Andrew Vanslyke (1792-1852) moved his family from southeast Missouri to Texas shortly after Texas was annexed into the US. His son, Andrew H Vanslyke, (1827-1848) fought and died in the Mexican War.
Andrew H. Vanslyke (1827-1848) enrolled as Private with Co K of the Texas Mounted Volunteers in July 1847; the war had only seven months remaining. He enrolled for a 12 month period.
Hay’s Texas Mounted Volunteers and its Companies guarded road between VeraCruz and Puebla. It took several months for the companies to travel from Texas to Mexico, leaving in August and arriving in October, where they protected the supply and communications line between Vera Cruz and Mexico City.
Notes on his service records indicate his horse was worn out from service and died in Aug 1847. He is said to have lost his horse at Mier.
The Texas Mounted Volunteers landed in October, after the Siege of Puebla and were security forces along the Vera Cruz lines. They fought the guerillas and provided rapid reaction forces to the remaining Mexican troops. As they were escorting soldiers to Mexico City in late November, there was a large skirmish with that resulted in mass casualties. It may have been this skirmish that caused Vanslyke to be sent to nurse the sick a Puebla which was along the Vera Cruze-Mexico City line.
Puebla had been held under siege in Sept-October, and at the beginning of the siege had had 2000 men left behind as sick and ill. By the end of the siege, 400 remained. Like in the Civil War, soldiers were more likely to die of infection and disease than on the battlefield; in fact, the likelihood was even higher than that of the Civil War.
The Hospital in Puebla was located at the Cuartel de San Jose.
In 1850, Andrew Vanslyke claimed 320 acres on behalf of his son’s heirs in Cooke County, Texas.
Finding the Yellow Bricks 