James LeCompte Bryan of Cambridge, Maryland, served as a lieutenant with the First Virginia Regiment of Volunteer Infantry during the Mexican War (1846-1848). One of five children, James LeCompte Bryan (called Jim) interrupted his medical studies and employment as a teacher in Petersburg, Virginia, to join the army. Bryan served the army in various positions between 1846 and 1848, such as a lieutenant, company commander, second officer of the battalion, acting adjutant, and aide to a colonel.
In the late spring of 1847, Bryan marched from Camargo, Mexico, near the Texas border, to join General Zachary Taylor’s troops. Encamped near Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, he studied the site of the battle for that city, which had occurred the previous September. Under the command of General John Ellis Wool, in the summer of 1847, Bryan marched from Monterrey to Buena Vista, where he toured the site of the decisive battle fought in February of 1847 between Taylor’s and Santa Anna’s forces. Bryan’s company was moved to Parras, Coahuila in late February 1848, and occupied that town until the withdrawal of American troops at the end of the war, in the summer of that year.
Although Bryan saw no combat during the Mexican War, his assignments to Monterrey and Buena Vista afforded him opportunity to tour the battlefields at these locations a few months after the battles; and his high rank brought him into contact with many officers who shared their combat experiences with him, such as Jefferson Davis, Winfield Scott, Zachary Taylor, and John Ellis Wool.
After leaving military service, Bryan returned to Cambridge, Maryland, where he entered the Episcopal clergy and served as rector of Christ Church in Cambridge until his death. He was interred in the churchyard there.
From the guide to the Bryan, James LeCompte, Papers 83-381; 84-197., 1846-1848, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
