Read Ebook: Condensed History of the Mexican War and Its Glorious Results by Hungerford Daniel E McKay William Murphy Charles J Charles Joseph Cowan John E Compiler

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 163 lines and 15099 words, and 4 pages

The art of dying at the right time is the art preservative of great reputations.

The Mississipi Rifles were soon bravely supported by the 1st Illinois, 2nd Indiana, and 2nd Kentucky regiments with section of Bragg's famous battery, and the ground lost on our left flank was in great part recovered. At the base of the ridge the left flank of the enemy was held in check by Indiana and Arkansas infantry, and the destructive fire of our artillery.

At that moment, when his army had met with a disastrous and demoralizing repulse, General Santa Anna sent forward a flag of truce and our fire was suspended. The bearer of the flag, to the amazement of General Taylor, presented a demand for the surrender of his army.

This expedient cannot be too strongly commended in the art of war, although writers upon grand strategy have strangely overlooked it. It is not suggested even by General Jomini, in his exhaustive work "Trait? des grandes Op?rations Militaires."

It may, however, be thus formulated: When your attacking columns are shattered and repulsed, hurry up a flag of truce, and check the advance of your exultant enemy, and demand his surrender, and then, before he can recover from his astonishment at your sublime impudence reform your shattered lines and advance to further vantage ground, or retire in good order, under the shelter of the peaceful symbol.

Santa Anna's messenger returned with General Taylor's laconic answer, "I decline acceding to your demand," and the Mexicans again advanced to the attack, bringing into action all their reserves, and were again repulsed with heavy loss, after a terrible struggle.

The battle of twelve sanguinary hours on that mountain plateau had ended, and "our flag was still there."

General Santa Anna retired rapidly with his army, only pausing in the vicinity long enough to send off a bulletin to the Capital announcing that he had "won a decisive victory over the barbarians of the North." Thus ended in a blaze of glory the battle-record of the "army of occupation," under General Taylor.

In the meantime, the Army of the West, under the command of General Stephen W. Kearney, had been reaping a rich harvest of laurels.

Dividing his force at Santa F?, General Kearney with 1,500 Dragoons marched to California, and defeated the enemy in a warm engagement at San Pasqual. He then formed a junction with the California rifle battalion, and a force of 750 sailors and marines from the naval squadron, under the command of Commodore Stockton, who had just succeeded the gallant Commodore Sloat, who had previously taken the California port of Monterey. Prior to the arrival of General Kearney, however, that brilliant soldier, and untiring and sagacious explorer, John C. Fremont, had hoisted the American standard in California. He was there under orders to ascertain and lay out a new route to Oregon further South than that travelled by our emigrants.

The Mexican Governor of California having in May, 1846, ordered all American settlers to leave that province, and having raised a force to expel them, Colonel Fremont recruited a body of 400 men and defeated the Mexicans in several sharp engagements in the valley of the Sacramento, before he had even heard that war existed between the United States and Mexico. Under his able and enterprising leadership the Americans in California, united with many of the natives, declared the independence of the province of California on the 4th of July, 1845.

It has since transpired that but for this timely action on the part of Col. Fremont and the resolute Americans associated with him, a large force would have been landed from the British fleet in that vicinity, and California would have been taken possession of by England, under an arrangement with its Mexican Governor.

It had been taken possession of by Admiral Drake for England in the year 1579, under the name of "New Albion," and the vague British claim was to be revived in the interest of English capitalists who held the bonds of Mexico to the amount of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars.

A few months after these stirring and important events on the Pacific slope, Col. A. W. Doniphan began his famous march from Santa F? to Saltillo.

He started on November 13th, 1846, with a force consisting of nine hundred Missouri cavalry and two batteries of Missouri artillery. A part of his command 500 strong was attacked on Christmas Day at Brazito by a force of 1,000 Mexicans, which they defeated in twenty minutes. They again defeated the enemy on February 28th, 1847, at Sacramento, near the city of Chihuahua, and entered that important city triumphantly. On the next day Doniphan began his march through the Northern States of Mexico, back to Saltillo. He accomplished this renowned march, winning victories as he went, in forty days, a distance of 1,500 miles. This dims the lustre of the retreat of the ten thousand Greeks from the field of Cunaxa, as graphically described by Xenophon, their commander and historian.

While these events were in progress, Col. Sterling Price, of Missouri, who had been left by Doniphan at Santa F?, with a force of about 500 men, had been, as he always was, active and successful.

On January 19th, 1847, Governor Charles Bent, with thirty-five other Americans were massacred at Taos, New Mexico, in cold blood by a Mexican force of about two thousand cavalry, which soon after appeared in the vicinity of Santa F?. Price attacked and defeated them, after a desperate conflict, at Canada, about 18 miles north of Santa F?. He pursued them on their retreat, and two days later inflicted severe loss upon them at Embedo, and finally on February 4th he utterly routed them at Taos, the scene of their recent savage atrocity.

The scene now opens on a broader field of action.

On the 9th of March, 1847, the Army of Mexico, under the command of Major-General Winfield Scott, that most regal of American soldiers, never to be named by us, comrades, but with uplifted hat, began its victorious march for the "Halls of the Montezumas." General Scott on that day effected the landing of his army at Sacrificios, an island seven miles west of Vera Cruz. The landing was made in seventy-five surf boats, each carrying seventy-five men, under cover of our fleet, commanded by Commodore Conner, with those able and dashing officers Commodores Perry and Tatnall commanding squadrons of the fleet. The army there numbered 13,200 rank and file. General Scott established his lines on the north and east fronts of Vera Cruz on the same day. Within ten days he had planted five large siege batteries built of sand bags about 1,000 yards from the walls of the city. One of them was mounted with 8-inch ship guns, and manned by sailors from the fleet.

A demand for the surrender of the city having been made and refused, our guns opened fire on March 22nd, and for three days and nights rained upon it the red ruin of avenging war. On the morning of the 25th, General Laudero, commanding the garrison of the city and the Castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, sent in a flag of truce with overtures of surrender. He at first proposed to surrender the city alone. General Scott refused this, as the castle distant but a mile to the South East of the city, completely commanded it, and he therefore demanded its surrender also.

This demand was finally acceded to and the surrender of the Castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, and the City of Vera Cruz, with their garrisons 8,000 strong was formally made on March 29, 1847. Our loss was but sixteen killed and wounded.

On April 8th our army took up its line of march along the national road for the Capital of Mexico distant 290 miles. On April 14th it confronted the Army of Santa Anna, 20,000 strong posted on the heights of Cerro Gordo. The mountain ridges on which he had taken position, had been well fortified by that indomitable but cruel and faithless Mexican general, and fully commanded our route to the Capital. At the instance, and under the direction of that most excellent soldier Captain Robert E. Lee, of the Corps of Engineers, a road was cut through the dense forest on the enemy's left, so as to enable us to take his position in reverse. This work occupied three days during which our working parties were frequently attacked.

On the morning of the 18th of April, at dawn, we attacked in force.

The command of our column of attack on the enemy's left was the post of honor, for it was the strongest point of his position, as it covered his only line of retreat. That command was assigned to Brigadier General James Shields, one of that warlike Irish race who have ever keenly felt the rapture of the fight wherever battle was to be done for a noble cause--a most knightly and heroic soldier, who would have worn with stainless honor the white plume of Henry of Navarre on the field of Ivry, and have worthily led the immortal Irish Brigade along the path of glory that it trod at Fontenoy.

Our troops dashed up the mountain side with unquailing intrepidity, the First Regiment of New York, volunteers of Shield's brigade under the command of that most gallant soldier Colonel Ward B. Burnett, bravely leading on our extreme right. The rocky ridge was soon ablaze with the fire of musketry and artillery.

In three hours the Mexican Army was routed. The battle was done, and far up on the crest of the mountain range where the eagle dwells alone, the white stars of our country's banner shone serenely on their blue field. Our loss was 97 killed and 408 wounded, and that of the enemy about 1,400 in killed and wounded, and 2,750 prisoners, among whom were officers and men of the recently surrendered garrison of Vera Cruz, who were serving against us in violation of their paroles.

Harney's Dragoons pursued the enemy hotly, and sabred their scattered columns for fifteen miles along the road to Jalapa.

At that city the army of Scott was reduced to about 6,500 by the muster out of the greater part of his volunteer forces, as they had enlisted for only one year; and their term of service had expired. Leaving Jalapa on the 22nd of April we entered Perot? and its strong castle, a full bastion work of 80 guns, on the evening of the 23rd, the enemy having evacuated it on approach. Halting here to rest for about two weeks we marched for Puebla, 70 miles distant, the chief manufacturing city in Mexico with a population of 65,000.

We occupied Puebla on May 15th, after a desultory fire from the enemy in its streets.

Here General Scott was obliged to await, for nearly three months, the arrival of reinforcements. Every day's delay increased our hazard, as the enemy was fortifying, along all the approaches to the capital.

The time was not wholly lost, however, for General Scott there brought the drill of his volunteer regiments to the highest state of perfection, so that they marched and manoeuvred with all the precision of trained regulars.

At length the long-expected reinforcements arrived, and on the morning of August 7th, 1847, our Army moved out of Puebla on its march for the city of Mexico, all our bands playing the Star Spangled Banner.

It numbered then about 10,000 men, consisting of four divisions.

The cavalry was commanded by that redoubtable soldier, the Murat of the Army, Brt. Brig. Genl. Wm. S. Harney, and consisted of detachments of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Dragoons, to the number of about seven hundred and fifty.

The whole line of works was stormed, and the battle won in eighteen minutes.

The enemy broke at the first assault, and fled in the direction of the city, and nearly five hundred of them were captured by the New York Volunteers and the Palmetto regiment, that were posted to cut off their retreat. At this battle two guns of the 4th Artillery, that were lost without dishonor at Buena Vista, were recaptured from the enemy.

The army, after resting a few hours at St. Augustine, a town about four miles from Contreras, marched against the main body of the enemy, distant six miles from the former point.

We were soon in the presence of the Mexican Army, thirty thousand strong, commanded by Santa Anna, and composed of the best troops of Mexico, including several thousand volunteers. It occupied a vast intrenched camp near the village and convent of Churubusco, about seven miles from the capital.

While marching to this field we heard a number of heavy explosions which we soon learned were due to the blowing up of the bridges along all our possible lines of retreat back to the coast.

That meant, as every soldier well knew, a declaration by our Mexican foe of "War to the knife, and the knife to the hilt."

General Scott halted the army on a lofty plateau overlooking the valley where stretched the serried lines of the enemy and where

"The sheen of the spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue waves roll nightly on deep Galilee."

He there briefly addressed the several commands, and expressed his firm conviction, that each man would do his duty as an American soldier, and thus assure victory to our arms.

That word "Duty," a code of honor in itself, unknown in its full import, to every language but our own, has ever inspired the loftiest achievements of the English speaking race.

The battle opened at noon, by the attack of the Division of General Worth on the enemy's left flank, and soon became general.

The degree of resistance that we encountered, is indicated by the following extract from the report of Brig. Genl. Shields as to the operations of his own brigade and it is doubtless applicable to every command on that field: "My brigade composed of the 1st New York regiment of Volunteers, and the Palmetto regiment, advanced steadily against the right flank of the enemy under as terrible a fire as any that soldiers ever faced."

At sundown the battle ended with the defeat of the Mexican army which retreated in great disorder toward the city.

The Dragoons, under Harney, followed the flying enemy fast and far, and Major Phil. Kearney, not hearing the recall sounded, or rather not heeding it, pursued them to the walls of the city, sabreing the gunners at its very gate, where he lost his right arm, and returned wounded behind one of his soldiers. Our loss was 1,045 killed and wounded, while that of the enemy was estimated at 7,000 in killed, wounded, and prisoners.

We captured 5,000 prisoners and 86 pieces of artillery.

Among the many deeds of heroism done at Churubusco, I must note one of the most daring that has passed into history. In our charge upon the field-work known as the t?te de pont, we found our way blocked by a burning Mexican ammunition wagon, that threatened a destructive explosion. At this juncture Sergeant Alexander M. Keneday of the 3rd Dragoons, attached to Worth's escort, sprang into the wagon, and calling three of his comrades to his aid, with the sparks flying around him threw the packages of gunpowder into the river below, thus saving many lives and enabling our charging columns to advance. Sergeant Keneday is now the honored Secretary of our National Association.

On the same evening a flag of truce arrived from Santa Anna who proposed an armistice of twenty days, stating that he desired to negociate terms of peace. General Scott assented, and having but three days' rations in his commissariat, imposed as one of the conditions, that he should be allowed to send a train with a proper escort into the city, and there purchase supplies for his army. This was accordingly done. On Sept. 6th, Gen. Scott declared the armistice at an end, having discovered that the wily Santa Anna, in violation of its solemn terms, was engaged in fortifying his position and reinforcing his army.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet