Service on the Line
Ordnance Rocket and Howitzer Battery
Veracruz, Mexico March 25, 1847
by
Don Stivers
The Mexican War, though relatively short in duration, proved a testing ground for 80 men, tactics, and weapons that still affect military planners to this day. Names of American lieutenants and captains at Veracruz, and Cerro Gordo would appear in the rosters of general officers fifteen years later in the Civil War. Comrades at Chapultepec and Mexico City Would become enemies at Manassas, Antietam, Gettysburg, and Petersburg.
More importantly, linked with the artillery arm would be an ancient weapon of terror that would, in the near future, become the delivery system for the ultimate weapon of destruction and the keystone to modern strategic warfare for all nations: the rocket.
In March of 1847, after an amphibious landing, Major General Winfield Scott's American forces laid siege to the Mexican port city of Veracruz. Along with the traditional artillery marched the Rocket and Howitzer battery.
This painting, commissioned by the Ordnance Corps Association at the famous Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, depicts in dramatic fashion a vision into the future. In the foreground, silent, rests the artillery; in the distance, rockets deliver fire into the performing their traditional role of maintaining, storing and issuing weapons and ammunition to the combat soldiers, they themselves served "on the line," under fire in the Rocket and Howitzer Battery throughout the War with Mexico.
Edition Size: 500 S/N and 95 AP
Print Size: 23" x 17"

S/N Price: 150.00 [Order] [Checkout]
AP Price: 200.00 [Order] [Checkout]
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