The Original Journals of Henry Smith Turner with Stephen Watts Kearny to New Mexico and California, 1846

xiii, 173 pp. "Captain Henry Smith Turner, adjutant of the Army of the West, actively participated in the conquest of New Mexico and California with Stephen Watts Kearny in 1846-47. ...Turner's importance in history arises from the graphic journals he kept and the forthright letters he wrote to his wife during his western campaigning. These letters present a keen and intensely personal reaction to the men and scenes around him. The journal of 1846 which he kept while marching with the Kearny expedition is equally revealing. One moment the entries are strictly factual--the terrain, problems of water and forage, encounters with the Indians; the next moment the writer is introspective, even moody, longing for his distant home and family. Turner never expected that what he wrote would be read by anyone except his wife, and his comments are frank and unrestrained."