| Summary: | During the Mexican-American War, Moore organized and led the Eutaw Rangers, a group of volunteers from Greene County, Alabama. In the diary he describes his war service from May 26, 1846, to May 13, 1847. He mentions troop movements in Mexico and battles the men encountered; sickness and deaths among the Alabama volunteers; his opinions of high-ranking officers such as General Gideon Pillow, General David E. Twiggs, and General Zachary Taylor; and his impressions of the Mexicans, American Indians, and Spaniards he met. Of particular interest is his account of the death of his slave, Peter, who had accompanied him in the war: "I witnessed on to day a sight which distressed me greatly--It was the death of my faithful servant Peter. He had left his wife to accompany me (consenting to do so upon my suggesting it to him) and has been very attentive, and seemed really attached to me, ever since I left home. A most violent attack of fever carried him off after an illness of only a few days. He seemed to have a presentiment of his approaching end from the commencement of his attack. He remarked this, to me, that he had no fears of death, but hated to die so far from his wife. I used every effort to minister to his wants...but with all the attention which I could give him & all the attending physicians...at last he bade adieu to all terrestrial things. Poor fellow!...I shall miss him too, greatly, during the remainder of this campaign as I had before never had the least trouble in attending to any thing, but I regret it much more on his...wife's account than on my own. Few persons have ever been, in my opinion, better prepared to meet death than he was. Tho' a slave, and without education & the means of obtaining extended information, he seemed to have, firmly implanted in his bosom, principles of honesty and religion."
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