Richard Wadsworth
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 392
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Major Isaac Lynde, like Benedict Arnold, was considered the foremost American traitor of his era. Just prior to the Civil War, Lynde was accused of the unpardonable sin of surrendering -- without a fight -- an entire regiment of United States troops, supposedly ready for battle, to a poorly armed and inferior Texas Confederate militia. This is factually correct. Thereafter, his regiment, the 7th United States Infantry, was allowed to fly the American flag again only after it was bloodied in battle. On July 27, 1861, Major Isaac Lynde abandoned Fort Fillmore, marched his troops to San Augustine Springs and there surrendered without a fight. For over 140 years Lynde has borne the names of coward, traitor, doddering old fool, etc. Could an officer, a West Point graduate, with thirty-four years of honorable service on the frontier, be the person historical accounts describe? Isaac Lynde was never tried for his alleged crimes, or even given a hearing-President Abraham Lincoln and Congress ended Lynde's career without allowing him to speak. Was Isaac Lynde a traitor, or the perfect scapegoat for the battering the Federal armies were taking in the early days of the Civil War?