Brig. Gen. Juan Santa Maria address to Italian Brigade

Official Dispatch from the Desk of:
Brig Gen Juan Santa Maria
Cmdr. of the Italian Brigade
“Spirit of the Bayonet, Cold as Steal”

To the esteemed members of the Italian Brigade,

First I would like to introduce myself to the ranks.  I am Brig. Gen. Juan Santa Maria of Alajuela Costa Rica.  I started my military career as a drummer for the Army of Costa Rica.  We were a rag tag group of farmers.  The honorable Cornelius Vanderbilt requested and funded our Army to remove the confederate renegade William Walker from Latin America.  I proved my valor and bravery at the Battle of San Rivas in Nicaragua our northern neighbor in 1856. We had Walker and his band of thieves surrounded in a building.  Many men had tried to light a fire to the building that Walker and his half breads where cowering in.  Walker’s sharpshooters where picking us off like berries on a coffee tree.  I volunteered to bring the next torch and with the hand of God I made my way through the storm of gun fire, set the building on fire and Walker and his men fled.
I was then giving a command of my home folk a we chased Walker all the way to the Nicaraguan and Honduras boarder and Walker along with most of his men were killed.  We returned home to our country as heroes but little did we know that we were infected with Cholera by the confederate vermin.  Cholera went on to claim the lives of 10% of my Country’s people.
When my President the Honorable Juan Rafael Mora Porras heard that war was brewing in the US with the CS, he saw the chance to extract vengeance upon the Confederate Parasites. President Porras Mora then asked me to get on the next boat to Washington and ask for a command.   The Honorable Secretary Stanton has blessed me with the Command of the renowned Italian Brigade. I humbly ask that you accept me as you Commander and may we together restore the Union of these states. We should unite as men for a common cause against a common foe!

I brought 2 tons of Coffee with me and it shall be distributed among the regiments also we received a huge load of cured horse meat from last week’s battle.  I invite you all to attend this great feast outside of the HQ’s tent that shall be put on to celebrate this victory and to prepare us for our upcoming actions on the battlefield.

Respectfully,

Brigadier General  Juan Santa María

This letter was translated from Spanish to English and Italian by Father Guido Sarducci.

Funny that you should mention this guy, I just read about him in Battle Cry of Freedom. True central american badass.