ABSTRACT
Before all else, for some Americans, there was Jarama. Before any military training, before a visit to Madrid, before gaining much, if any, sense of Spain's people or its landscapes, there was Jarama. There were several Americans fighting in Spain during the first months of the war, before the International Brigades even existed, including several pilots in the air over Madrid, but Jarama was the baptism of fire for the first organized American battalion. Other traumatic battles would follow, but Jarama holds a special status in the memories of the American volunteers and in the history of the Lincolns in Spain. Given the chaotic battle conditions and the high number of casualties in the Lincolns' major engagements there—February 23 and 27, 1937—it is not surprising that detailed letters about Jarama are so rare. In fact, the letters we have seen were all written a month or so after the February battles were over. In some cases, volunteers' letters lead up to Jarama, stop, then resume in March.
