Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1846-06-18
RECoLLECTIoSs or MEXICO.
BY THE HoS. wADDY THOMPSON.


mand Of an army Of ten thousand dciplined
troops, and was going into battle, and was Of
fered ten thousand more Mexican troops, that
would not take them. Napier, in his history
Of the Peninsular War, describing some battle,
uses this expression: 1.-THE British army was
strengthened or rather tceakelcd by twenty
thousand undisciphned Spanish troops.''-
The inequality between disciplined troops is
estimated by military men as one to five. The
inequality is much greater with large masses,
and do not think that any commander could
perform a tactical evolution with five thousand
Mexican troops. ! do not believe that such
an one--a manguVre IN the face Of an enemy
ever was attempted in any Mexican battle /;
they have all been melees or mob fights, and
generally terminated by charge of cavalry,
which is, therefore, the iavorite corps with all
Mexican officers. | should regard it, from
the diminitiye szeoi their horses and the equal
" diminutive statue and ieebleness of their ri
ders, as utterly inefficient against any common
infantry. said SO IN conversation with Col
onel B---n, an officer who had seen some
service, and had some reputation. was not
a little amused at his reply. He admitted that
squares of infantry were generally impregna-
bic to cavalry, but said ii was not SO with the
Mexican cavalry-that they had one resource
by which they never had any difficulty in
breaking the square. | was curious to know
what this new and important discovery in the
art OF war was, and waited impatienty the
''pushof his one thing" when to my infinite
amusement he replied--the Lasso that the
cavalry armed with lassos rode up and threw
them over the men forming the squares, and
pulled them out, and thus made the breach
| remembered that my old nurse had often got
me to sleep when child, by promising TO
catch me some birds the next day, by putting
salt on their tails, which thought was about
as easy an operation as this new discovery of
the Mexican Colonel. / had read off, kneeling
ranks and charging squadrons, but this idea Of
lassoing squadrons was altogether new TO me.
The Mexican army, and more particularly
their cavalry, may do very well TO fight each
other, but in any conflict with our own or Eu-
ropean troops, it would not be a battle but a
massacre. Frederick the Great, who was the
author, in great degree, or the modern sys-
tern Of tactics, had three InaXirAs as 10 cavalry.
First, that cavalry corps should never BE-
charged, but should always make the charge
Second, that, in charge Of cavalry, they were
not going fast enough unless when halted the
froth from the mouth OF the horse struck the
rider in the face; and third, which was rather
the summing up OF the first two, that the spur
was more important than the sword. In other
words, that the impulse and momentum of the
horse was of more consequence than the arms
and blows of the rider. What then must be
the murderous inequality between corps
of American cavalry and an equal number of
MeXicans The American corps, from the
superior size of thelr horses, would cover
twice as much ground, and the obstruction of
iered by the Mexicans on their small and
scrawny ponies would scarcely cause their
horses to stumble in riding over them; 10 say
nothing Of the greater inequality of the men
themselves, five TO one at least in individual
combats, and more than twice that in a battle.
The infantry would be found even more lmpo-
tent.
The soldiers Of the Mexican army are gen
orally collected by sending recruiting detach-
ments into the mountains, where they hunt
the Indians in Their dens and caverns. and
bring them in chains TO Mexico; there is
scarcely a day that droveS of these miserable
and more than half naked wretches are not
seen thss chained together and marching
through the streets to the barracks, where they
are secured and then dressed in uniform
made of linen cloth or serge, and are occasion
ally dried-which drilling consists mainly in
teaching them 10 march in column through
the streets. The military bands are good, and
the men learn to march indiilerenty we'll
but only indfierenty well-they put their feet
down as if they were feeling for the place, and
do not step with that iaunty, erect and grace
full air which is so beautiful in well drilled
troops. As to the wheeling, of well trained
troops, like the opening and shutting Of gate,
or the prompt and exact executions of other
evoutions, they know nothing about them
There is not one in ten of these soldiers who
has ever seen gun, nor one in hundred
who has ever fired one before he was brought
to the barracks 1t is in this way that the ranks
are generally filled up-in particular emergen-
cies the prisons are thrown open, which al
ways contain more prisoners than the army
numbers, and the lelons become soldiers and
some of them officers. Their arms, too, are
generally worthless English muskets which
have been condemned and thrown aside, and
are purchased for almost nothing and sold to
the Mexican Government. Their powder,
too. is equally bad in the last battle between
SANTA ANA and BUsTAMENTE, which lasted
the whole day, not one cannon ball in thou
sand reached the enemy-they generally fell
about halfway between the opposing armies.
What would they think of such fights as we
had on the Northern lines, when MILLER
stormed the English battery, or when, in the
language of General BRowN, General JEs-
sur showed himsefto his friends in sheet of
fire." / do not think that the Mexicans are
deficient in courage or it might be more prop
erly said that they are Indifferent to danger or
the preservation OF life which is really so
worthless 10 the most ofthem. Bu with the
disadvantages to which have adyerted, the
reader will not be surprised that in all the con-
hicts with our people, in which they have
been more or less engaged for the last thirty
wears, they have always been defeated.
The following passage contains some inter
estng statements;
/ confess that in taking the high ground
which did upon the order expelhng our PEG
pie from California, that felt some compunc-
tious visitings, for had been informed that
plot had been arranged and was about being
developed BY the Americans and other foreign
ers in that department TO re-enact the scenes OF
Texas. had been consulted whether in the
event of a revolution in California, and ITS sue
cessful result in a separation from Mexico,
our Government would consent TO surrender