Life and Letters of General W. H. L. Wallace

IV. Marching into Mexico.

CHAPTER IV. MARCHING INTO MEXICO. O N October 2d the First Regiment left San Antonio and crossed the Rio Grande at Presidio. There on the 13th Wallace writes in his journal of meeting General Shields and G. T. M. Davis, and hearing of the hard fighting at Monterey. They continued their march and on the 16th reached San Juan de Navo after twenty-five miles of hard marching with no water. They still continued, and on the 17th and 18th encamped near the mountains for the first time. On the 19th they encamped on a plain near water , but an arid stony country with no wood. From this point an interesting letter is written from Wallace to his father: "Camp 80 miles west of the Rio Grande, October 19, 1846. "As an express starts in the morning for San Antonio, and as this is our only mode of communication with the civilized world, I snatch a moment from other duties to write you. * * * * We have gotten so far into the 'bowels of the land,' that all certain conveyance is cut off. We left San Antonio on the second instant; the last detachment of the division leaves there in a day or tWO from this time; they may bring some letters; if so, they will be the last from that way; for they will bring along all the public stores, and the route will be abandoned and we enter Mexico, like Cortez, cutting off all possible retreat. "We passed the Rio Grande on the thirteenth, after a march of twelve days from San Antonio, a distance of one hundred and eighty miles. Six miles distant from the river we passed through a Mexican town of fifteen hundred inhabitants called Presidio. It is a long, straggling street, with mud huts scattered along its sides for near a mile. Three miles out from Presidio we encamped with the advance corps, which had preceeded us five days. We were here joined by General Shields and G. T. M. Davis of Illinois. [21] LIFE AND LETTERS OF GENERAL W. H. L. WALLACE General Shields took command of all the infantry, and on the morning of the sixteenth we took up the line of march for Manclova." While on the march Wallace received a letter from his old friend and mentor, Professor Pickney, who gives his quandom pupil sage advice as to his actions, even in warfare : "Ah! war is a sorry game, which, were people wise, kings would never play at; query, would Presidents? But I said there was a kind of glory in it, good and true, earned as in every state of life, by discharging duty: and that is not to see how often we can kill, how near he can get to the front and thickest of the fight: but to wisely, carefully, humanly consider how, with the least suffering to his friends and foes, he can effect the greatest good to his country? Yes, and to the enemy's, too. Don't lose sight of that, Will. There are men, some good, true, useful,-you are not personally opposed to them nor they to you. You and every man and all the boys in our army are bound to act for their good.· The spirit of party raging in the ranks will have a powerful tendency to make you forget that you are anything else but a soldier of the Union: Think of Goldsmith's very just satire on Ed. Burke-- "'Who, born for the Universe, narrowed his mind And to party gave up what was meant for mankind.' " On the 20th the army continued their march and reached Los Alamas, a deep and rapid mountain stream which they cross on the 21st. The Santa Rosa Mountains were like a dark cloud in the distant west. On the 24th they passed through the pretty little town of Santa Rosa, and reached Hot Springs on the 28th. On the 30th they encamped three miles from Monclova and on November 2d they marched through the town and camped near there until the 24th of the month. Monclova was the capital of Coahuila and a city of eight thousand inhabitants. From this camping place Wallace writes his father: "Camp near Monclova, Mexico, "November 6, 1846. "I believe I wrote you while on the march from San Antonio , but in the hurry and bustle of new events I have no [22] LIFE AND...