SOCIALIFE
COMMUNITY HISTORY
Letters and Letter Writing at MOSTHistory
by Francisco Guajardo, CEO at MOSTHistory
The Museum of South Texas History holds veritable treasures in separate collections of letters .
from one of the salt lakes as they marched from Corpus Christi into the challenging terrain of South Texas.
The collection of letters from Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Freddy González is such an example, as the Edinburg native wrote more than 150 letters to his mother from Vietnam. The museum also holds a collection of letters from Mexican American War Captain Charles Henry Chapman, who wrote letters to his wife between 1846 and 1847.
In a letter from March 27, 1846, Chapman wrote, “Many a poor fellow was sadly disappointed when on leaving the column and running hastily to these ponds and dipping up a cup full, would find it as salt and brine.”
The museum featured three Chapman letters at a conference on the history of the Mexican American War. In one letter, Chapman ruminates on his thirsty soldiers who mistakenly drank
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SOCIALIFE
On May 2, 1846, Chapman described his Mexican adversaries as “these cowardly scoundrels” who were “wiling (sic) to commit murder upon one or two defenseless individuals but dare not face a body of men prepared to fight.” When Sgt. Freddy González arrived in North Carolina for basic training during the
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