"Our food is abominable; when you break a biscuit, you can see it move (if the critters are not dead from eating bad flour). The pork and bacon are of the same character. We would not mind this so much, if they would only serve us out enough...if not for the wild beef we shoot, we should starve."

Most of the Americans that served in the War with Mexico were young. The largest group were solders. Historians do not agree how many people actually served in the armey. They do agree the beeing a soldier in the U.S.-Mexican War was an uncomfortable, unhealthy, and dangerous business.

 
    Disease killed more men than bullets. Camped on the banks of the San Juan River, the same source of water the men used for drinking, cooking, and bathing. Many men who did not actually die during the war may have later stumbled to the effects of some illness or wound they originally suffered during the war, dying at an early age. The weapons used by soldiers in the Mexican War were generally muzzle-loading rifles or muskets. Dragoons and Texas Rangers usually carried five or six-shot Colt revolvers. The Texas volunteers were especially notorious for arming themselves to the teeth with an assortment of pistols, knives and revolvers tucked into boots, belts and shirts.