Magazine Features Daniel Cram’s Sketches of the Mexican War

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — In the summer of 1847, young Lt. Daniel Houston Cram of New Hampshire stepped onto Mexican soil and into one of the most important but often neglected conflicts of the 19th century. During the Mexican War, 14,000 American soldiers lost their lives, as did many more Mexicans, fighting over the land that would eventually become the American southwest. Cram not only saw it firsthand as a participant, he stole moments to sketch some of the more dramatic scenes in a notebook that has been passed down through generations of his family.

John McCall, assisted by T.J. Beitelman, tells the story of Cram’s Mexican War experiences in the spring 2000 issue of Alabama Heritage magazine, complete with photographs and detailed descriptions of the sketches themselves.

Cram was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 9th Infantry and served under Gen. Winfield Scott. Scott’s push westward from Veracruz into Mexico’s heart, Mexico City, proved to be one of the decisive factors in the war. Cram, therefore, fought in some of the war’s more noted battles — he was even reportedly wounded at the Battle of Contreras — and sketched what he saw along the way. The result is a rare first hand glimpse into an often forgotten war.

John McCall, a graduate of The University of Alabama School of Law and currently an associate with the Montgomery law firm Rushton, Stakely, Johnston & Garrett, is the great-great-great-grandson of Daniel Houston Cram. His mother, Mrs. Doy Leale McCall, Jr., (Margaret Thorington Kohn) of Montgomery, is the current owner of Cram’s sketchbook, which she inherited from her aunt, Mary Virginia Kohn. Although many of the sketches have become detached through time, the notebook and its contents remain in good condition.

T.J. Beitelman, editorial Assistant at Alabama Heritage, is a graduate student in creative writing at UA.

Alabama Heritage is a nonprofit quarterly magazine published by The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. To order the magazine, write Alabama Heritage, Box 870342, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0342, or call 205/348-7467.