Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-01-14
NUMBER II
IRONTON. MO-. THURSDAY. JANUARY H. 1886.

to attract his attention, if he should be
anywhere near, but nothing more was
ever seen or heard of him. His clothes
and tailor tools were left on the boat,
which was good evidence that he did
not desert.
In due time we reached Camargo, a
small town at the mouth OF the San
Juan River, where it empties into the
Rio Grande. / will try and give the
reader description of this foul river.
The San Juan is about so yards wide;
its water is as green as the grass that
grows on it's banks, has sickening
sweet taste,and is w holly unfit for use,
either for drinking or cooking. Here
we caught up with Gen q. Taylor, the
hero of Palo Alto. and for the first time
had the pleasure of seeing him, and
perhaps it would not be amiss to give
short description of him. He SEEM
ed to be man about forty years OF
age, 5 feet 10 inches in heighth, and
very corpulent; at that time he wore
sidewhiskers, which were very grey;
his hair was short and was a also nearly
white; features, like his fighting, very
rough. He wore no uniform, except
soldier straps Oh common linen
duster, but he had full Major Gener-
aTs uniform, which, the boys claimed
he was too stingy to to wear, and rode
the finest grey horse ever saw. AIl-in-
all he seemed to he very jovial fel-
low, and besides rather witty.
In few days after arriving at Ca
margo, Gen. Taylor organized his army,
preparatory to moving on to Monterey.
Our Brigade was composed of the 1st
Tennessee, under Col. Campbell; Mis-
sissippi Rifles, under Col. Jefferson
Davis; Baltimore Battery under Lieut.
Col. Watson and commanded by Brig
Gen. Quitman, of Maj aj.-Gen. Buffers
Division. On the 9th or 7th of Sep
tember we took up the line Of march
for Monterey. 1t soon became by
word among the boys that if you want
ed to see the elephant go to Monterey.
And we saw it). Worth and Twiggs
led in the march, and Butler brought
up the rear, followed by large wag-
ON train organized by Taylor, and a
train of pack mules managed by friend
ly Mexicans: or whether they were
friendly or not old "Rough and Ready"
as Taylor was called, made them friend
ly. l noticed though, that they were
closely guarded every night. Gen. Tay-
lor issued strict orders not to disturb
Mexican property; but what he didn't
see he didn't care for. Along the line
of march, up the river, there were inn
mense herds of sheep. One evening
after we went into camp, one of the
Mississippi boys was seen running
lamb right toward Gen. Taylor's tent.
The General, seeing the race, bawled
out at the fellow, by God, you had
better run that blasted lamb over my
tentr' the boy stopped, Of course, when
the General seeing him stop, said, II
didn't tell you to stop, I only said you
had better run that blasted sheep over
my tent" The fellow lit out again.
and it wasn't long until a sheep pelt
necessary to say thut there was more
than one bush contained sheep peit
that evening. In short time the
Generals camp kettle was smoking to
beat the world, and some of the boys
passing by said the smoke smelt sheep
sh. The first town we reached was
Meir. We marched through with
banne ers flying, and drums beating, in
honor of some battle fought there sew
eral years ago between Texas rangers
and Mexicans. The next town, of note,
was San Ralvo, an inland town of a
thousand or two Inhabitants, situated
in beautiful valley, 50 miles east of
Monterey. At this place Gen. Taylor
esta blished depot and hospital, wherr
we left all that were sick and not able
to keep up with the main army, guard
ed by two companies of Mississippi
Volunteers, under the command of
Capt. Sharp.
Next day we reached the mountains,
and certainly the toughest country an
army ever had to march over. Many
times we had to take the mules out of
the wagons and pull the loaded wagons
with trail ropes up the sides of mount
aims and across deep rivers. We were
ten days in going from San Ralvo to
Morine, distance of 20 miles. On
the 7th day of September we reached
Morine, II miles east of Monterey, sit
| uated on the east bank of the North
San Juan river, and from appearances,
contained at that time about five thou
sand habitauts. Here Gen. Taylor
concentrated his army for a grand move
on Monterey, II miles distant. Up to
this time we had seen no enemy, but
when Gen. Worth came in sight of
Morine, he reported the town full of
Mexican lancers, and Gen. Taylor was
informed by the Interpreter that Gen.
| IAmpudas, the Mexican commander.
would dispute his further advance to-
ward the city. We rested on the 18th
| which was welcome rest to the SOL
diers. I assure you, as we had marched
about 14O miles, and the army was
badly used up.
On the 10Th we resumed the line of
march in the following order: Gen.