Softcover. Norman OK, University of Oklahoma Press, reprint, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 351 pages. George Wilkins Kendall, who founded the New Orleans Picayune in 1837, was a restless, impatient, and colorful character in an exciting era. For thirty years he guided the Picayune and built it into a powerful force in behalf of America's westward expansion. Kendall's vigorous editorials championed the cause of the infant Republic of Texas. When the Texan Santa Fe Expedition was organized in 1841, for the purpose of occupying New Mexico (then still under Mexican rule), Kendall left his editorial chair to participate--and was marched off to Mexico as a captive for seven months when the expedition was overwhelmed at Santa Fe. A few years later, when Kendall accompanied American forces invading Mexico during the Mexican War, he became America's first war correspondent--reporting directly from the battlefront. His effective "courier expresses" brought the first news of each battle to an eager nation, including President Polk, who often read news of the war in Kendall's Picayune before hearing it from his field commanders. Clean copy.
