Although Frémont's services were lost for a while on the shores of the Pacific, he was not forgotten either there, or at home. What he had done for his country in that remote region by exploring its solitudes with his hardy band; what he added to geographical and general science; what regions he almost revealed to American pioneers; what services he rendered in securing a happy issue to the war in California—have all been recollected with gratitude and rewarded with the virgin honors of the new born State. But, at that time, this brilliant officer who combined the science of Humboldt with the energy and more than the generosity of Cortéz, was doomed to suffer more than the temporary deprivation of power. After the war was in reality over, after Commodore Stockton had departed and General Kearney had assumed the governorship which was subsequently given to Colonel Mason—Frémont was refused permission to continue his scientific pursuits in California or to join his regiment on the active fields of Mexico. When General Kearney turned his face homewards, towards the close of the spring of 1847, Frémont was ordered to follow in his train across the mountains, and was finally arrested at Fort Leavenworth, on the borders of civilization. During the next winter he was tried by a Court Martial on charges of mutiny, disobedience, and conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline, and being found guilty was sentenced to be dismissed the service. A majority of the court, however, considering all the circumstances of the case, recommended him to the lenient judgment of the President, who not being satisfied that the facts proved the military crime of mutiny—though he sustained the court's opinion otherwise—and recognizing Frémont's previous meritorious and valuable services, released him from arrest, restored his sword and ordered him to report for duty. But Frémont, feeling unconscious, as he declared, of having done any thing to merit the finding of the court, declined the offered restoration to the service, as he could not, "by accepting the clemency of the President, admit the justice of the decision against him."
CHAPTER X.
1847.
VALLEY OF THE RIO GRANDE.—SANTA ANNA AT SAN LUIS.—SCOTT COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.—PLAN OF ATTACK ON THE EAST COAST.—GENERAL SCOTT'S PLAN.—DONIPHAN'S EXPEDITION.—BRACITO—SACRAMENTO.—REVOLT IN NEW MEXICO.—MURDER OF RICHIE.—SELECTION OF BATTLE GROUND—DESCRIPTION OF IT.—BATTLE OF ANGOSTURA OR BUENA VISTA.—MEXICAN RETREAT—TOBASCO—TAMPICO.
We return from the theatre of these military operations on the shores of the Pacific, to the valley of the Rio Grande and the headquarters of General Taylor. The armistice at Monterey had ceased by the order of our government, and the commander of our forces, leaving Generals Worth and Butler at Monterey and Saltillo which had been seized, hastened with a sufficient body of troops to the gulf for the purpose of occupying Tampico, the capital of the state of Tamaulipas. But he did not advance further than Victoria, when he found that Tampico had surrendered to Commodore Conner on the 14th of November.
In the meanwhile the political aspect of Mexico was changed under the rule of Santa Anna who had returned to power, though he had not realized the hopes of our president by acceding to an honorable peace. A secret movement that was made by an agent sent into the country proved altogether unsuccessful, for the people were aroused against this union, and would listen, willingly, to no advances for accommodation. Santa Anna, cautiously noted the national feeling, and, being altogether unable to control or modify it,—although he studiously refrained from committing himself prior to his return to the capital,—he resolved to place himself at the head of the popular movement in defence of the northern frontier. Accordingly, in December, 1846, he had already assembled a large force, amounting to twenty thousand men, at San Luis Potosi, the capital of the state of that name south of Monterey, on the direct road to the heart of the internal provinces, and nearly midway between the gulf and the Pacific.
The news of this hostile gathering which was evidently designed to assail our Army of Occupation, soon reached the officers who had been left in command at our headquarters during Taylor's absence; and, in consequence of a despatch sent by express to General Wool at Parras for reinforcements, that officer immediately put his whole column in motion, and, after marching one hundred and twenty miles in four days, found himself at Agua Nueva, within twenty-one miles of Saltillo. Thus sustained, the officers in command, awaited with anxiety, the movements of the Mexican chief and the return of General Taylor.
But, in the meantime, the administration at home, seeing the inutility of continuing the attacks upon the more northern outposts of Mexico,—which it was, nevertheless, resolved to hold as indemnifying hostages, inasmuch as they were contiguous to our own soil and boundaries,—determined to strike a blow at the vitals of Mexico by seizing her principal eastern port and proceeding thence to the capital. For this purpose, General Scott, who had been set aside at the commencement of the war in consequence of a rupture between himself and the war department whilst arranging the details of the campaign,—was once more summoned into the field and appointed commander-in-chief of the American army in Mexico. Up to this period, November, 1846, large recruits of regulars and volunteers had flocked to the standard of Taylor and were stationed at various posts in the valley of the Rio Grande, under the command of Generals Butler, Worth, Patterson, Quitman and Pillow. But the project of a descent upon Vera Cruz, which was warmly advocated by General Scott, made it necessary to detach a considerable portion of these levies, and of their most efficient and best drilled members. Taylor and his subordinate commanders, were thus, placed in a mere defensive position, and that, too, at a moment when they were threatened in front by the best army that had been assembled for many a year in Mexico.
It is probable that the government of the United States, at the moment it planned this expedition to Vera Cruz and the capital, was not fully apprised of the able and efficient arrangements of Santa Anna, or imagined that he would immediately quit San Luis Potosi in order to defend the eastern access to the capital, inasmuch as it was not probable that Taylor would venture to penetrate the country with impaired forces, which, in a strictly military point of view, were not more than adequate for garrison service along an extended base of three hundred miles. But, as the sequel showed, they neither estimated properly the time that would be consumed in concentrating the forces and preparing the means for their transportation to Vera Cruz, nor judged correctly of the military skill of Santa Anna, who naturally preferred to crush the weak northern foe with his overwhelming force than to encounter the strong battalions of veterans who were to be led against him on the east by the most brilliant captain of our country.