Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1914-05-01


while an army was made ready; but
late In August General Taylor moved
again and within a month by severe
and logged fighting (September 81
23), took the strongly fortified town
OF Monterey, full 10 miles to the
west of Matamoras on the highway to
the Mexican capital.
In November Gen. Winfield Scott,
the ranking officer of the federal serv-
Ice, was given the chief command.
and in January, 1847, General Taylors
force was reduced to a scant 5000.
to recruit the immediate command of
his superior, sent by sea t. attack
Vera Cruz
"On February 20 and % Santa Ana
attacked him, with four times his num-
bers, while he lay at defense on the
broken plain Of Buena Vista, thinking
to crush him while he was weak, and
was repulsed. The Americans were
no longer raw militia, men and Off
GERS alike, as they had been in the
extemporized armies of 1872. Though
they were for the most part volun.
teers, their officers we're profession
ais, and they were drilled and handled
with skill and thoroughness that
made veterans of them with a single
battle.
Put to Full Test.
Their steadiness and prowess were
put to full test with General Scott in
the South. They had not only to
take Vera Cruz by set siege March
9-29, 1847), in order to make good
their landing, but had also to scale the
huge escarpments of the vast table
land upon which the Mexican capital
lay, 200 miles away, more than 1000
feet above the sea, and to make their
way across the broken. hilly plain be-
yond, fighting everywhere as they
went against an enemy who outnum-
bered them and who was secure
against surprise within safe inner
lines Of communication.
1.-THE City of Mexico lay amidst
guarding fortresses and was set about
by morasses crossed only by narrow
causeways, but the Americans moved
everywhere with the businesslike GER
tainty and precision Of men well ham
died. and their volunteer ranks seemed
less in need of officers than other arm
les did. Individual pluck and dash
and resource showed in all they did.
They fought men as brave as them
selves; subtle-spirited race, tena-
cious to the last of all that it could
hold; they fought also against odds
and moved everywhere against fortt-
fed places; but they won, undaunted.
at every onset BY September 10 they
were in complete and formal posses
sion Of the enemy's capital and Mex
leo was in their hands, within but a
little more than six months OF their
landing.
United States selzes Territory.
Meanwhile the government at
Washington had broadened the scope
and meaning of the war beyond all
expectations. During the summer OF
1886 and the winter of 1861 it had
seized not merely the disputed terri
tory which Texas claimed, but also
the whole country of the Pacific slope
beyond. from Oregon to the ella river,
TO which the United States could have
no conceivable right except that OF
conquest. The thing was easily ac-
complished. A feet under Commodores
sloat and Stockton and a few troops
here and there, until Colonel Kearney
and Captain Fremont moved almost
as they pleased, and territory Of 6OO,-
000 square miles was added to the
United States.
.The war, with all its inexcusable
aggression was ended by a treaty
signed at Guadeloupe Hidalge, on
February q, 1848, by which Mexico
recognized the Rio Grande as the
southwestern boundary line Of Texas,
and coded New Mexico and California,
of which the United States had taken
nossession by force of arms. For this
territory, seized and coded. the United
states agreed to pay Mexico $isr
O00, OO0."