel the loss of Capt. Walker with a sorrow which words cannot express. The social ties with him and his company's pride, shared by us all in camp, on the field and in garrison, are past and will be the memories of the past,—the hope for the future all riven by a flash sent by a Providence whose ways seem now, more than ever, past finding out. Thus a noble life has been put out by a cowardly assassin.

This train brought up the other four companies belonging to our regiment, which were left stationed at the Castle of Perote, under command of Col. F. M. Wynkoop and Maj. Bowman. We had a glorious time hand shaking when we got together; for they, having heard so much bad news about us, thought that we were nearly all killed off or starved to death. They also bring us the sad intelligence of the death of three of our company, namely, John Begley, died July 28th; Edward Budy, died August 7th; and Charles Smith, died August 15th. Mr. Begley was an old man, but Smith and Budy were both young men. All hail from Philadelphia. Mr. Budy's health