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Sam Chamberlain's Mexican War: The San Jacinto Museum of History Paintings
"Sam Chamberlain's Mexican War is an important book. . . . There is no other collection of such impressive dimension that reflects the experiences of a common volunteer soldier."
--Robert W. Johannsen, author of To the Halls of the Montezumas: The Mexican War in the American Imagination
Private Sam Chamberlain provided up-close views of the Mexican War. This book reproduces these treasures for the first time in color.
220 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1993
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August 3, 2025
While not as accomplished as the litographies of Carl Nebel, the work of Sam Chamberlain is also very well known among the iconography of the Mexican American War. He served as a dragoon in the US Army during the war in the northern front and he was in the Battle of Buena Vista.
My understanding is that there are three groups of Chamberlain's work, the paintings in the San Jacinto Museum, the ones in the Anne S. .K. Brown Military Collection and the ones with the My Confession manuscript in West Point, this beautiful book contains the 147 watercolors in the San Jacinto Museum, plus a handful of the ones in the Brown Collection for a total of 156 watercolors. These are reproduced in real size (Chamberlain's watercolors are small, i.e. letter size or smaller) and with annotations. The watercolors are beautiful and it is also nice detail that Chamberlain painted a couple of them from the mexican point of view. There are also two useful maps.
The editor took the right choice by not writing a full text about the Mexican American War in the Introduction despite others advising this. The focus of the book is and should be the art of Chamberlain.
The only negative about this book is that it lacks an index with the Paintings also there are some mistakes in the Introduction:
For example in page 3 the editor mentions the Mexican legend of the "Niños Heroes", young cadets who died during the battle of Chapultepec, he wrongly mentions that they threw themselves over the walls of the castle, however the legend actually says that only one of them did this, the others died in combat.
In page 5 he says that it was not clear that USA had an advantage at the beginning of the war however contemporary sources show that both mexicans and foreigners had several doubts about the possibility of a Mexican Victory.
In page 12 the editor talks about a myth of General Miñon being seduced by an american woman so he would be unable to support Santa Anna in the Battle of Buena Vista (this error appears again in the map of page 112), the editor says that this is plausible, however the truth is that Miñon didn't receive orders to join the battle, also, don't you think is suspicious that this is the second time a myth about a Mexican general being seduced appears? the first case would be the very well known myth of Santa Anna and the yellow rose of Texas.
As I said the Editor took the right choice by not writing more about the History of the Mexican American War.
Despite the issues described above this is still a wonderful book, heavily recommended for anyone fascinated by the iconography of the Mexican American War.
My understanding is that there are three groups of Chamberlain's work, the paintings in the San Jacinto Museum, the ones in the Anne S. .K. Brown Military Collection and the ones with the My Confession manuscript in West Point, this beautiful book contains the 147 watercolors in the San Jacinto Museum, plus a handful of the ones in the Brown Collection for a total of 156 watercolors. These are reproduced in real size (Chamberlain's watercolors are small, i.e. letter size or smaller) and with annotations. The watercolors are beautiful and it is also nice detail that Chamberlain painted a couple of them from the mexican point of view. There are also two useful maps.
The editor took the right choice by not writing a full text about the Mexican American War in the Introduction despite others advising this. The focus of the book is and should be the art of Chamberlain.
The only negative about this book is that it lacks an index with the Paintings also there are some mistakes in the Introduction:
For example in page 3 the editor mentions the Mexican legend of the "Niños Heroes", young cadets who died during the battle of Chapultepec, he wrongly mentions that they threw themselves over the walls of the castle, however the legend actually says that only one of them did this, the others died in combat.
In page 5 he says that it was not clear that USA had an advantage at the beginning of the war however contemporary sources show that both mexicans and foreigners had several doubts about the possibility of a Mexican Victory.
In page 12 the editor talks about a myth of General Miñon being seduced by an american woman so he would be unable to support Santa Anna in the Battle of Buena Vista (this error appears again in the map of page 112), the editor says that this is plausible, however the truth is that Miñon didn't receive orders to join the battle, also, don't you think is suspicious that this is the second time a myth about a Mexican general being seduced appears? the first case would be the very well known myth of Santa Anna and the yellow rose of Texas.
As I said the Editor took the right choice by not writing more about the History of the Mexican American War.
Despite the issues described above this is still a wonderful book, heavily recommended for anyone fascinated by the iconography of the Mexican American War.
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