Company "A" Corps of Engineers, U.S.A., 1846-1848, in the Mexican War (review)

Gustavus Smith's crisp, brief, narrative describes the Mexican War campaigns of the United States Company of sappers, miners, and pontooniers otherwise known as Company A, Corps of Engineers.

In 1846 Congress authorized the company as the first of its kind in the United States. Capt. Alexander Swift assembled the officers and men at the United States Military Academy to train and prepare for deployment to Mexico. Swift's subalterns included Lt. G. W. Smith and another Mexican War memoirist, Lt. George B. McClellan. Swift taught engineering to the young officers and Smith and McClellan instructed the engineering captain in infantry tactics. In Mexico the company cleared roads and built bridges around Matamoros and Tampico for Zachary Taylor before landing with Scott's army at Vera Cruz. The company built and destroyed artillery emplacements, then cleared more stretches of the highway to Mexico City. Along the way Smith, commanding the company after Swift's death, led his engineers as infantry into battles at Cerro Gordo and Churubusco. At war's close the company returned to West Point while Smith and McClellan went on to greater notoriety.

Composed and published in 1896, Smith's account reads like an after-action report to his commanding officer, including precise descriptions of orders received and executed. In fact, Smith's text includes many extensive excerpts from battlefield reports by himself and other officers. He does not dwell on camp life stories—no doubt an unfortunate omission for some modern readers—but sticks to maneuvers and marches.

On a few occasions, however, amusing anecdotes about the officers and men of the company slip through the restrained narrative. And it is restrained indeed. Smith reports on battles but does not pass judgment on his superiors even when his impatience with those officers is evident but not fully expressed. Smith's focus remains the earlier conflict in Mexico, and he does not color his observations with prophetic remarks about his future antagonists and successors, many of whom cross his path in these pages. Altogether, this small book succeeds in reviewing the day-to-day duties of early army engineers. One can easily envision the pick and shovel work on a sweltering, dusty, Mexican road—a corrective to the usual description of engineers like Lee and Beauregard dashing about the chaparral on hairbreadth scouting missions.

Smith biographer Leonne M. Hudson prepared this new edition, the first since the 1896 original. In addition to the short introduction, Hudson includes a brief bibliography and index and has supplemented Smith's original annotations with identifying and explanatory notes. The quality and clarity of Smith's writing negated the need for editorial intrusions in the text. This slim volume should serve as a handy reference for students of the Mexican War and the Army Corps of Engineers.