Dear Mr. Cornwell:
I am a long-time reader and letter writer. I am also an apprising novelist working on a prequel novel to a Civil War series and I ran into a bit of a bump with the plot. My main character is an Irish born immigrant who fights in the Mexican and Civil Wars after landing in Philadelphia. But the trouble is, I can’t find any record of regular army units recruiting from Philadelphia during the war with Mexico. There were some volunteer units raised during the war with Mexico but these were largely WASP dominated units that turned away immigrants due to prejudice.
I did however, find evidence that there was regular army recruiting in the city in 1836. A friend suggested that that was all I needed, evidence of it at some point. I know you’ve created fictional regiments and also slipped characters into real ones. I just wonder what you think. The branch of service recruited then isn’t even the right one. Is my being a history major in university and wanting to find a historical prescient for this kind of stuff making me over-think things?
Adam Azzalino