sent into the field. As soon as the armistice in the North expired Taylor assumed the offensive. General Worth moved southwest from Monterey a distance of seventy miles, and captured the town of Saltillo. Victoria, a city of Tamaulipas, was taken by the division of General Robert Patterson. To that place General Butler advanced from Monterey on a march against Tampico. That position, however, had in the meantime been taken by Captain Conner of the American navy. General Wool set forward in person from San Antonio, Texas, and came within supporting distance of Monterey. General Scott arrived at this juncture and assumed command-in-chief of the American army.

Meanwhile General Kearney at the head of the Army of the West had set out for the conquest of New Mexico and California. His march to Santa Fá was wearisome in the last degree, but by the 18th of August he reached and captured that city. New Mexico was taken by a coup de main. Having garrisoned Santa Fé, Kearney at the head of four hundred dragoons set out for California. After a progress of three hundred miles he was joined by the famous Kit Carson, who brought him intelligence that California had already been wrested from Mexican authority. Hereupon Kearney sent back the larger part of his forces, and with only a hundred troopers made his way to the Pacific.

Stirring events had in the meantime happened on that far coast. For four years Colonel John Charles Fremont had been engaged in explorations through and beyond the Rocky Mountains. He had hoisted the American flag on the highest peak of that mighty range, and then set out for the Great Salt Lake and afterwards for Oregon. From the latter territory he turned southward into California, where on his arrival he learned of the impending war with Mexico. Seizing the situation and assuming all responsibility, he incited the few American residents in California to revolt

against Mexico. First of all the frontiersmen of the Sacramento Valley gathered around his standard, and the campaign was organized for the subversion of Mexican authority. Several minor engagements were had with the Spanish-Mexican posts, but the Americans were uniformly successful, and the authority of Fremont was rapidly extended over the greater part of Upper and Central California.

While these events were happening in the North Commodore Sloat, of the American navy, was carrying forward a similar work in the South. Arriving off the coast of Monterey, about eighty miles south of San Francisco, he captured the place and raised the American flag. At the extreme southern part of the State Commodore Stockton captured San Diego and assumed command of the Pacific squadron. Fremont continued to press his campaign in the north and center, and, effecting a junction with Sloat and Stockton, advanced upon and took the city of Los Angeles. Thus, before the close of summer, 1846, California had been revolutionized and placed under the American flag.

General Kearney with his hundred dragoons reached the Pacific coast in November, and joined his forces with those of Fremont and Stockton. About a month later the Mexicans, having discovered the meagerness of the forces before whom they had fled and yielded, returned to the field, and the Americans were obliged to confront them in a decisive conflict. On the 8th of January, 1847, the battle of San Gabriel was fought, in which the Mexicans were completely defeated and the results of the American conquest of the previous year confirmed. Thus by a mere handful of courageous adventurers marching from place to place, with scarcely the form of authority and with their lives in their hands, was the great empire of California wrested from the Mexican government.

General Kearney on setting out for the Pacific coast had

left behind Colonel Doniphan in command of the American forces at Santa Fé. That officer fretted for a season, and then with a body of seven hundred men set out across the country from Santa Fé en route to Saltillo, a distance of more than eight hundred miles. On arriving at the Rio Grande he encountered the enemy at Bracito on Christmas Day, where he routed the Mexicans, and then crossing the river captured El Paso del Norte. Proceeding on his march, he found himself after two months within twenty miles of Chihuahua. Here, on the banks of Sacramento Creek, on the 28th of November, he met the Mexicans in great numbers, and inflicted upon them another disastrous defeat. He then captured Chihuahua, a city of forty thousand inhabitants! With but small losses Doniphan succeeded in reaching the division of General Wool in safety.

On his arrival in Mexico General Scott drew from the north down the Rio Grande a large part of the Army of Occupation. His object was the concentration under himself of a force sufficient for the conquest of the Mexican capital. By these movements General Taylor was weakened and left in an exposed condition. The Mexicans learned of the situation, and Santa Anna at the head of an army of twenty thousand men advanced on Taylor, whose entire forces did not number six thousand. Indeed, after garrisoning Saltillo and Monterey, the General's effective force numbered only four thousand eight hundred men. With this small and resolute army, however, he marched out boldly to meet the overwhelming foe and chose his battle-ground at Buena Vista, four miles south of Saltillo. Here he planted himself and awaited the onset.

The Mexican advance was from the direction of San Luis Potosi. On the 22d of February the enemy in great force came pouring through the gorges and over the hills. Santa Anna at once demanded a surrender, but was met with de

fiance. A general battle began on the morning of the 23d. At first the enemy made an unsuccessful attempt to outflank the American position. Taylor's center was next attacked; but this movement was also repulsed. The Mexicans then threw their whole force on the American left, where the Indianians, acting under a mistaken order, gave way, and the army was for a while in peril. But the troops of Kentucky and Mississippi rallied to the breach, and the onset of the enemy was again repelled. The crisis of the battle was reached in the charge made by the Mexicans upon the American artillery under command of Captain Bragg; but the gunners stood at their batteries, and the Mexican lancers were scattered with volleys of grapeshot. A successful counter-charge was made by the American cavalry, in which the losses were severe. Against the tremendous odds the battle was fairly won. On the following night the Mexicans, having lost nearly two thousand men, made a precipitate retreat. The Americans also lost heavily, their killed, wounded and missing numbering seven hundred and forty-six. This was, however, the last of General Taylor's battles. He soon after left the field, and returned to the United States, where he was received with great enthusiasm. He was indeed, in the popular estimation, the hero of the war.

With the opening of spring, 1847, General Scott found himself at the head of an army of twelve thousand men, ready for his campaign against the capital. On the 9th of March he landed to the south of Vera Cruz and succeeded in investing that city. Batteries were planted but eight hundred yards from the defenses, while on the water side the American fleet began a bombardment of the celebrated castle of San Juan d'Ulloa. This fortress had been erected by Spain in the early part of the seventeenth century, at a cost of four million dollars. For four days the place was

beaten with shot and shell from the mortars of Commodore Connor's fleet and from the land-batteries which Scott had planted on the shore. Life and property perished in the common ruin. The Americans were already preparing to carry Vera Cruz by storm, when the humbled authorities came forth and surrendered. Thus was opened a route for the American advance from the coast to the city of Mexico.

The advance began on the 8th of April, 1847. The first division, under command of General Twiggs, set out on the road to Jalapa. General Scott followed with the main army. The advance was unopposed until the 12th of the month, when the Americans came upon the enemy, fifteen thousand strong, who under command of Santa Anna had planted themselves in a strong position on the heights and rocky pass of Cerro Gordo. At first view it appeared that the Mexicans could not be driven from their stronghold; but their expulsion was a necessity to further progress. Scott arranged his army in three columns for an assault, which, according to the rules and history of war, promised only disaster and ruin; but the spirit of the army was high and the General did not hesitate to take the risk.

The attack was made on the morning of the 18th of April, and before noonday every position of the Mexicans was carried by storm. They were hurled from their fortifications and driven off in a general rout. Nearly three thousand prisoners were captured, together with forty-three pieces of bronze artillery, five thousand muskets and accouterments enough to supply an army. The American loss in killed and wounded numbered four hundred and thirtyone; that of the Mexicans fully a thousand. Santa Anna barely escaped with his life by cutting loose one of the mules which drew his carriage and mounting its back, but in his haste left behind his private papers, his money chest and his wooden leg!

Vol. III.-4