Melvin's War

Melvin Hunter Brown is a distant relative by marriage who I never met. He was the 2nd husband of Doris Harris who had married a first cousin of my grandmother Edith Wilson, Elam Ralph Henderson.

I only write about Melvin because of the unusual inscription on his grave marker.

He has a military marker and is shows he was a Private in the US Army during the Mexican War. Not something you would think twice about except that he was born in 1893 and the Mexican War was fought in 1846-1848. Many of the generals in the Civil War got their first combat experience in Mexico.

Melvin Brown was born in Oxford, Mississippi and married Doris Harris Henderson in 1939.

Melvin's WWI draft registration card which he filled out in 1918 while living in Plant City, Florida says he had already served three months in the US Army.

I found his obituary from 1979 and it said he was a veteran of the Mexican Border War.

Not having much interest in Texas when I took US History in 7th grade I don't know if this war was mentioned or not. Apparently we sent troops to the Texas and New Mexico border in 1910 during the last (I think) Mexican Revolution and they fought a couple times with both the Mexican Army and Revolutionaries over the next few years.

I suppose in twenty years we will see military grave markers with an inscription showing service in the Grenada War and people will wonder what about that too.