For more than a month it was extremely doubtful whether General Scott would recover from his wounds. Kind friends were not wanting, to provide for the comfort, and to soften the pillow, of the gallant soldier. He remained for several weeks,—suffering, in the meantime, great pain,—at Buffalo, Williamsville, and Batavia, and was thence borne, in a litter, to Geneva, to the house of his friend, the Hon. John Nicholas. As soon as he became able to travel, he proceeded to Philadelphia and Baltimore, in order to procure the best surgical and medical aid in the country. His journey was like the triumphal march of a conqueror. Passing through Princeton on commencement day, he was waited on by a committee of the faculty of the College of New Jersey, who requested his presence at the exercises. He complied with the invitation, and was received by the large audience assembled, with the most rapturous demonstrations of applause. Before he left Princeton, he was also complimented with the honorary degree of Master of Arts, bestowed upon him by the authorities of the College. As he approached Philadelphia, he was met by Governor Snyder at the head of a division of militia, who formed his escort into the town.

Being incapacitated by his wounds, which were a long time in healing, from any active duty, General Scott was prevailed upon, at the instance of the congressional delegations from Maryland and Pennsylvania, to take the nominal command of the troops collected for the defence of Baltimore and Philadelphia. On the sixteenth of October, 1814, he entered upon the duties of commanding officer of the tenth military district,—his headquarters being at Washington city.

On the third day of November, 1814, Congress passed a resolution of thanks, complimenting General Scott for his skill and gallantry at Chippewa and Niagara, and for his uniform good conduct “in sustaining the reputation of the arms of the United States.” A massive gold medal was also struck and presented to him, by order of Congress, and he was brevetted a major general. Resolutions of thanks were likewise adopted by the Legislatures of New York and Virginia, and splendid swords publicly presented to him, in accordance with their directions. He was further honored, by being chosen an honorary member of the State Society of Cincinnati in Pennsylvania, in the year 1815.

After the ratification of the treaty of peace, in February, 1815, General Scott was requested, temporarily, at least, to take charge of the War Department. This he declined, but solicited permission to travel in Europe, for the restoration of his health and professional improvement. The request was granted without hesitation. Having assisted in reducing the army to the peace establishment—being himself retained as one of the four brigadier generals—he embarked for England, and then crossed over to the Continent. While abroad, he was honored with the notice of Kosciusko, who gave him letters of introduction to the most distinguished marshals of France. He attended several courses of public lectures, in the most eminent literary institutions, and visited all the principal fortresses and naval establishments in western Europe. He returned home in 1816, fully restored in strength and spirits; and in the same year was assigned to the command of the Eastern Division, with his headquarters at the city of New York.⁠[42]⁠

In March, 1817, General Scott was married to Miss Maria Mayo, a Virginia lady, distinguished alike for rare beauty and accomplishments. By her he has had several daughters, but no living son.

Shortly after his marriage, General Scott purchased a residence in the village of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, which he still regards as his home. For nearly twenty-five years, from the fall of 1816 to the summer of 1841, with brief intervals, he was continued in command of the Eastern Division, and his family, during that period and since, have spent most of their time at Elizabethtown.

The commanding talents, and extensive military information of General Scott—his whole life having been spent in storing up valuable knowledge in every department of science connected with his profession—have been of vast service to his country, even in time of peace. In 1821, he published an octavo volume, entitled “General Regulations for the Army, or Military Institutes,”—a complete manual for both regular and militia officers. In the winter of 1814–15, he was president of a board appointed to prepare a system of infantry tactics, similar to that taught in the camp of instruction at Buffalo, which was afterwards revised by another board, of which he was also president, and published in 1825. In 1826, he presided over another board, composed of regular officers and militia generals, ordered to convene by the War Department, and to report—1. A plan for the organization and instruction of the whole body of the militia of the Union—2. A system of tactics for the artillery—3. A system of cavalry tactics—and 4. A system of infantry and rifle tactics.

The reports made by the board, on the first and fourth subjects, were prepared exclusively by General Scott, and reflect high credit on his military knowledge and abilities. They were published for the use of the army, and the information of the country; and in 1835, under a resolution of Congress, he prepared a new edition of his system of Infantry Tactics, in three small volumes, containing all the improvements made subsequent to the general peace of 1815.

On the death of General Brown, in February, 1828, General Scott was a candidate for the vacant office of General-in-Chief. His claims were founded, mainly, on the fact, that his commission as a brevet major general, which bore date July 25, 1814, was older than that of Macomb or Gaines, both of whom were candidates for the same station. It was decided, however, by President Adams, and, subsequently, by President Jackson, that brevet rank was merely honorary in its character; and the appointment was therefore conferred on General Macomb, the oldest brigadier.⁠[43] Pending the decision of this question, a warm personal controversy sprung up between the different parties concerned, in regard to brevet rank; and on the decision of the government being made known, General Scott tendered his resignation. Under the advice of his friends, he afterwards reconsidered this hasty step, withdrew his resignation, and resumed the command of the Eastern Division.

On the fourth of July, 1831, the melancholy duty devolved upon General Scott, of closing the eyes of his esteemed and venerable friend, Ex-President Monroe, who expired at the city of New York on that day.

In the summer of 1832, General Scott was ordered to assume the command of the troops sent to suppress the disturbance with the Sacs and Foxes, under Black Hawk, on the Illinois frontier.⁠[44] He embarked at Buffalo, in July, on board a steamer, with two hundred and twenty men; Colonel Twiggs proceeding on another vessel, with a detachment of four hundred; and a third detachment, of over three hundred men, taking still another vessel. Bunches of cypress, rather than wreaths of laurel, were the trophies of this expedition. On the route to Chicago, the command was overtaken by that terrible scourge, the Asiatic Cholera. More than one half of the men composing the detachments died of the disease, or were left in hospital. General Scott paid every necessary attention to the wants of his soldiers; nurses and medical attendants, suitable food and clothing, were provided; and everything in his power was done, that could assuage the sufferings of disease, or the pangs of death. After a long delay, he left Chicago, at the head of only four hundred men. With these he pushed forward as rapidly as possible, but did not come up with General Atkinson, the officer in command of the troops then operating in that quarter, till the third of August, the day after the battle of the Bad-Axe, which put a finishing stroke to the war. On the twenty-seventh instant, Black Hawk surrendered himself to the American officers, and in September following, advantageous treaties were concluded with the Sacs and Foxes, and the Winnebagoes, by General Scott, and Governor Reynolds, of Illinois.

During the agitation of the nullification question, when a conflict was daily expected to take place between South Carolina and the General Government, General Scott was ordered to Charleston and Savannah, to take command of the regular troops in that section, if a collision should become unavoidable. His firmness, and manly and dignified conduct, were productive of the happiest results. The state receded from her position, and the angry waters which discord had lashed into fury, were hushed and stilled by the blessed influence of Peace.

Osceola, or Asceolah, “the black drink,”—as the name signifies,—and the hostile Seminoles of Florida under his command, commenced their depredations in the summer of 1835, and in the autumn the everglades resounded with their shrill war-whoop. On the twenty-eighth of December, Major Dade and his command were attacked and massacred, when on the march from Fort Brooke, and General Thompson, the Indian agent, and several companions were waylaid and killed, in sight of Fort King. On the thirty-first instant, General Clinch encountered the savages, under Osceola, on the banks of the Withlacoochee, and after a severe action, though of brief duration, put them to flight.

Immediately on the receipt of the intelligence of this outbreak, General Scott was ordered to take command of the army in Florida. At four o’clock in the afternoon of the twentieth of January, 1836, he reported to the Secretary of War, and was asked when he could set out? “To night!” he replied promptly. His instructions, however, could not be prepared until the following day; and, on the twenty-first instant, he left Washington, travelling night and day until he reached Florida. On the twenty-second of February, he arrived at Picolata, and issued his orders forming the army into three divisions.—Previous to this time, General Gaines had repaired to the seat of war and commenced offensive operations; but he now surrendered the command to General Scott.⁠[45]⁠—The troops on the west of the St. John’s were placed under General Clinch; those on the east of the river under General Eustis; and those at Tampa Bay under Colonel Lindsay. The three divisions then moved towards the Withlacoochee, where they met, in what was supposed, with good reason—as this had been the theatre of the disturbances—to be the heart of the Indian country; but they failed to discover the retreats of the savages.

The object of this expedition not having been attained, another movement was ordered. Six different corps were organized, with which the whole country, between the twenty-eighth and thirtieth degrees of north latitude, was effectually scoured. One of these detachments was led by General Scott in person. Passing the scene of the massacre on the twenty-eighth of December, he crossed the Ocklewaha, and ascended the St. John’s from Volusia, in a steamboat. Still the Indians could not be discovered, in any large bodies, though very small parties were occasionally seen, with whom the troops had several skirmishes. The soldiers had suffered considerably by their long and fatiguing marches through the sickly and malarious swamps in the interior, the deadly exhalations of which brought on severe diseases, and filled the hospitals with the sick and suffering. It was now rendered certain that the savages had retired among the dense live oak and cypress forests, and the marshy hummocks, in the southern part of the peninsula. To follow them, at that time, was out of the question; and General Scott decided to suspend his operations until another campaign. He then repaired to the Creek country, in Georgia and Alabama, where a number of outrages had recently been committed. Here he had fewer difficulties of climate or country to contend with. He arrived in Georgia, in May, and in less than one month, nearly five hundred of the refractory Creeks had surrendered themselves.

While General Scott was actively engaged in the discharge of his duties in the Creek country, he was unexpectedly recalled, and, on the ninth of July, gave up the command to General Jesup. It being evident that he labored under the displeasure of the Executive, General Jackson, he demanded a court of inquiry, on his arrival at Washington. The court assembled at Frederick, Maryland, in October, and after a long and tedious investigation, fully approved of his conduct. The finding of the court was sustained by the then president, Mr. Van Buren, and General Scott soon after returned to the command of the Eastern Division. He requested permission to be again sent to Florida, but as the war was at that time being prosecuted by other officers, it was not thought advisable to comply with his request, and thus disturb the arrangements which had been made subsequent to his recall.

In the winter of 1837–8, General Scott rendered efficient services in the preservation of neutrality on the northern frontier, and in preventing the war which threatened to grow out of the outbreak in Canada, and what was called “the patriot excitement.” No collision took place with the British forces, although General Scott was fully prepared for such an emergency. In the summer of 1838, he was ordered to take command of the troops in the Cherokee country,—in Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and Tennessee,—and to superintend the removal of the Indians west of the Mississippi. This duty was discharged with so much promptitude and humanity, that he received the grateful thanks of the Cherokees, as well as the express approbation of his own government.

Having terminated his mission among the Cherokees, General Scott hastened to the north, where his almost unbounded popularity had produced such a favorable result the previous year, to take command of the troops ordered to preserve the integrity of the territory of Maine, a large part of which had long been in dispute, and the subject of negotiation, between the governments of England and the United States. He found in Sir John Harvey, the lieutenant governor of New Brunswick—in the campaign of 1813, Lieutenant Colonel Harvey—an old acquaintance, whom he had known during the late war with England. The former discovered that the militia of Maine were too numerous, and too well disposed, to be attacked by his inferior force, and he readily met the friendly, but dignified advances, of General Scott, in a similar spirit. A cessation of all hostile movements and operations, was mutually agreed on between them,—which received the approval of the Governor of Maine, the American Executive, and the British Minister. The disputed boundary was finally adjusted, under the Treaty of Washington, concluded in 1842.

Though taking no active part in the political contests of the day, and never solicitous to venture in “the fiery chase of ambition,” the opinions of General Scott on all leading questions, were so well known to coincide with those of the Whig party, that he was warmly supported as a candidate for the presidency, at their National Convention, held at Harrisburg, in December, 1839. He received sixty-two votes, on the last ballot but one; the choice of the convention, however, fell on General Harrison, who was elected to the office in the autumn of 1840. In the summer of 1848, General Scott was again proposed as a candidate for the same high station, by his numerous friends in different sections of the Union, and received a highly flattering vote in the Whig National Convention, which met at Philadelphia in the month of June,—though the nomination was conferred on General Taylor, also a distinguished officer of the army.

General Macomb, the commanding general, died at Washington on the twenty-fifth of June, 1841, and General Scott, to the universal satisfaction of the American people, was elevated to the head of the army, with the full rank of major general. The services performed by him in this capacity were chiefly those of a cabinet officer, and nothing more need be said of them, than that they were faithfully and appropriately rendered.

We now approach the most brilliant epoch in the military history of General Scott,—his splendid campaign amid the burning sands and lofty mountains of Mexico—the land of the citron and the orange, of the fragrant acacia and the spreading banana; whose valleys teem with the glowing vegetation of an unending summer, and whose hill-tops are covered with eternal snow;

and the overhanging rocks and rough buttresses of the sierras, intrenched by the “deep scars of thunder,” look down upon sweet Paphian bowers, blooming with the fragrant shrubs and flowers whose soft intoxicating odors lull the senses to repose, and bright with the plumage of the parrot and mocking bird, and the scarlet and purple blossoms of innumerable creepers, twining about the columnar stems of the tulip tree, or depending in heavy festoons from the graceful palm. Like the Alpine scenery, to which the reviewer⁠[46] compares the poetry of Milton, “Nooks and dells, beautiful as fairy land, are imbosomed in its most rugged elevations. The roses and the myrtle bloom unchilled on the verge of the avalanche!”

Repeated insults and outrages, for a long series of years, were heaped upon the American people and the American flag, by the authorities of Mexico. Her weakness, and her position as one of the family of republics on the Western Continent, alone shielded her from attack. Injuries perpetrated by her were tolerated, which, had they been committed by a monarchical power, would have been promptly redressed. At length, after the annexation of Texas to the United States—the citizens of which had revolted from her authority and achieved their independence—on the twenty-fourth of April, 1846, a body of Mexican lancers committed an unprovoked attack upon a small party of American troops, on the left bank of the Rio Grande, and within what was claimed to be the territory of the State of Texas. The Congress of the United States was at this time in session, and on receiving official intelligence of the transaction, an act was passed, with great unanimity, declaring that a state of war existed between the two countries “by the act of the republic of Mexico.” Provision was made for filling up the regular regiments, the President was authorized to accept the services of fifty thousand volunteers, and the sum of ten millions of dollars was appropriated to carry on the war.

Consultations were immediately held between the President, the Secretary of War, and General Scott; and the various staff officers and heads of bureaus were directed to prepare estimates, and furnish the matériel for the large army about to be called into the field. It was originally intended that General Scott, whose abilities as a skilful and scientific officer were admitted to be unequalled in the American service, should proceed to the seat of war and assume the chief command. An unfortunate misunderstanding, however, occurred between him and the Executive, and he was directed to remain at Washington. During the summer of 1846, nearly twenty thousand men were thrown forward. General Taylor, the officer commanding on the Rio Grande, was largely reïnforced, and strong columns of attack were directed upon Chihuahua and New Mexico, under Generals Wool and Kearny. Previous to this, General Taylor had driven the Mexicans from the left bank of the Rio Grande, by a series of brilliant victories, and taken possession of Matamoras. On the arrival of reïnforcements and supplies, he proceeded against Monterey, the capital of New Leon, where the shattered columns of the enemy had rallied; and after a stout resistance, this town also surrendered to his arms, on the twenty-fourth of September.

Before the close of the campaign, most of the northern provinces of Mexico had been overrun, or occupied, by the American troops. Victory everywhere perched on our banners. Still, the enemy made no propositions for peace. Artful demagogues, availing themselves of the dissensions which they had fomented among the Mexican people, had obtained the control of affairs; and they hoped to preserve their influence and authority, only by the successful prosecution of hostilities. It was therefore determined to land a strong and well-appointed column at Vera Cruz, and after reducing the formidable castle of San Juan de Ulua—the Gibraltar of America—to march upon the Mexican capital. This service demanded the highest military talents in the Nation, and, in accordance with the general desire, the hero of Chippewa and Niagara was selected to lead the American armies to victory and triumph.

The expedition against Vera Cruz and San Juan de Ulua, was planned by General Scott; great pains had been taken to procure the necessary information in regard to the defences of the city and castle; and he was engaged for several weeks in making the necessary preparations. A corps of sappers and miners, mountain howitzer and rocket batteries, heavy ordnance, large quantities of missiles and ammunition, transport vessels, bomb-ketches, and surf-boats, to land the troops, were ordered to be organized and prepared, and dispatched to the Gulf of Mexico without delay. The troops destined to take part in the expedition, who were to proceed from the United States, were ordered to rendezvous at the island of Lobos, lying just off the Mexican shore, about one hundred and twenty miles northwest of Vera Cruz—a lovely perfumed island, hanging suspended in the waters like a basket of flowers. The remainder of the force was to be withdrawn from the army under General Taylor, and to embark for the same point, at Tampico, or the Brazos.

General Scott received his final orders on the twenty-third of November, 1846, and on the twenty-fourth left Washington for New York, where he embarked for New Orleans. From thence he proceeded to the Rio Grande, and, having selected the troops to compose his column, repaired to the general rendezvous.

It was late in the month of February, 1847, before all the troops reached the island of Lobos; the arrangements were then speedily completed; and just before nightfall on the fifth of March, the whole fleet came bearing down into the roadstead of Vera Cruz, under a full press of canvas, and blocking up the bay with a dense forest of masts and spars. The American naval squadron, under Commodore Conner, previously employed in blockading the Mexican ports, was present to coöperate in the expedition. Careful reconnaissances of the enemy’s coast were immediately made by the Commodore and General Scott, and the debarkation was ordered to take place on the ninth of March, opposite the island of Sacrificios, between four and five miles south of the city of Vera Cruz. The surf-boats, sixty-five in number, were properly marked, and the troops arranged in divisions, and transferred from the transports to the vessels of war, so as not to crowd the contracted anchorage with too many sail.

At eleven o’clock in the morning of the ninth, the squadron weighed anchor, and at three in the afternoon hove to abreast of Sacrificios. The arrangements of Commodore Conner and General Scott were all perfect; nothing was amiss or in confusion; and not a single accident occurred to interrupt the movement. The small boats, which had been towed astern of the larger vessels, were ranged alongside, manned by the sailors, and received their complements of men, all fully armed and equipped, and their bright muskets and bayonets glistening with sunbeams. The steamers Spitfire and Vixen, with five gun boats, then formed a line parallel with the beach, within good grape range, to cover the descent. The regular brigade of General Worth, was the first to land. As the signal gun fired from the Massachusetts boomed over the waters, the line of boats darted for the shore.

The day was highly favorable for the landing. It was bright and clear, and a soft southeasterly breeze, fresh from groves of balm and forests of citron trees, just rippled the surface of the bay, and died away in gentle murmurs on the sandy beach. The harbor was crowded with American, and foreign vessels of war; and every deck, mast and spar, were alive with anxious spectators. But a few moments elapsed ere the boats reached the shore, and the American flag was unfurled amid the joyous shouts and loud hurrahs of the brave tars and gallant soldiers. The remainder of the troops—the volunteer division of General Patterson, and the regular brigade of General Twiggs—numbering, in all, between ten and eleven thousand men, were landed by the surf-boats, in successive trips, before ten o’clock in the evening.

No attempt was made by the enemy to oppose the disembarkation of General Scott’s army. There were between six and seven thousand men in the city and castle, all under the command of General Morales, Governor of the State of Vera Cruz; but that officer contented himself with remaining in security behind his defences, which he might well have deemed almost impregnable. The city was entirely surrounded by a stone wall, with towers at irregular intervals,—the two most important ones, the Santiago and the Conception, being on the water-front, twelve hundred and seventy yards distant from each other. The castle of San Juan de Ulua, the reduction of which was the great object of the expedition, stood on a bar, or small island, in front of the town, one thousand and sixty-two yards from the main land. The armament of the castle was very heavy; it contained about one hundred and fifty guns, of different calibre; and there were over one hundred guns mounted upon the fortifications of the city. In the rear of the town was a wide stretch of country, dotted here and there with thickets of chaparral, originally a level plain; but the loose sand had been drifted into hillocks, from twenty to two hundred and fifty feet high, by the perpetual blowing of the fierce nortes.

General Scott landed on the morning of the tenth of March, and made immediate preparations to invest the town. He had rendered himself familiar with the topography of the country, and his columns moved as regularly to their positions, as if they had been on parade; General Worth occupying the right of the line with his command, General Patterson the centre, and General Twiggs the extreme left. Though half blinded by the whirling sand, the men cheerfully mounted over the clumps and ridges, dragging after them their baggage, tents, and artillery, and entirely indifferent to the fire of the enemy’s guns, which kept up a continued and incessant roar. Several slight skirmishes occurred, but the Mexicans appeared nowhere in force outside their strong fortifications, frowning with cannon, and bristling with bayonets. The investment was completed on the thirteenth of March, and on the same day safeguards were sent to the foreign consuls in the town. The whole line, extending from the beach opposite Sacrificios, to the hamlet of Vergara, on the coast north of Vera Cruz, was about seven miles in length, with an interval of from two and a half to three miles between it and the city.

The plan of attack fixed upon by General Scott, was, in the first place, to compel the city to surrender, and then to take up battering positions near it, and assault the castle. A succession of severe northers cut off all communication with the fleet for several days, and prevented the landing of the mortars and heavy guns; but in the afternoon of the twenty-second of March, three batteries were finally established, within eight hundred yards of the city, under the direction of Colonel Totten, the Chief Engineer, and seven mortars planted. The city was then regularly summoned; but Governor Morales affected to regard the castle as being embraced in the demand, and peremptorily refused to capitulate. Orders were therefore given to open the fire, and the squadron, under Commodore Perry, who had relieved Commodore Conner, moved up to prevent any further intercourse between the town and the foreign vessels of war. The command of the trenches was assigned to Colonel Bankhead, of the 2nd artillery; and shortly after four o’clock on the afternoon of the twenty-second, the three batteries commenced bombarding the town. A strong battery, manned by officers and men of the navy, and mounting three 8-inch Paixhan guns, and three long thirty-two’s, opened its fire on the following day; and early in the morning of the twenty-fifth, a fifth battery, with four 24-pounders and two 8-inch howitzers, added its deep-toned thunders to the ceaseless din. The enemy returned the fire, with considerable spirit, from their batteries in the city and castle; but little injury was done to the trenches, and the Americans sustained but a trifling loss.

In the city, the horrors of a bombardment were soon witnessed. The American fire was terribly destructive. Deep channels were ploughed in the streets, and the walls sunk in large masses. The air was full of blazing shells; houses were set on fire, and the affrighted inmates fled hither and thither, seeking, in vain, some place of refuge and safety. The city resounded, in every quarter, with the groans of the dying, the shrieks of pale-faced women and orphaned children. On the night of the twenty-fourth, the foreign consuls dispatched a memorial to General Scott, praying him to grant a truce to enable the neutrals to withdraw, with the Mexican women and children. All the terrors which they depicted, had been foreseen by the American commander, and they had been forewarned in time. They had chosen to remain in the city till it was too late. There could now be no alternative but a surrender. The request of the memorialists was therefore refused, and the siege pressed with increased vigor.

The firing was continued without intermission during the day, on the twenty-fifth, and the following night. Governor Morales resisted every appeal on the part of the inhabitants of Vera Cruz, to surrender, and it was only when the streets had become deluged with blood, that he resigned the command to General Landero, who immediately opened negotiations with General Scott, which terminated in the capitulation of the city and castle, with their armaments, and the surrender of the garrison as prisoners of war. The American batteries ceased playing on the morning of the twenty-sixth; and on the twenty-ninth, the Mexican troops marched out and lay down their arms, while the victors entered and took possession of the formidable strongholds which they had evacuated.

There were but thirteen killed, and sixty-three wounded, on the side of the Americans, including the losses sustained by the navy, during the operations before the city of Vera Cruz, from the landing to the capitulation; except that there were a few casualties occurred on the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of March, in brief skirmishes with mounted parties of the enemy, who made their appearance in the rear of the line of investment, but were driven off by detachments under the command, respectively, of General P. F. Smith and Colonel Harney. The loss of the Mexicans during the siege was not ascertained, but was variously estimated at from one to two thousand.

Anticipating the speedy arrival of the dreaded vómito on the low and sickly coast of Mexico, General Scott hastened to put his army in motion for the interior, hoping to find among the cool retreats of the terra templada, a refuge from the scorching sun of the tropics. Lieutenant Colonel Belton, of the 3rd artillery, was left in command of Vera Cruz and the Castle, with a suitable garrison; and, on the eighth of April, General Twiggs took up the line of march for Jalapa, about ninety miles distant. The remaining columns followed in a few days.

Meanwhile, Santa Anna, the Provisional President of Mexico, and General-in-chief of her armies, had sustained a terrible repulse near Buena Vista, on the twenty-third of February, when he had attacked the American army under General Taylor, with a force four times greater than that of his opponents. Escaping from the scene of disaster, with the wreck of his forces,—as the Americans did not design to penetrate further into the country in that direction,—and augmenting their numbers by forced levies, together with large additions from the National Guard, and considerable bodies of guerillereros, he proceeded to the heights of Cerro Gordo, nearly thirty miles east of Jalapa, and commenced fortifying his position. The National Road, along which the victorious columns of General Scott were approaching, here commences the ascent from the tierra caliente, to the elevated table land of Mexico.

After crossing the Rio del Plan, the road winds up among the hills—now scaling a bold sierra, and now disappearing in the wooded depths of some dark ravine—until, at the distance of two or three miles, it enters a narrow defile, flanked, on the left, by three ridges jutting out from the plateau above,—beyond which is the impassable channel of the river,—and, on the right, by the tall mountain peak of Cerro Gordo, crowned with the Telegrafo, a fortified citadel, or tower. Intrenchments were thrown up on the eastern extremities of the hills on the left, which terminated abruptly, and upwards of twenty guns placed in battery. In addition to the work on the lofty summit of Cerro Gordo, which contained six guns mounted on carriages, there was a strong battery, of six large brass guns, at the foot of the height, which completely enfiladed the defile. Breastworks for the protection of infantry were constructed in and about this chain of defences, within which Santa Anna posted about one half of his army, altogether consisting of not far from fifteen thousand men. With the remaining half, he encamped on the National Road, about half a mile west of the tower, where he had, also, a battery of five guns.

The march of the American army from Vera Cruz to the Rio del Plan was entirely unobstructed,—though, on account of the deep sandy roads, very tedious and difficult. For most of the distance, the wayside was skirted with thickets of chaparral, with occasional openings, through which glimpses could be caught of plantations of maguey, whose bright clustering flowers shed their rich golden radiance on everything around; of waving fields of corn and sugar cane; of groves of citrons, oranges, and pomegranates,—the trees bending down with their luscious fruit, or loaded with rare foliage; or of sylvan nooks, where the waters of some gentle streamlet trembled in the faint light stealing softly down through the overhanging branches of the majestic plane-tree, the dark-leaved banana, the lofty cedar, or the gigantic arbutus. Now and then, too, they passed the rude sheds, covered with green palmetto leaves, of the jarochada,—the humblest class of Mexican peasantry,—who looked upon the advent of these strange warriors, with emotions similar to those with which the ancient Aztecs regarded the mail-clad followers of Hernando Cortés.

General Twiggs arrived at the Plan del Rio, on the eleventh of April, with his division, and encamped for the night; his advanced guard, under Colonel Harney, having driven a party of Mexican lancers from the ground. On the following day reconnaissances were pushed in the direction of the enemy’s position, which, it was ascertained, could be turned on the right, by the construction of a road leaving the main route some distance below the defile, and winding round to the north of the height of Cerro Gordo. The first and third brigades of General Patterson’s volunteer division, commanded by Generals Pillow and Shields, came up on the twelfth instant; the second brigade, under General Quitman, did not arrive in time to take part in the action. General Scott soon followed, and, on the sixteenth of April, General Worth reached the ground with his division. Dispositions were forthwith made for carrying the whole Mexican line of intrenchments by assault. The operations on the line reconnoitred by General Twiggs, were pushed with great activity, and a road was constructed, extending for two or three miles, through thickets of chaparral, underneath jutting precipices, and across deep stony chasms. The fatigue parties continued at work, until they came within range of the enemy’s batteries, and orders were then issued to prepare for the storm.

The division of General Twiggs was thrown forward on the new road, and in the afternoon of the seventeenth, his advanced parties seized a commanding eminence directly below the frowning height of Cerro Gordo, upon which several heavy guns were planted, that were drawn up during the evening by the 4th artillery and the volunteers of General Shields, who had been directed to reïnforce the regular division. The main attack was now ordered to be made at sunrise on the eighteenth of April; General Twiggs being directed to carry the works on the right of the road, with his division and the brigade of General Shields; and General Pillow receiving orders to attack the intrenchments on the series of hills on the left, aided by the fire of an 8-inch howitzer put in position on the heights, on the opposite bank of the Rio del Plan. General Worth was required to follow the movement under General Twiggs with his division.

With the first light of dawn, the command of General Twiggs was in motion. The main height of Cerro Gordo, from the sides of which the enemy’s skirmishers were driven by the fire of the mounted rifles, was gallantly ascended by the 1st artillery,⁠[47] and the 3rd and 7th infantry, headed by Colonel Harney, under a plunging and withering fire of grape and musketry, and the fortified work on its summit carried at the point of the bayonet. General Shields crossed a ravine, hitherto deemed impassable, further to the west and right, with his brigade, and boldly attacked the battery in the rear near the principal camp of Santa Anna; being desperately wounded, he gave up the command to Colonel Baker, who promptly led on the column, and, with the assistance of Colonel Riley, who moved up with the 2nd infantry and 4th artillery, succeeded in carrying the battery and routing the main body of the enemy. The private carriage of the Mexican President, his baggage, and the military chest of the army, were captured; but Santa Anna himself, and his principal officers, succeeded in effecting their escape.

General Pillow was less successful in the attempt to carry the batteries and intrenchments on the left of the road. The fire of the enemy proved so destructive, that he was obliged to call off his men; but, nothing daunted by one repulse, they were preparing for a second and more determined effort, when white flags were thrown out over the breastworks,—the Mexican force in this quarter being completely in the power of the American troops, who had carried the height of Cerro Gordo and the battery in the rear. A large number of the enemy having escaped just previous to the capture of the works, the way was cleared, and the mounted men and light batteries, with portions of the infantry, dashed after them in pursuit, under Generals Twiggs and Patterson. The intrenchments and fortifications were all carried before the sun had reached its meridian, and at eventide the advanced corps halted and encamped within sight of the white towers of Jalapa.

The American force in this action barely exceeded eight thousand men; but the network of defences constructed by Santa Anna to impede their advance, proved as frail and powerless as the gossamer’s web. Yet the victory was not achieved without a severe loss; there being four hundred and thirty-one officers and men killed and wounded. The Mexican loss, however, was much greater; there were upwards of one thousand killed and wounded, and over three thousand taken prisoners, including five general officers. Forty-three pieces of artillery, four thousand stands of arms, and a large quantity of fixed ammunition, were also captured by the Americans.

Jalapa surrendered to the victors on the nineteenth of April, and on the twenty-second General Worth took possession of the important castle of Perote. No resistance was now made to the arms of General Scott. Panic and dismay were visible on every side, and had the American commander been in a situation to advance immediately upon the Mexican capital, it is more than probable that he would have encountered but feeble opposition. But, when he arrived at Jalapa, the terms of service of more than three thousand of his volunteer force were about to expire; and they returned at once to the coast, to reëmbark for the United States before the sickly season came on. Although his army was thereby reduced to less than seven thousand effective men—a feeble band left to maintain themselves in the heart of the enemy’s country, whose communications with the sea-board were soon after cut off by the guerilleros, who swarmed during the whole season on the road to Vera Cruz—he determined, nevertheless, to surrender not one of the advantages which he had gained, but to penetrate still further into the interior. Accordingly, General Worth moved forward, in May, to Puebla de los Ángelos—the City of the Angels—with his division and the volunteer brigade of General Quitman, in all but little more than four thousand men. On the fourteenth instant, near Amasoque, he had a slight skirmish with a body of lancers three thousand strong, under Santa Anna; but he drove them before him with ease, and on the fifteenth instant entered the city and took formal possession.

Like Jackson and Harrison, General Scott had no sooner evolved his plans, than he found them counteracted by the orders or proceedings of the War Department. The experience, oftentimes the bitter experience, of the Revolution and the second war with Great Britain,—in which it was over and over again demonstrated, that it was essential to success that there should be as little interference as possible with the details and incidents of a campaign,—seemed to be forgotten by the Executive authorities at Washington. The general object of a campaign, or expedition, may, perhaps should be, designated by the President, as commander in chief of the army; but it may be unhesitatingly affirmed, that no officer is fit to conduct either, to whom a large discretion may not be safely confided. He will find cares and vexations enough, without being fretted by petty annoyances, or thwarted, at every turn, in the most trifling circumstance.

It was a long time before General Scott found himself in sufficient force to warrant him in continuing his march upon the Mexican capital. On the twenty-second of May, General Twiggs marched from Jalapa for Puebla, with his division. General Scott followed him on the twenty-third, in company with Mr. Trist, the American Commissioner sent to confer with the Mexican government, in case negotiations for peace should be proposed. Strong garrisons were left at Jalapa and Perote, under Colonels Childs and Wynkoop. At Puebla another tedious delay took place; but the time was wisely and profitably spent in drilling the troops. At length, the long-expected reïnforcements began to arrive. Generals Pillow and Cadwalader reached Puebla on the eighth of July, with over three thousand men, including the command of Colonel Childs; and on the sixth of August, General Pierce came up with twenty-five hundred men. Both columns had repeated, and, in every instance, successful encounters, with the guerilleros.

Arrangements had already been made for the contemplated movement towards the far-famed halls of the Montezumas. The army, now consisting of ten thousand seven hundred men, moved forward en échelon; General Twiggs marching on the seventh instant with his division, preceded by the cavalry brigade of Colonel Harney, and the remaining divisions, under Generals Quitman, Worth, and Pillow, following on successive days. General Scott left Puebla in person on the eighth instant, and on the same day overtook, and then continued with, the leading division, under General Twiggs. The line of march followed the National Road, which ascends gradually through a rich rolling country, to the "tierra fria, the third of the great terraces into which Mexico is divided.—Elated with past victories, and the brilliant promise of future triumphs, the serried columns press on, through groves and gardens decked out in the most gorgeous array, through fields of maize and barley, and amidst towering cedars and lofty pines: