CHAPTER V.

Government Plan to invade Northern Mexico.-Assemblage of Troops at Fort Leavenworth.-Kearney's March to Santa Fé.-Nature of the Country. Retreat of the Mexicans.-Arrival at Santa Fé.—Kearney's Proclamation. Kearney departs for California.-Wool's Expedition.---Assemblage of the Troops at San Antonia.-The Object of the Expedition.-March to Monclova; to Penas.-Wool joins Worth at Saltillo. Taylor's March to Victoria.

WHILE General Taylor was crossing the Rio Grande, and directing his columns towards Central Mexico, the cabinet at Washington sent two other columns against the northern provinces, under the command, respectively, of Generals Kearney and Wool. The movements of these corps, if less important in a military point of view, were vastly more extensive in their geographical scope and relations. It was their fortune to traverse magnificent plains, perform rapid and, in modern history, unprecedented marches, and conquer to the dominion of the United States lands unmeasured and almost uninhabited.

The origin of these expeditions seems to have been an idea entertained by the administration, that the States of New Mexico, Chihuahua, Durango, and others in the upper portion of Mexico,-stood ready to declare themselves independent, and that, by this movement, they would be at once detached from the central government. It was stated by some letter-writers, who professed acquaintance with that country, that those States were ready

to form a separate and independent republic. One writer even went so far as to declare that the Mexicans themselves, in these provinces, would form an army to march against the central government! With such views, the war department organized a corps, called the Army of the West,' which was intended to conquer New Mexico by marching into Santa Fé. This place, though very unimportant as a town, was a point of concentration for the extensive trade which flowed through it from Chihuahua on the southwest and St. Louis on the northeast. Vast as were the plains and uninhabited regions through which this trade was carried on, it had grown, within a few years, to be one of great importance in magnitude and value. On the 16th of May, 1846, at the very time Congress recognised the existence of the war, a company of Mexican traders arrived at St. Louis, through Santa Fé, from Chihuahua, with no less than three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in specie, to expend for wares and merchandise in the United States. The annual trade from Santa Fé with St. Louis, Pittsburg, and Philadel phia, was supposed to be, in amount, from one to two millions of dollars. That trade has been cut off by the events of the war.

The forces which were to compose the Army of the West,-almost wholly of Volunteers,commenced assembling at Fort Leavenworth carly in June, 1846. Col. Kearney received his orders in May, and the Missouri Volunteers were mustered into service before the end of June, and on the 30th of June the entire force had departed. The corps of Kearney was composed thus:

1 Lieut. Emory's Journal.

Niles's Register, 70,

, p.

228

A large part of this force were mounted men, accompanied, however, by a regiment of infantry, a body of artillery, and a train of wagons. The point of departure was Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri river, and the point to be reached (Santa Fé) was one thousand miles distant. For a greater part of that distance, from the Missouri to Bent's Fort on the Arkansas, the road lay over vast plains, which had for ages been the pasturage of the buffalo, or the hunting-ground of the Indian. Short dry grass, or sometimes barren ground, with skirts of trees in the valleys of the streams, made nearly the whole landscape; while occasionally a buffalo in the distance, a prairie-wolf in the trail, or the carcass of some unfortunate horse given to the wild birds or wilder beasts, gave variety to this desolate scene. Bent's Fort, the lonely plantation of Mr. Bonny, and the meeting of a party of traders, were the only signs of civilization. Beyond the Arkansas, and on the head-waters of the Cimarou and Canadian rivers, the country grows mountainous, and the pine, spruce, and other evergreens begin to give verdure to the summits. In passing a dividing ridge of these streams, the army was charmed with one of those splendid mountain-scenes which frequently occur in extraordinary sublimity on the spurs of the Cordilleras. It was the passage of the Raton, a branch of the great Aztec

mountains, which made the eastern ridge of the Rio Grande. By barometrical observations, the summit was 7000 feet in height. Towards the northwest, the lofty top of Pike's peak was visible, and around it other peaks whose white limestone cliffs looked like snow-banks in the sunbeams. Above, the rocky tops of the Raton rose in perpendicular ledges, and assumed the form of castles in the air, while all around nature exhibited a wide landscape of wild, various, and beautiful appearances.'

Such scenery in this desolate region was, however, uncommon. The weary soldier had to pass many a day's journey without water for his thirst, or grass for his beast. For twenty miles, in some cases, no spring was to be found. An eye-witness relates, that in going from the valley of the Canadian, a traveller might pass a good day's journey without meeting with either wood, water, or grass. Such was the unfruitful and uninviting country through. which it was deemed necessary to march an army of the United States for the conquest of Mexico!

On the 3d of August Kearney left Bent's Fort on the Arkansas, and in ten days approached the Mexican settle ments. Governor Armijo had previously received intimations of his approach, and, according to the accounts of traders, had gathered from the adjacent provinces a formidable force. On the 16th of August he marched out of Santa Fé, and took post at a remarkably strong position. It was an eminence commanding a defile of not more than forty feet in width, through which lay the road to Santa Fé. Such a position, with good troops, might be deemed almost impregnable. Such was not the result.

1 Lt. Emory's Journal.-Niles's Register, 71, p. 138

Governor Armijo held a council of war. His second in command, and other officers, advised him against defence. The advice was followed. The Mexican army retreated, and Armijo left the province for Chihuahua with a hundred dragoons. In the mean while Kearney had arrived at San Miguel, and assured the alarmed alcaldes, padres, and other influential persons, that he should protect them in their persons, property, religion, and liberty. On the 18th of August he passed through the same defile the Mexicans had just left undefended, and in a few hours entered Santa Fé. Marching with his troops to the palace, or governor's house, Kearney hoisted the standard of the Union, and firing a salute of cannon said, "There, my guns proclaim that the flag of the United States floats over the capital." On the next day (Aug. 19th) the general addressed the people, proclaimed that the American army came to establish free government, offered the people protection, and absolved them from their allegiance to their former government!

Thus in about fifty days an army (which had been collected in less than a month) had traversed nearly a thousand miles of uninhabited wastes, and proclaimed the conquest of New Mexico, containing a surface of eighty. thousand square miles, though inhabited by only eighty thousand people. Considered as a march for both infantry and artillery, this was a remarkable achievement. The result was, however, as unsatisfactory to the performers as it was fruitless of military results. Santa Fé offered neither the splendor nor pleasures of a rich and voluptuous city. It was a poor town, badly built, inhabited by a half

Journal of an officer.-Niles, 71, p. 83.