November, to abandon the expedition, and advance with his column of two thousand and four hundred men to Parras, a place south of Saltillo. Here the army of General Wool remained for a short time until, in the month of December, it joined the division of Worth at Saltillo.

On the 13th of November, General Taylor followed General Worth's division to Saltillo, escorted by two squadrons of dragoons. This town is the capital of the state of Coahuila, and is distant sixty-five miles southwest from Monterey. It was considered by Taylor as an important point for occupation, for three reasons: first, as a necessary (utpost of the main force at Monterey, covering as it does the defile which leads from the low country to the table land, and also the route to Monclova; secondly, as controlling a region from which to obtain supplies of provisions, viz., the fertile country around Parras; thirdly, as the capital of Coahuila, which renders it important in a political point of view.

General Taylor represented to the war department the difficulties to be encountered in a forward movement upon the city of San Luis Potosi, and with regard to a proposed expedition against Vera Cruz, he gave it as his opinion that twenty-five thousand troops would be properly required to take possession of Vera Cruz, and march thence against the city of Mexico. He proposed to proceed with the preparation for a movement on Tampico, if approved by the department, but his designs were not carried into effect. A movement against San Luis, he remarked, should not be undertaken except with a force so large as to render success certain. That force he considered should be at least 20,000 strong, as he supposed the Mexicans able to concentrate a force of 40,000 to 50,000 men at San Luis, which is a city of about 60,000 inhabitants, distant three hundred miles from Saltillo, nearly six hundred miles from the Rio Grande, and five hundred from the city of Mexico.

Having made arrangements for the occupation of the state of Coahuila, and left with General Worth at Saltillo a squadron of dragoons, General Taylor returned to Monterey, where, on the 25th of November, he learned officially of the occupation of Tampico by the naval forces under Commodore Perry. On the requisition of the commodore, with the approval of General Taylor, a regiment and six companies from Taylor's army were ordered to Tampico to garrison that town.

On the 15th of December, General Taylor left Monterey for Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas, which place he designed to occupy, and concentrate there a portion of his army. On his way thither he received information from General Worth at Saltillo, that Santa Anna, then in command of the Mexican army at San Luis, designed taking advantage of the diversion of force toward Victoria, by a rapid movement, strike a heavy blow at the American troops at Saltillo, and, if successful, another at General Wool's force at Parras. General Taylor, therefore, thought proper to return to Monterey with the regular forces, and thus be in a posi

tion to reinforce Saltillo, if necessary. The volunteers under General Quitman were ordered to continue their march and effect a junction with General Patterson, at Victoria. At the same time, Generals Butler and Wool moved rapidly from Monterey and Parras to join General Worth, who had advised them of a probable attack on his position. General Taylor had proceeded beyond Monterey, on his way to Saltillo, when, on the 20th of December, he received information that the expected concentration and movement of the Mexican troops upon Saltillo had not taken place. Deeming the force present and sent forward to that place sufficient to repel any demonstration from San Luis Potosi, General Taylor again marched with General Twiggs's division toward Victoria.

On the 29th of December, General Quitman entered Victoria without opposition. The enemy had a body of 1,500 cavalry in the town, which fell back as the Americans approached. General Taylor arrived there with the troops of General Twiggs on the 4th of January, and was joined on the same day by the force which General Patterson conducted from Matamoras. The force collected at Victoria was over 5,000 strong.

While General Taylor was thus maturing his operations, the American government had determined to concentrate the largest possible number of regulars and experienced volunteers in the attack upon Vera Cruz, and the march thence to the city of Mexico. General Scott was charged with the command of the expedition, and immediately took measures to secure its success. On the 25th of November, General Scott wrote General Taylor from New York, informing him that he expected to be on the Rio Grande about the 20th of December, on his way to carry out the obJect of an expedition, the particulars of which, as despatches had been lost, he did not deem it prudent to communicate. I shall be obliged," he says, "to take from you most of the gallant officers and men (regulars and volunteers) whom you have so long and so nobly commanded. I am afraid that I shall, by imperious necessity-the approach of yellow fever on the gulf coast- reduce you, for a time, to stand on the defensive. This will be infinitely painful to you, and for that reason distressing to me. But I rely upon your patriotism to submit to the temporary sacrifice with cheerfulness."

In consequence of the plan thus declared, the regular troops (with the exception of a very small body of the troops which composed his army in the month of November), the division of General Worth at Saltillo, of General Patterson at Victoria, the brigades of Generals Quitman and Twiggs at the same place, and all other corps which could possibly be drawn from the field of operations, of which the Rio Grande was the base, were ordered to Vera Cruz. To maintain his position at Saltillo, General Taylor was left with about five thousand men, only five hundred being regulars. On parting with the troops who had so faithfully served with him, he issued an order expressing his deep sensibility and attachment

toward them, and his deep regret that he could not participate with those who were making their first campaign in its eventful scenes. To all, both officers and men, he extended "his heartfelt wishes for their continued success and happiness, confident that their achievements on another theatre would redound to the credit of their country and its arms."

In January, 1847, General Taylor left Victoria, and established his headquarters at Monterey, where, early in February, his force, including recent reinforcements of volunteers, amounted to between 6,000 and 7,000 men. Soon after reaching Monterey he received information that a party of dragoons had been surprised at Encarnacion, also that another party, with Captain Cassius M. Clay and Majors Borland and Gaines were taken prisoners.

While the United States were preparing to attack Vera Cruz, and endeavoring to maintain the positions gained by the northern divisions of the army, under Generals Taylor, Wool, and Kearny, Mexico was also preparing for a decisive blow. In December, the Mexican Congress assembled at the capital. Santa Anna was elected provisional president, and Gomez Farias vice president, of the republic. The command of the army was undertaken by Santa Anna personally, he having recently returned to Mexico from exile at Havana, and devoted himself with zeal to restore domestic order, to unite parties, to devise measures of finance, and to raise and equip troops. Notwithstanding every embarrassment, Santa Anna had concentrated at San Luis Potosi, before the end of January, 1847, an army of more than 21,000 men, prepared to march thence against the divisions of General Taylor's force between Saltillo and the Rio Grande. On the first of February the Mexican army was moving rapidly upon that town, upward of three hundred miles distant from San Luis. The march was arduous, from the great distance over a desert, want of water and provisions, and from the severity of the weather. On the 20th of February they reached Encarnacion, and the next day advanced on Saltillo.

.

The army of Santa Anna was admirably equipped. It was composed of the flower of the Mexican nation, and numbered more than four to one of the army which it came to conquer. Hope and dire necessity both urged them to victory. The commander, Santa Anna, had well considered the advantages he would derive from this movement, if successful, and all the chances were in his favor. Could he have driven General Taylor from his position at Buena Vista, he would have swept down to Camargo, and over the whole valley of the Rio Grande. All the munitions of war of the Americans would have fallen into his hands. If defeated, Santa Anna well knew that his moral power over his army would be broken. The fate of his country seemed suspended on the issue of a single battle. His own fame, his place in history, were both to be decie ded in the coming conflict.†

* Fry's Life of Taylor.

† Mansfield.

General Wool had continued in command of the division of the American army at Saltillo. Near the end of January, he advised General Taylor of the rumored advance of Santa Anna, then organizing his forces at San Luis, as has been mentioned. In consequence of this information, although at that time indefinite, General Taylor determined at once to meet the enemy, if opportunity should be offered; and leaving a garrison of fifteen hundred men at Monterey, he took up his line of march on the 31st with a reinforcement for the column of General Wool. On the 2d of February, he reached Saltillo, and on the 4th he advanced to Agua Nueva, a strong position on the San Luis road, twenty miles south of Saltillo. Here he encamped until the 21st, when he received intelligence that Santa Anna was advancing with his whole army. Having carefully examined the various positions and defiles of the mountains, Taylor decided that Buena Vista, a strong mountain pass, eleven miles nearer Saltillo, was the most favorable point to make a stand against a force so overwhelming. He therefore fell back to that place, and at noon of the 21st, encamped to await the approach of Santa Anna, then within one day's march of this position.

The position of the American army at this moment was most critical. The regular troops had been withdrawn, with the exception of a few companies of artillery and dragoons. The volunteers, of which the army was mainly composed, had received some instruction in the regular duties of the camp, but had not attained that perfection in discipline which gives confidence in military operations.*

The position selected by General Taylor to receive with his small army, the forces of the Mexican chief- five times the number of the Americans was one of remarkable natural strength. It was at a point where the main road from San Luis to Saltillo, passes between closely-approximating chains of mountains. The bases of these mountains are cut, by the occasional torrents of rain, into numerous deep gullies, almost impassable, owing to the rugged and steep banks leaving between them elevated table-lands or plateaus, of various extent. On the west of the road, and nearly parallel to it, between Agua Nueva and Buena Vista, is also a ditch, forming one of the mountain drains on that side. The American army was drawn up at nearly right angles to the road, its chief force being on the east of it, occupying a large plateau commanding the mountain side. Facing the south, this force constituted the left wing. A battery of light artillery occupied the road, and the right wing rested on the opposite hill. In this attitude, the Americans awaited the advance of the Mexicans, on the morning of the 22d of February, the birthday of Washington.

On the 21st, General Taylor had proceeded with a small force to Saltillo (nine miles from Buena Vista), to make some arrangements for the defence of the town, leaving General Wool in command of the troops.

* Mansfield.

Before those arrangements at Saltillo were completed, on the morning of the 22d, Taylor was advised that the enemy was in sight, advancing. Hastening to the battle-field, he found that the Mexican cavalry advance was in front, having marched from Encarnacion, over forty miles distant, at eleven o'clock on the day previous, and driving in an American mounted force left at Agua Nueva, to cover the removal of public stores.

The features of the ground occupied by the American troops were such as nearly to paralyze the artillery and cavalry of the Mexicans, while their infantry could not derive all the advantages of its numerical superiority, At eleven o'clock, General Taylor received from General Santa Anna, a summons to surrender at discretion, to which the American commander immediately replied, "declining to accede to the request." The enemy still forbore his attack, evidently waiting for the arrival of his rear columns. The Mexican light troops commenced the action by engaging the Americans on the extreme left, and kept up a sharp fire, climbing the mountain-side, and apparently endeavoring to gain the flank of the Americans. The skirmishing of the light troops was kept up until dark; when General Taylor became convinced that no serious attack would be made before morning, and returned, with a regiment and squadron of dragoons, to Saltillo. The troops bivouacked without fires, and laid upon their arms. A body of fifteen hundred Mexican cavalry under General Minon, had entered the valley through a narrow pass east of Saltillo, and had evidently been thrown in the rear of the Americans, to break up and harass the retreat which was so confidently expected by Santa Anna.

Having made the necessary dispositions for the protection of the rear, General Taylor returned to Buena Vista, on the morning of the 23d, ordering forward all the available troops from Saltillo. The action had com

menced before his arrival on the field.

During the night of the 22d, the Mexicans had thrown a body of light troops on the mountain-side, with the purpose of outflanking the left of the Americans; and it was here that the action of the 23d, commenced at an early hour. The American riflemen in this position maintained their ground handsomely against a greatly superior force. About eight o'clock, a strong demonstration was made against the American centre, a heavy Mexican column moving along the road; which was soon dispersed by the fire from Captain Washington's battery. In the meantime, a large force of Mexican infantry and cavalry was concentrated under cover of the ridges, with the obvious intention of forcing the left of the Americans. It was found impossible to check the advance of the Mexican infantry, although the American artillery was served against it with great effect, under the orders of Captain O'Brien. When General Taylor arrived upon the field, the left wing of his army had become completely outflanked, and the enemy was pouring masses of infantry and cavalry along the base of the mountain; thus gaining the rear of the Americans in great force. Taylor immediately