Wednesday, December 3, 2014

WRITING HOME TO MOM

Digging through and organizing folders this week, we came across a document titled "JOHN LAPHAM BULLIS, Letters to his Mother, Mrs. Dr. A. H. Bullis"  followed by a list of dates and synopses of some of Bullis's correspondence with his mother between November 1863 and February, 1867.

We had looked over this document a year or so ago, and this morning, we reread the entry titled "3 Dec 1865."  At that time John Lapham Bullis was in the 118th Infantry, which was located in "Brownsville, opposite Matamoros." The entry reads:

"Near mouth of Rio Grande. Across the river, Maximilianists still determined to hold out against Liberalists. Fearful they will be successful, as L's badly equipped. But L's captured a vessel and turned it over to Americans. French Commodore demanded it be delivered to Imperialists. (Not done) at Bagdad and also captors of it but Weitzel would not and secret orders to guard same. Health good. Johnnie."

We are puzzled by this entry and would appreciate any information and insight that would help explain exactly what happening on the Texas-Mexico border, 149 years ago today--both from the standpoint of our nation's history as well as John Lapham Bullis's personal and professional life.





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