General Notes

"The war with Mexica made no great stir among the people of Champaign, through the progress of the victorius troops from Vera Cruz to Mexico was hailed with enthusiasm similar to that over the country generally.... The newspapers of the county do not return any names of the volunteer soldiery who were at Buena Vista, the heights of Monterey, of the storming of Chapultepec, but a green memory has kept in remembrance of names of Evan Jenkins, ... and Johnson K. Putman - all of whom were from Champaign, who volunteered in the Army of the Rio Grande. To these may be added the name of Gatch Ambrose, youngest son of Frederick Ambrose, whose name has appeared in these pages as one of the oldest pioneers. Young Ambrose was engineer on a Mississippi River steamboat, which he left for the war. Passed safely through its dangers; afterward joined the ill-starred expedition of William Walker, "the gray-eyed man of destiny," and, with other young men deceived into participation in the Nicaraguan expedition, paid the penalty with his life." [The History of Champaign County, Ohio, W. H. Beers & Co., 1881, p265]