Sketches of the campaign in northern Mexico : in eighteen hundred forty-six and seven / by an officer of the First Regiment of Ohio volunteers.

DEATH OF GENERAL HAMER.I 243
proof against the accidents of fortune. He was the most
accomplished horseman in the army, and yet by one of those
inscrutable and most unexpected dispensations of Providence, met death by the slipping of his horse while riding in
the streets of Monterey.
General Hamer, commander of our brigade, died in camp
at San Domingo, on the night of the 2d of December, after
a very brief illness. The writer, who became acquainted
with him at the commencement of the war, and enjoyed
much of his society during the campaign, is conscious that
his rude and unpracticed pen can not portray his character,
or render more than a feeble tribute to his many excellent
qualities of head and heart. Never was a general more
beloved by his troops; and indeed, his frank and popular
manners gained him friends in every society in which he
was thrown. Throughout his sickness, his tent was besieged
by the men with sorrowful faces and anxious inquiries. The
devotion of his own brigade was evinced in one of those
sad scenes, which I was often called to witness, —the death of
a soldier. Early in the night of General HIamer's decease,
private Collins of our regiment breathed his last; and with
his dying words expressed the most affectionate interest for
his General. A few hours afterward that loved superior
suddenly expired, in the presence of his physician, Dr. Caldwell, and a few officers of the brigade, exhibiting in his last
moments his usual serenity and fortitude:
" — So calm his exit!
Night dews fall not more gently to the ground,
Nor weary, worn-out w:inds expire so soft."
The whole camp, from the commander-in-chief down to the