-
11. Battle of Buena Vista
- The University of Alabama Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
188 / Taylor’s Changing Army sons General Taylor had not attempted a major movement southward from Saltillo. Consequently he scarcely knew what to think when on the evening of December 17, at Montemorelos, an express rider delivered a message from General Worth advising that Santa Anna’s army was believed to be moving northward toward Saltillo. Though Taylor doubted that an attack on Worth’s position was imminent, he reversed direction the next day, taking with him all of the regulars in his column except George Meade and one artillery battery, the Third Artillery’s Company E to which Lieutenants George Thomas, John Reynolds, and Sam French were attached. Meade and the officers and men of Company E were transferred to General Quitman’s volunteer brigade, which was to proceed to Victoria where it was to combine with Major General Patterson ’s force as originally planned.39 After Taylor parted from Quitman’s brigade, Meade wrote his wife: “I cannot tell you with how sad a heart I saw all of my old associates march away this morning, for I am left here with only five regular officers, and of the two thousand volunteers, I do not know a dozen. Then, to think that they are hurrying on with the expectation of having another battle, at which I shall not be present ! Little as I like fighting, it is still a great disappointment.” And although he had persuaded himself that the change of assignment would be on the whole advantageous, he added: “Still, I feel very much the separation from General Taylor and all the regulars.The old man was very kind to me on parting.”40 Worth had also sent a plea to General Wool at Parras, asking him to put his troops “in rapid motion” for Saltillo, which Wool did within two or three hours after receiving Worth’s dispatch on the afternoon of the seventeenth. Wool’s army, scarcely pausing to eat or sleep, reached Agua Nueva, about 120 miles east of Parras and 18 miles below Saltillo, by the twenty-first. Two days earlier Major General Butler, together with the First Ohio and First Kentucky regiments and Captain Lucien Webster’s First Artillery howitzer battery, had arrived at Saltillo from Monterrey. Old Zach, upon being informed while en route to Saltillo of Wool’s and Butler’s movements, and that Butler had called up additional volunteers from Camargo and stations lower on the river,ordered Butler on the twenty-second to remain in command of all the troops in and around Saltillo, including those of Wool’s army, as well as those in Monterrey , Camargo, and the other Army of Occupation posts. Taylor also detached the Second Dragoons fromTwiggs’s First Division,and keeping with him only two of that regiment’s companies he directed Colonel Harney to take the rest of his dragoons to Saltillo. Then on December 23 Taylor turned back toward Victoria with the remainder of Twiggs’s division.41 On Christmas, at “New Leon,” Old Zach received an unofficial letter from Scott, written from New York on November 25, advising that the general-inchief expected to be at Point Isabel by December 17,“and at Camargo, say, 23rd, Taylor’s Changing Army / 189 in order to be within easy corresponding distance” from Taylor. Scott went on to say: “I am not coming, my dear general, to supersede you in the immediate command on the line of operations. . . . My proposed theatre is different.” He made no mention of a movement against Veracruz, though suggested that Taylor should be able to imagine his objective in light of letters from Secretary Marcy. He did say he would be obliged to take fromTaylor “most of the gallant officers and men (regular and volunteer)” whom Old Zach had “so long and so nobly commanded,” but termed that reduction in force a “temporary sacrifice.” Taylor, criticized by several historians for thereafter continuing on to Victoria, was, as indicated above, in the process of completing the long-planned convergence with General Patterson’s column from Matamoros. He had heard nothing from Washington concerning any new initiative involving Scott, nor anything further from Scott himself.In a reply sent via Camargo,which has repeatedly been condemned as spiteful but which contains no indication of spite or anger, he explained where he was and why, as well as what his current intentions were, concluding: “At all times and places I shall be happy to receive your...