THE MEXICAN WAR. AND ITS HEROES: BEING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE MEXICAN WAR, EMBRACING ALL THE OPERATIONS UNDER GENERALS TAYLOR AND SCOTT, WITH A BIOGRAPHY OF THE OFFICERS. ALSO, AN ACCOUNT OF THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA AND NEW MEXICO, UNDER GEN, KEARNEY, COLS, DONIPHAN AND FREMONT, U.S.5227.8 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by in the clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. PREFACE. If the Hero of Buena Vista nobly commenced the present war with Mexico, the Hero of Chippewa has not less nobly completed the second Conquest of Mexico. General Scott and his splendid army have "won golden opinions of all sorts of men." They have displayed all the best qualities of commanders and soldiers. They have carried on sieges and captured cities which were considered impregnable, with a force apparently hardly adequate for a forlorn hope. They have fought pitched battles and won them, opposing fresh recruits to veteran troops. They have accomplished marches over routes before considered utterly impassible; captured fortresses bristling with cannon, by means of the rifle and bayonet; and planted the starspangled banner upon the proud "Halls of Montezuma." General Taylor and his noble army having been instrumental in first developing these facts and this principle, during the present war, it becomes an interesting matter to follow out all their splendid actions in detail, and to learn the real characters of the actors themselves. The following series of lives has been compiled from authentic materials, with a view to satisfy the public curiosity on this important subject. The author has endeavoured to do justice to the officers and men, so far as the materials at his command enabled him to accomplish the object; and he trusts that any errors or inadvertencies which may have involuntarily been committed by him in so serious an undertaking, may have the reader's candid indulgence. Philadelphia, Jan. 1, 1848. |