rison left opposite Matamoras has rendered no less distinguished service by sustaining a severe cannonade and bombardment of many successive days. The army and the country, while justly rejoicing in this triumph of our arms, will deplore the loss of many brave officers and men who fell gallantly in the hour of combat. 2. It being necessary for the commanding general to visit Point Isabel on public business, Colonel Twiggs will assume command of the corps of the army near Matamoras, including the garrison of the field-work. He will occupy the former lines of the army, making such dispositions for defence and for the comfort of his command as he may deem advisable. He will hold himself strictly on the defensive until the return of the commanding general. By order of Brigadier-general Taylor. W. W. J. BLISS, Act. Adjutant General. } HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF OCCUPATION, POINT ISABEL, Texas, May 12, 1846. SIR-I am making a hasty visit to this place, for the purpose of having an interview with Commodore Connor, whose squadron is now at anchor off the harbor, and arranging with him a combined movement up the river. I avail myself of the brief time at my command to report that the main body of the army is now occupying its former position opposite Matamoras. The Mexican forces are almost disorganized, and I shall lose no time in investing Matamoras, and opening the navigation of the river. I regret to report that Major Ringgold died the morning of the 11th inst., of the severe wounds received in the action of Palo Alto. With the exception of Capt. Paige, whose wound is dangerous, the other wounded officers are doing well. In my report of the second engagement, I accidentally omitted the name of Lieut. Dobbins, 3d infantry, among the officers slightly wounded, and desire that the omission may be supplied in the despatch itself. I am under the painful necessity of reporting that Lieut. Blake, topographical engineers, after rendering distinguished service in my staff during the affair GEN. TAYLOR S DESPATCHES. 43 of the 8th inst., accidentally shot himself with a pistol on the following day, and expired before night. It has been quite impossible as yet to furnish detailed reports of our engagements with the enemy, or even accurate returns of the killed and wounded. Our loss is not far from 3 officers and 40 men killed, and 13 officers and 100 men wounded; while that of the enemy has in all probability exceeded 300 killed; more than 200 have been buried by us on the two fields of battle. I have exchanged a sufficient number of prisoners to recover the command of Captain Thornton. The wounded prisoners have been sent to Matamoras-the wounded officers on their parole. General La Vega and a few other officers have been sent to New Orleans, having declined a parole, and will be reported to Maj. Gen. Gaines. I am not conversant with the usages of war in such cases, and beg that such provision may be made for these prisoners as may be authorized by law. Our own prisoners have been treated with great kindness by the Mexican officers. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, The RESULT of these battles, however, was fatal. The Mexican republic lost all power, either present or future, of retaining one foot of that vast territorial empire which they once held east of the Rio Grande. The conquerors were tempted, in the flush of victory, to carry their arms beyond that melancholy river;-to seek for glory in conquests; -to find the gratification of dominion in foreign lands;— -to indulge the rapacious lust of power;-to leave fields fertile in blessings for others fertile only in blood;-and finally, to make it uncertain whether even the best of Republics can resist the universal tendency of man to build up Empires-by the destruction of Justice. CHAPTER III. Action of Congress.-Declaration of the President.-Legislation.-General Scott's Views of the War.-His Comments on the Plan of Campaign. -His Correspondence with Secretary Marcy.-The Grounds for his Opinions. Is ordered to remain at Washington. THE news of the capture of Captain Thornton's party was received with great surprise by the nation, and the government. Notwithstanding all the acts of the United States and Mexico, both diplomatic and legislative, during the previous four years, had tended to this and no other result; and notwithstanding General Taylor had been ordered to the Rio Grande with four thousand regular troops, yet neither people nor President seem to have realized that war was actually near at hand. They appear to have relied upon some invisible Providence to prevent a catastrophe, which to a reasonable mind, and especially to one imbued with the spirit of a statesman, seemed inevitable.1 The intelligence of hostilities on the Rio Grande, was therefore received with astonishment, and for a time. occasioned a powerful excitement. Congress was then in session, and the President immediately sent in an extraordinary Message. In this, he declared that the 1 1 Mr. Clay declared in the canvass of 1844, that the annexation of Texas was equivalent to a war with Mexico, and that war must follow 2 President's Message, dated the 11th of May, 1846. PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. 45 Mexican government had "at last invaded our territory, and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our own soil.” In the same Message, and in the paragraph immediately following, he stated that Mr. Slidell was sent to Mexico with full powers to adjust all the questions in dispute between the two governments, "both the questions of the Texas boundary, and of indemnification to our citizens." The boundary in dispute was the western boundary of Texas only, and hence this was a clear admission, that the territory adjacent was in dispute, and was not our soil, till the question of boundary was settled. Congress, however, with less than two days' deliberation, adopted the declaration of the President, and declared that, "by the act of the Republic of Mexico, a state of war exists between that government and the United States." At the same time, that body authorized the President to accept the services of fifty thousand volunteers, and placed ten millions of dollars at his disposal. The intention was to put an end to the war, by a vigorous effort and decisive victories. The President declared that in his opinion, "the immediate appearance in arms of a large and overpowering force," would be the best means of producing peace.1 Just two days before this declaration, the decisive battle of Resaca de la Palma had been fought, and the army of Arista pursued beyond the Rio Grande. We are now to see what plans the government had formed for the further prosecution of the war. 'The term most commonly used to express this idea was "to conquer a peace." The original authorship of this phrase appears to belong to the poet Coleridge.-See Cottle's Reminiscences. At this time, General Scott, as commander of the army, was stationed at Washington, engaged in arranging and superintending the various staff duties of the army. He would be naturally consulted on the plans to be formed, and the means to execute them. This was the case. Immediately after the act of Congress of the 13th of May was passed, he was invited to call upon the President, who in that interview informed him that it was his determination to assign him the command of the army in Mexco.' From that moment, he was busily engaged in the necessary arrangements to carry into effect the views and instructions of the President. He was employed fourteen hours a day in all those various duties which pertain to the movements, supplies, equipage, direction, and objects of the army. No one can imagine the magnitude of these labors, their responsibility or importance, who does not reflect, that the geography, climate, military armament, means of supply, in fine, the whole detail of the physical and social condition of Mexico, were almost utterly unknown in the United States, and that information on these topics had to be obtained by inquiry and study, before even a general of the army could make prudent military arrangements. The Rio Grande was assumed by the government, as the buse line of military operations from the beginning. Yet this river was itself not less than seven hundred miles from the Mississippi river, separated by lands so unproductive, and so sparsely populated, as to be incapable of supporting either man or beast on the extended scale required by the operations of war. 1 The Marcy's Letter to the President, published in the Public Docuneats of 1846. |