The Big Adventure

Turning away with disgust from the relentlessly monotonous and depressing prospect of our current political scene and all its associated economic chicanery, a sense of relief will overcome one who escapes into a straightforward tale of old-fashioned adventure, full of the bravado, violence, racism, and unapologetic assumptions of Anglo superiority beloved by our ancestors.

Such is the charm of Samuel Chamberlain's Mexican War memoir, "My Confession: Recollections of a Rogue." Even though he later became a bonafide hero during the Civil War and rose to the rank of brigadier general, Chamberlain never stopped working on his personal history of the U.S. invasion of Mexico, 1846-48, despite that war's reputation as a minor dustup (although the prizes it yielded were anything but) compared to the War Between the States. The old soldier's affection for his earliest military adventure probably stems from his age at the time -- he was not yet eighteen when the war broke out -- and the exotic foreign locale where it occurred, set among whitewashed cathedrals and adobe villages, and teeming with hordes of needy young senoritas.

There are two things about this book that are particularly enjoyable: possibly as much as half of it is true; and the writing is accompanied by the author's watercolors, which lavishly and thoroughly illustrate every phase of the story. As an artist, Chamberlain was definitely what we would term "primitive," and his drawing never progressed much beyond the childlike, but he developed a solid sense of composition over time, and from the beginning had a dramatic sense of color. His golden skies are especially enjoyable.

The best edition of this book, produced in the '90's by the University of Texas, is out of print and not available on Amazon. Too bad. It's the only edition worth having. The notes are copious, and from them we learn, for example, that Chamberlain was present at the Battle of Buena Vista, as he testified, but not at the Battle of Monterrey as he claimed. When the latter occurred his unit, the second dragoons who served under General Wool, was still back in Texas.

Likewise, the innumerable seductions and erotic assignations which decorate these pages would have been physically taxing even for a seventeen-year-old. But they're still a lot of fun to read. Much more enjoyable than the news of the day.

Watercolor: A Knife Fight, by Sam Chamberlain.