domingo, 21 de mayo de 2017

ANALIZAN RESTOS DE SOLDADOS REPATRIADOS DE LA BATALLA DE MONTERREY DE 1846


Por :´Pablo Ramos





Cuando en el año 1996 surgen de Las entrañas de las calles de Monterrey vestigios arqueológicos de la olvidada Batalla de Monterrey de 1846, pocos en Monterrey conocian esta enigmatica batalla ocurrida en Monterrey hace 171 años, nuevamente al ampliar el Paseo Santa Lucia se recuperan mas vestigios en el año 2006,2008 y 2011, al principio en EU no se interesaron por estos restos hasta que fue cubierta por medios de prensa de EU, asi acuden en el año 2014 oficiales de EU quienes analizan los restos, llevandose muestras,y es en el año 2016 que finalmente se repatrian mas de 13 restos de soldados de EU,aunque ya se habian analizado por arqueólogos mexicanos y antropologos fisicos estaba pendiente el analisis de DNA por lo que se llevaron a EU para su estudio,ahora en Tennesee se estan estudiando, cabe mencionar que fue el interes de los historiadores mexicanos y arqueologos mexicanos quieines trataron desde el año 2006 de interesar a historiadores de EU interesandose el autor del libro A PERFECT GIBRALTAR THE BATTLE MONTERREY MEXICO 1846 Cristopher Dishman quien en el año 2007 acudio a Monterrey a estudiar esta olvidada Batalla publicandose un libro en octubre del 2010, es enel año 2011 quien otro estadounidense Jim Page de Tennesee quien trata de todos los medios de que se interesen politicos de EU,en Monterrey desde 1995, Ahmed Valtier, despues, Miguel Angel Gonzalez Quiroga, Cesar Morado, Jesus Avila, Leticia Martinez Cardenas, Raul Martinez Eduardo Cazares, Pablo Ramos ,Araceli Rivera, Juan Antonio Cerda,Bertha Villarreal,Pedro Cantu, buscan que se reconozca esta gesta heroica,este año 2017 en EU ya se estan obteniendo resultados.
















ver noticias:

Johnson seeks to return Mexican War veterans bodies home

By  | 

  
   Share0 
Mexican War_large2
Anyone who knows Tim Johnson knows he is passionate about history.
Particularly intrigued by the Mexican War, Johnson, professor of history at Lipscomb for more than 25 years, has devoted decades to researching and writing about the leaders, soldiers and battles of that war, which took place between 1846-1848.
This past fall, Johnson got to help write a new chapter in the annals of Mexican War history when a dozen sets of remains, some of which are believed to be the remains of Tennesseans who fought in the Mexican War’s Battle of Monterey, were returned to the United States. On Sept. 28, six years of work by Johnson, and numerous other locals, paid off when the remains were transferred to the Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, for further forensic study.
Since then, Johnson has continued to doggedly work to confirm if any of the skeletal remains belong to Tennessee volunteers and to complete a book on Tennessee’s role in the Mexican War.
Mexican War_1Johnson was one of the small delegation invited to be part of a September “dignified transfer” ceremony to honor the fallen soldiers and transfer them to the Center for Mortuary Affairs, the U.S. Department of Defense’s largest joint-service mortuary facility located at the Dover AFB.  The delegation from middle Tennessee also included Congresswoman Diane Black and several forensic anthropologists.
“It was a remarkable honor to be among the delegation of Tennesseans who welcomed these soldiers home after 170 years,” said Johnson, one of Lipscomb’s designated research professors who has penned three books on the Mexican War. “It was a great day and a great event. The remains were given full military honors, and the transfer ceremony was both solemn and meaningful. I was impressed that after 170 years these American servicemen were accorded the same kind of respect as someone who gave their life in military service today. The chaplain who prayed during the observance expressed the hope that the ceremony underway would honor those men who gave their lives at the Battle of Monterey.”
Now Johnson wants to help determine if any of these soldiers were from Tennessee and if so to find any of their ancestors who might still be in the state. He said there is a high likelihood that some of these remains are Tennesseans because of the large number who fought there and because of the location of the burial sites.
In 1846 the United States and Mexico went to war over a border dispute along the Rio Grande precipitated by the annexation of Texas. The federal government immediately called for volunteers from the states to augment the small U.S. Army. 
“When the War Department requested 3,000 volunteers (the equivalent of three regiments) from Tennessee, nearly 30,000 Tennesseans turned out forcing state officials to resort to a lottery to determine who would be permitted to serve,” said Johnson. “This solidified Tennessee’s reputation as the Volunteer State, a nickname it had initially won during the War of 1812.  Ultimately over the next two years, nearly 6,000 Tennesseans volunteered to fight in the Mexican War.”
Mexican War_2One of the earliest battles in the war was fought at Monterey, Mexico, in September 1846. Johnson said some of the toughest fighting during the battle was for control of an old tannery that had been fortified by Mexican troops trying to hold off U.S. troops. Regular U.S. troops, together with volunteers from Tennessee and Mississippi, captured the tannery after a daring charge by the First Tennessee and First Mississippi Volunteer Regiments. 
Twenty-seven Tennesseans were killed in the attack and another 75 were wounded according to Johnson’s research. The First Regiment Tennessee Volunteers, commanded by Col. William B. Campbell, became known as “The Bloody First.”
“About a half dozen of the Tennesseans were brought back to the state by their families for burial but the rest were buried near the battle site. And there they lay until a building project uncovered some of their remains in 2009. More have been found since,” said Johnson.
Coins and buttons that were discovered at the site quickly showed that the remains included Americans. The identities of the deceased soldiers are unknown, but historians believe that some of them could be Tennesseans.  However, Johnson said that repatriation of the remains ran into numerous roadblocks over the years from both the Mexican and U.S. governments.
In 2010, Capt. Jim Page, the division historian for the 101st Airborne Div. at Fort Campbell, a U.S. Army installation at the Kentucky-Tennessee border named for The Bloody First’s commander Col. Campbell, began a crusade to bring the remains of the Tennesseans who were killed in the Battle of Monterey home. John O’Brien, director of the Pratt Museum at Fort Campbell, and Johnson soon joined the effort.
The discovery of the remains convinced Johnson, to begin work on a book on Tennessee’s role in the conflict. Along the way, Johnson contacted state representatives and members of Tennessee’s congressional delegation, as well as one of his former students who worked in the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City in an effort to resolve the issue.
A few years later he learned that an anthropology professor at Middle Tennessee State University was also interested in the skeletal remains and wanted to bring them to Tennessee for forensic research.
Mexican War_3With different groups involved in this repatriation project, Johnson thought that more progress might be made if they all joined forces. In 2015 he organized a meeting in Tennessee State Rep. Steve McDaniel’s office. The meeting included McDaniel; staff from the office of House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick; one historian and two anthropologists from MTSU; the director of the Fort Campbell history office; Fred Prouty of the Tennessee Wars Commission; and a representative from Governor Bill Haslam’s office. 
“That meeting bore fruit,” Johnson recalled. “Soon thereafter Prouty’s office granted to the forensic lab $40,000 to do scientific research when and if the remains were returned.”
The remains have undergone a battery of procedures and tests at Dover with the ultimate goal of positively identifying them. Johnson and MTSU history professor Derek Frisby continued to work with the military over the last few months to track down descendants of those killed in the battle so that DNA analysis and comparisons can be made. At this stage DNA is the only way to establish the identity of these Mexican War soldiers, Johnson said.
After the story broke regarding the repatriated remains this past September, two Nashville area residents immediately came forward to say that they had ancestors who volunteered and then died in Mexico.
“They were interested to know if their ancestors were among the repatriated remains, and that research is ongoing,” said Johnson. “Ironically, both individuals have Lipscomb connections.” 
Tim Northcutt, a Lipscomb Academy graduate and Hendersonville resident, had at least three ancestors who went to Mexico and one who died there, but Johnson was quickly able to determine that he was not one of the Monterey dead.
Jim Thomas, a 1950 Lipscomb graduate and retired minister in Chapel Hill, is the descendant of Joseph B. Burkitt who was one of the Tennessee soldiers killed and buried at Monterey. Johnson said it is possible that Joseph Burkitt’s remains are among those returned to Dover in September. Testing continues to try to determine a match. Another descendant from one of the Tennesseans buried at Monterey recently came forward and research on that family line is ongoing.
Today, Johnson is in the final stages of his work on a book manuscript inspired by the experience which is tentatively titled: For Duty and Honor: Tennessee’s Mexican War Experience.  Johnson has committed to send the manuscript to the University of Tennessee Press when it is completed in 2017 for publication. He is currently working on the latter chapters and is also looking for old portraits, drawings and pictures that might be in private hands of Tennesseans whose ancestors fought in Mexico. 
In the meantime, Johnson continues his hope that before he finishes the book, the lab work in Dover can confirm that at least one of the sets of remains belongs to a Tennessean and that he can help bring him home to the Volunteer State.

__http://www.lipscomb.edu/news/archive/detail/5/31227___________________________________________

MTGS Meetings and Workshops

  • Saturday, July 15, 2017, 1:00pm, The Brentwood Library, 8109 Concord Rd., Brentwood, TN 37027
    MTGS Regular Meeting
    "Middle Tennesseans in the Mexican War and Repatriating those Killed in Action at the 1846 Battle of Monterrey, Mexico"
    Presented by Dr. Derek Frisby, PhD.


    Dr. Derek Frisby will talk about his project to ultimately repatriate the remains of US Soldiers killed and buried in Monterrey, using genealogy and DNA analysis. Many of these soldiers were from Middle Tennessee.

    Derek W. Frisby is a Faculty Coordinator in the Office of International Affairs and an Associate Professor in the Global Studies and Geography program at Middle Tennessee State University teaching Tennessee, US, and military history. He is Middle Tennessee native, MTSU alum, and US Marine Corps veteran whose research interests deal with military occupation and reconstruction strategies. Frisby received his doctoral degree from the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa and has authored numerous articles and essays dealing with Tennessee’s Civil War occupation and Reconstruction experiences. He is completing his first book dealing with southerners who remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War and their role in the region’s occupation and restoration.

    The meeting is open to the public at no charge, and refreshments will be served.

  • http://mtgs.org/calendar/default.html
[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[

Tennessee Wars Commission DNA Project 
By Tim Hyder
While much of the work done by the Tennessee Wars Commission (TWC) is focused on the preservation and protection of battlefield lands within the state of Tennessee, we also strive to complete our mission statement by funding other types of projects which produce a deeper public understanding of places of conflict and the people who participated in them. Nowhere is this more evident than in the current project underway to identify human remains found in the Mexican city of Monterrey which may be the bodies of members of the 1st Tennessee Volunteers who were killed during the Battle of Monterrey, September 21-24, 1846. Through the use of forensic archaeology combined with cutting-edge technological analysis being conducted by a team from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System at Dover Air Force Base, it may be possible to determine the identities of these remains. The Battle of Monterrey was a pivotal engagement in the Mexican-American War, a conflict which began in April of 1846 and which ultimately had its roots in the United States’ desire for western land acquisition. Hundreds of Tennesseans volunteered for service during the war, with the state fielding 5 regiments of volunteer infantry and one ofmounted volunteers. At Monterrey it was the 1st Tennessee regiment, composed of 9 companies of almost exclusively middle Tennesseans, who were called into heavy service. In the heaviest fighting of the battle’s first day the 1st was ordered to storm the town’s citadel Review and Compliance Updates Tracking System By David Calease Tennessee Wars Commission DNA Project By Tim Hyder DNA, DNA Testing, continued from page 6 and took horrendous casualties of almost one third dead or wounded. Roughly 30 Tennesseans were killed, with very few of their bodies known to have been sent back to the United States for burial. The final resting place of the others was not noted in any surviving documentation. Therefore, when skeletal remains were discovered by construction crews in modern Monterrey in an area roughly corresponding to the 1st Tennessee’s advance it became important for both Mexico and the United States to determine who these remains belong to and whether they could possibly be the final resting place of Americans killed in battle. The first clue was in the objects which were found with the bones. A small number of button fragments and other objects conformed closer to American patterns than those used in Mexico during the middle of the 19th century. Second were the bones themselves. At least one skeleton showed signs of trauma typical of contemporary warfare; in this case a leg had been removed below the knee and was completely missing from the skeleton, possibly indicating a catastrophic removal from being hit with a cannonball or more likely the result of a battlefield amputation. Finally, an isotopic analysis was run on a small percentage of the remains. Carbondating is a scientific tool for estimating the ages of organic objects, in which the amount of Carbon 14 is analyzed in a sample and compared against the element’s decay rate to find an approximate age. The isotopic analysis performed on the Monterrey remains shares a scientific basis with carbon-dating, but instead of looking to find the age of a sample, isotopic analysis looks for the original location of a sample. While Carbon-14 decays incrementally over time, stable isotopes like Strontium-87 or Oxygen-18 stay at the level forever once they are absorbed by a living thing. In humans these elements are introduced into our bodies by the food that we eat and the water that we drink. Each water source and soil area in the world has slight variations in these elements and particularly pre-20th century when people tended to eat and drink things that were only produced locally. The ratios of these isotopes in their bodies form a “fingerprint” which is specific to a certain area of the world. By testing the Monterrey samples isotopic ratios and comparing them to known reference samples from across the United States it is hoped that they will be similar to those of others from the middle Tennessee area. The skeletal remains are also undergoing DNA processing and analysis at Dover AFB. While television shows make this process seem like a relatively easy one involving cotton swabs and a computer, in reality the process is much more complex especially when the remains being tested are potentially over 150 years old. The main problem lies in the fact that after a century and a half much of the testable DNA has degraded so much to be unusable. Human DNA is located in two different parts of our cells: in the nucleus (nDNA) and in the mitochondria (mDNA). Nuclear DNA is the type that most people are familiar with; it is the type most modern forensic work relies upon and is also the type sequenced by companies like Ancestry or National Geographic when you send for a DNA testing kit. This type contains a person’s full genetic code. Unfortunately, as the body decays this nDNA decays as well, with skeletal remains containing little to no nDNA that is useful as a diagnostic tool. Mitochondrial DNA, on the other hand, contains smaller amounts of genetic code and is substantially more stable; it has the potential to provide usable data even after thousands of years. Therefore it is mDNA which will be extracted from the human remains found in Monterrey (either from small amounts of bone or from the pulp from inside of teeth) and analyzed for genetic markers for comparison. The final hurdle to this mDNA analysis is that it is passed down only along through the female line. Therefore intense genealogical reviews of each Tennessean killed at Monterrey has been an ongoing project for MTSU’s Dr. Derek Frisby and Dr. Tim Johnson from Lipscomb University. Their goal is to trace each soldier’s female relatives down to the modern day, request a DNA sample from matching individuals, and then use these modern mDNA profiles as comparison references. A match would give us a statistically definitive identity for a particular set of remains and potentially allow us to bring that soldier back to be buried at an appropriate location in Tennessee. The TWC is proud to support this ongoing project and looks hopefully forward to reporting positive news within the next year.
__________________________________________________________
















VISTA MONTERREY TIERRA DE HISTORIA Y TRADICION

jueves, 11 de mayo de 2017

LA CIUDAD DE MONTERREY EN 1846



por:  Pablo Ramos

 La ciudad de las Montañas como es conocida la ciudad de Monterrey es una ciudad enmarcada por sus cerros y que ha encantado a los viajeros que la visitan, desde la Hija de Moctezuma que visito la ciudad con el Cerro con "cara de Mujer" llamado así al cerro de la silla por los indígenas anteriores a la fundación de 1596, ya Payno el contemporáneo de Don Guillermo Prieto, mencionaba que era una de las mas hermosas poblaciones, con sus huertas de caña y naranjas y granadas, así como por el Rió de Santa Catarina al sur y el Rió de Santa Lucia al Norte donde se podía pescar camarones de buen tamaño ahora solo queda por la calle de Allende y Juan I Ramón, lo que fue la depresión de sus arroyos hasta unirse con el Ojo grande que salía de la Calle de Zaragoza así junto con sus Árboles que a orillas del Rió de Santa Lucia en todo su trayecto hasta unirse al de Santa Catarina a nivel de la Calle Félix U Gómez, esta Ciudad que en 1846 contaba con 13,500 habitantes y que con anterioridad fue poco su crecimiento ya que los indios de la Región Asolaba a los habitantes, sus limpias calles que rodeaban la plaza grande actual Zaragoza eran un orgullo para los Montereyenos que incluso los soldados americanos en la Invasión del 46 admiraban sus empedrados que ni sus ciudades tenían, otro de sus encantos eran los Fandangos o bailes que se llevaban a cabo en esta pequeña población donde las familias mas adineradas tenían la oportunidad de lucir sus prendas y conquistar a algún galán, la ida a Catedral era parte de su religiosidad, el olor a azahares al llegar a la ciudad desde el camino a Marín al Norte de la Ciudad era signo que ya se estaba en la ciudad sus grandes maizales en el lado Norte del Rió de Santa Lucia llenaba de verdor la agreste terreno en los días dolorosos de la invasión al pacifico pueblo de Monterrey, pero sobretodo lo que mas llamaba la atención a los voluntarios y oficiales del ejercito de Ocupación era las Bellas Mujeres Regiomontanas uno de ellos Samuel Reíd cuenta que el día 22 de Septiembre en el camino al Saltillo por el rumbo del Rancho de San Jerónimo en el primer día de lucha contra los regiomontanos una bella dama ama de casa estaba en una de los jacales que estaban en el camino y los soldados se cubrieron debajo del jacal y observaron como esta ama de casa preparaba los alimentos para su familia compuesta de su esposo y dos hijos, y al observar a los soldados Americanos les ofreció algo de comida y agua que agradecieron infinitamente ya que estaban completamente mojados por la lluvia que caía en abundancia, era a decir de este Ranger de Texas una bella mujer de 20 años color claro y ojos grandes con una voz angelical y una bondad que los sorprendió ya que a pesar que les causaban incomodidades y les estaban invadiendo a su país la bondad de esta regiomontana era un símbolo de sus valores y principios de humanidad, esa misma noche los voluntarios y soldados americanos Tomarían la segunda montaña donde se encontraba el fuerte de Obispado y la colina de la independencia donde los soldados y oficiales Mexicanos estaban defendiendo a la Ciudad, al mando del Comandante Francisco Berra que aguanto con valor y coraje los embates del ejercito de ocupación el día 22 de Septiembre de 1846, ocasionando varios muertos y heridos de ambos bandos hasta penetrar al Palacio del Obispado, derribando sus puertas y tomándolo a las 2 de la tarde de ese dia, este mismo soldado cuenta que se bajo la bandera Mexicana y se coloco la de las Barras y las Estrellas Reíd cuenta que nunca mas llamo a un mexicano cobarde por lo que observo de valor en los mexicanos que defendían este punto, Es en este punto que a decir del periodista Luis R. Rodríguez en las memorias de la compañía de A. Blanchard de los voluntarios de Louisiana que se encontró en los patios del obispado a una mujer hermosa, blanca de ojos negros que lo miraba con un profundo odio ya que en sus brazos se encontraba un oficial Mexicano Herido en el cuello, ella le coloco un paño para controlarle la hemorragia pero fue inútil, ella se observo que bajo del cerro con rumbo al rió de Santa Catarina, al preguntarle quien era caminaba desorientada, un prisionero Mexicano dijo que era Maria Dosamaints(Dosamantes)?? la misteriosa y desconocida Maria de Jesús Dosamantes honrada por los Americanos como la Juana de Arco Mexicana, no se sabe, esta Ciudad de bellas casas y hermosos jardines como la del General y futuro presidente de México Mariano Arista en la Calle de Hidalgo, futuro hospital de heridos Americano, eran una fortaleza por sus altos techos y bordes que servían para que los regiomontanos se subieran a sus azoteas y ocasionaban innumerables bajas al ejercito invasor que se dirigía al centro de la ciudad por la calla de Morelos y la Calle de Hidalgo,Este bello y enigmático periodo de la historia Regiomontana estudiado por el Maestro Miguel A González Quiroga, el periodista y difusor de la historia Amhed Valtier Mosqueda el investigador y bibliotecario de la capilla alfonsina Raúl Martines Salazar, el Coordinador del Archivo del Estado Cesar Morado y Jesús Ávila, el historiador Eduardo Cazares del Museo Metropolitano de Monterrey, la investigadora Sra. Bertha Villarreal de Benavides(+),el Maestro y Cronista de la Ciudad de Monterrey Israel Cavazos Garza (qepd)e infinidad de cronistas e historiadores que nos motivan a los aficionados a la Historia a rescatar y buscar en los archivos de la Ciudad y el Estado la Memoria de esta y otros sucesos ocurridos en la Ciudad así que felicitémonos por contar con estos investigadores de la historia de la ciudad del Conocimiento y busquemos sus consejos y ojala que en el próximo aniversario de esta olvidada Batalla de Monterrey nos organicemos para recorrer los sitios históricos de esta Heroica Batalla de Monterrey y olvidar los recientes sucesos de violencia de la pacifica y hermosa Ciudad de Monterrey.