George Wilkins Kendall

George Wilkins Kendall 1809-67, American journalist, b. near Amherst, N.H. After a succession of journalistic jobs, he was a partner in founding (1837) the New Orleans Picayune. In 1841 he joined the disastrous Texan expedition to Santa Fe, sponsored by the president of Texas, Mirabeau Lamar, in the hope of winning the allegiance of the New Mexico area to the Republic of Texas. The surviving members, including Kendall, were marched to Mexico City and imprisoned. After his release Kendall wrote Narrative of the Texan Santa Fe Expedition (1844). He was an exponent of war with Mexico, and, when hostilities began, he served first under Gen. Zachary Taylor and then as aide to Gen. William Worth in Gen. Winfield Scott's campaigns. He sent back to his paper, by private express, narrative accounts that became famous and were widely copied, thus earning him a reputation as the first of the modern war correspondents. He also wrote The War between the United States and Mexico (1851).

Kendall, George Wilkins (1809–67), with Francis A. Lumsden, founded the New Orleans Picayune (1837). After an adventurous expedition to Mexico (1841), he wrote the Narrative of the Texan Sante Fe Expedition (2 vols., 1844) and served in the Mexican War. He and his partner became, through the Picayune, the originators of the art of war correspondence, and he graphically described the conflict in The War Between the United States and Mexico (1851).