letter to Robert Wood, 25 August 1847

Camp near Monterey Mexico

Aug 25th 1847

My dear Doctor,

Your several letters of the 29 th ult & 4th ins have just reached me with your correspondence with Majr J. which agreeable to your wishes was destroyed as soon as read ; the Louisville Journals &c came to hand at the same time for all of which accept my best thanks

It was truly gratifying to me to learn that you Ann & the children, as well as Mrs Taylor & Betty continued to enjoy good health, which I sincerely hope will continue to be the case ; as they have I suppose ere now all reached Pascagoula, I feel pretty easy as regards their health, & other matters. I hope they will get on without difficulty, accidents or misfortunes of any kind or description. My greatest fears are for you, being apprehensive that yellow fever in a malignant form may be brought to the Barracks from Vera Cruz, as there must now be a great deal of intercours between the two places or it may originate in New Orleans, & extend to the Barracks, or even at the latter place ; all that I can say on the subject is, that I hope you will by great caution escape that & all other diseases

I truly regretted to hear of the difficulty between you and the Majr of the 3 d Infy as I conceive it was unnecessary on your part to have any with him ; I look on him more as a child or an old woman than in any other light & while I would from self respect as well as respect for the service treat the Majr with the courtesy due to his rank, but nothing more, byond which my course towards him would be as th there was no such being in existance & those who were so weak & contempt as as to be governed & influenced by him ; nothing short of his pulling my hair, or putting his fingers in my eyes would induce me to notice him. I do not feel dishonored by any airs his good lady may put on however ill they may become her, or can me or mine be honored by any attention from him or his The proper course is to let such people pass as if they were not in existance, or never would be

I was truly gratified to hear that Dick had so much improved in health, & with proper care hope he will very soon be entirely well. I am how ever very much vexed he should have passed through N. Orleans without calling at the Barracks to see you his sister & the children, & offered his services to conduct them to Pascagoula, or any where else, Ann or the girls might have wished to have gone. In my last I mentioned that Mr Conrad had proposed accompaning Mrs T. & Betty across the Lake, & was pleased to learn from you that he had done so, as they could not have had a better escort & would saveyou the trouble of going over with them. I think it would have done better if Mrs T deferred her visit to about the middle of the present month, & remained to the middle of Nov r her return to B. Rouge ought to be regulated by the health at that place

Finlay is in an unfortunate predicament & I do not regret his not coming here

I feel much indebted to Gen Broke for his kindness to you and particularly so for his very kind offer to accompany Mr s Taylor & Betty across the Lake and beg you to offer him my thanks for the same ; at the same time I am gratified there was no necessity for his doing so

Since I wrote you nothing has occurred here worth mentioning ; the last official information we had here from the other column was by the way of N. Orleans, which was contained in the Picayune of the y th ins t I have put or ordered between two & three thousand troops to that line; unless negotiations are going on & even pretty well advanced, Gen Scott must be ere this in the City of Mexico, which if he can hold onto & keep his communications open with Vera Cruz, & peace does not grow out of it, there is no telling when this unfortunate war will end ; should it not do so before the next meeting of Congress I hope the active operations will stopped, & we will take a line that we would accept by a treaty, occupy it, & withdraw our forces beyond it, acting entirely on the defensive with the exception of blocking their ports, if it is not deemed expedient to keep possession of them. I am glad you hear frequently from John & most truly & sincerely do I hope he may do well. Rob & the girls ought to be at school some where, but as to the proper place, I am unable to determine on

I presume I may be considered pretty fairly committed for the presidency ; but will rejoice should some one else be taken up for said office, between now & holding the election for that office, as I would quit the field as candidate for the same, with as much pleasure as I would leave Mexico So far as I can judge I do not believe my Signal letter is calculated to do me much injury, & will like my letter to Gen Gaines, be a seven days wonder when it will be forgotten

Please remember me most affectionately to Ann & the chidren when you write & wishing you all continued health happiness & prosperity I remain your Friend

Truly Z. TAYLOR

SURG N R. C. WOOD

N. Orleans Barracks

N. Orleans