Page 220 - Family History

Internet Information and Links

pushing into the dark west. All means of travelers are moving west. In 1803
America had acquired a huge chunk of land as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

Now, less than fifty years later, it was looking to expand to the Pacific Ocean
and pick up the lands we now know as California, New Mexico, Arizona and
more.

My cousin Janine has a copy of George Ambrose Corgan’s application for a
Mexican-American War pension. She shared this single-page document with

me recently and I was surprised to find that it provided all kinds of details as to
his company in the war, where they fought and when! It even listed his
commander’s name. These few bits of information (see on the partial copy below,
circled in red), were enough to uncover a treasure of personal journals and other

written accounts on the internet that describe in detail a “skirmish” that he
without doubt took part in!

George Ambrose
Corgan was a well-
traveled man! He was
born in 1832 in New

York. In 1848 he
signed up as a private
in “Company D” of
the New York

Volunteers. His
company traveled
thousands of miles
west and south in
what must have been
and endless variety
of conveyances,

ending up in Baja
California (La Paz)
in 1848. There he fought at Todos Santos. After the war he went back to New
York and married Catherine Mercer in 1850. Census records show he then moved

west again – eventually to Port Angeles, Washington and his final resting
place – Ocean View Cemetery.

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