EL CAMPAMENTO AMERICANO EN EL BOSQUE DEL NOGALAR O WALNUT SPRINGS ,MONTERREY, MEXICO 1846

Taylor and staff at Walnut Springs 1847(National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution)

Walnut Springs now,2009 Walnut Springs 2005

Por: Pablo Ramos

El paradisiaco y conocido por las familias regiomontanas como el Ojo de Agua del Nogalar en el bosque de Santo Domingo de mas de 100 acres fue el asiento durante 2 años del ejecito norteamericano en los años 1846 a 1848, ahi mismo serian enterrados los muertos en combate ,y sus heridos y enfermos ahi serian tambien cuidados, este perdido y bonito lugar ahora esta ya en extincion, solo unos cuantos arboles quedan , siendo que ahi estarian inumerables oficiales que serian muy relevantes en la Guerra Civil Americana como Ulisses S. Grant, A. Sidney Johnsson,George Meade, Jefferson Davis, Edmund K .Smith,, Abner Dubleday, Hamilton P .Bee,Mirabeu Lamar,Napoleon T. Dana,etc.etc.ahi recibirian estos oficiales junto con su comandante Zachary Taylor el 4 de Julio del 1847,ahi mismo iniciarian las adhesiones para la candidatura a la Presidencia de los EU de 1849,ahi bailarian y llorarian por la perdida de un compañero, ahi estaria los veneros de agua que servirian para calmar la sed y su aseo diario y ahi mismo estarian algunas mujeres y los niños acompañandolos en esta aventura o apoyandoles en la cocina y ropa como Sara Bowman "la Gran Wester," de ahi partirian para California al termino de la Guerra, asi el Walnut Springs fue un Oasis en los años de 1846-1848.

a continuacion el Historiador Ahmed Valtier, autor de inumerables articulos sobre este periodo de la Batalla de Monterrey da a conocer el posible cementerio perdido de los americanos en el Nogalar en un articulo publicado en la revista ATISBO Numero, 15.

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Por: Ahmed Valtier

WALNUT SPRINGS, MEXICO. Located on the northeast outskirts of Monterrey , Mexico , Walnut Springs was the campground for the 6,640 officers and men of the U.S. forces that captured Monterrey during 21 to 27 September 1846. This site, wooded with stately oak and pecan trees and watered by several springs, continued to be used as the principal camp for U.S. soldiers at Monterrey for the remainder of the war.

The cemetery of the 3d Infantry was located at Walnut Springs. Surrounded by a wall of neatly dressed limestone blocks four feet high and adorned by a rectangular pillar surmounted by a cross, the cemetery became the final resting site of many of the officers slain in the attack on Monterrey .

The remains of Maj. William W. Lear, Bvt. Maj. Lewis Nelson Morris, Capt. George P. Field, Capt. Philip Nordbourne Barbour, 1st Lieut. Douglas Simms Irwin, 2d Lieut. Robert Hazlitt of the 3d Infantry, and 2d Lieut. Rankin Dilworth of the 1st Infantry were interred within these walls. The mortal remains of Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Hamer, a congressman from Ohio who commanded a volunteer Brigade during the battle, were temporarily buried at the site when he died on December 2, 1846, and later moved to Ohio for reburial. Searches were made in 1965 by Carter L. Hilsabeck and in 1996 by Joseph E. Chance for remains of the camp at Walnut Springs and the cemetery, but the urban sprawl of modern industrial Monterrey has covered the site. Two young Mexican historians Pablo Ramos and Ahmed Valtier, found in 2008 documental references that 27 years ago several skeletal remains were uncovered in digs around the present area of “El Nogalar”. In that time, the newspapers covered the story, but according Ramos and Valtier, no one local historian connected the news with the old American army camp at Walnut Springs and its cemetery. In an article published by the Atisbo Magazine (July/August 2008), titled “The Lost American Cemeteries of El Nogalar”, Ramos and Valtier revealed how the remains were recovered accidentally by the local authorities in 1981, without idea of who they where or why they were buried in that site.

LIGAS INTERESANTES.

1.- email. revista@atisbo.net