This is an example of a first-person point of view. First-person point of view occurs when the narrator is telling us how things look from his or her perspective. The most common way to identify this person is by looking at whether the author uses the pronoun "I" when telling the story. The author employs it in this passage, as we can see from the sentence:
<em>"There it stood and as far as </em><em>I </em><em>know is standing yet—a gray, rotting thing with no porch, no shutters, no steps, set on a cramped lot with no grass, not even any weeds—a monument to decay."</em>
I'm not sure about the Great Britain and Us conflict but I do know that the Mexican American war was the war for the possession of Texas? That may be a contrast you may include. I hope this helps.
