The Mexican Soldier

This year marks the 50th Anniversary of a publishing milestone, and the 160th Anniversary of the end of the Mexican War, too.

In 1958, historian and illustrator, Joseph Hefter, and colleagues self-published in Mexico one of the classics of modern military history, "El Soldado Mexicano, 1837-1847." Its one, limited printing quickly became the standard reference on the appearance and organization of the Mexican Army in the period of the Texas War of Independence through the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. Hardly a book written on these events does not cite Hefter's work, yet it has become scarce and the surviving copies are showing the effects of time on their pulp pages and covers.

As part of TVAG's researches for the coming Mexican War rules, "Gone To See The Elephant," my own original copy of the book has constantly been referred to. But its physical condition, the faded (but still beautiful) color uniform plates, and the author's "stream of consciousness" layout of his text proved frustrating.

I have exercised due diligence in an attempt to establish who may have the Copyright to Hefter's work since his death 30 years ago. As a result, I have decided to go ahead and return this remarkable work to the gaming and historical community in a new and updated edition.

Not merely in reprint, color quality has been restored to the eight original plates, plus seven more in b&w have now been colored according to the text. Four more Hefter plates from other publications are included to round out the work. Further, two full color pages of Mexican Army Colors, Standards, Guidons, and Pennants (most never before in print) designed by Eric Cox add a dimension missing from the original work. A number of line drawings by Hefter have been provided by other sources for use in this new edition, as well as more photos and drawings of more uniform details and equipment.

Besides being the best single source on uniforms for the period, "The Mexican Soldier" details the tactics, organization, and weaponry of the Army, answering many--if not all--of the questions of what made this remarkable army function as it did. There are useful tables of OB's for the major battles of the Mexican War, sections on the Army Health Corps, information of the soldiers themselves (heights, illnesses, pay, discipline, etc)The original text (in both Spanish and English) followed a roughly chronological arrangement, but tended to meander--tangentially--making it a difficult experience to look up any particular item. This has all been addressed by a nearly total rearrangement of the text into sections and sub-sections, and then chronologically. The Spanish language text and captions are removed for this edition, but hardly a word of the English version is missing--and some new material by Hefter has been added.

Printed on high quality paper, well suited to best show off the color plates, this edition is printed in 8.5" x 11" format, increasing the size of the plates by some 20% over the digest version, and runs to some 70 pages, with 20 in full color.

If you buy only one book on the Mexican Army for the Mexican War or before, this is it.