XIX
SANTA ANNA PREPARES TO STRIKE
September, 1846—February, 1847
While these events were taking place north of the mountains, the Americans at Saltillo were having a somewhat agitated experience. At the end of December a great cloud of dust, raised towards the south by a drove of Mexican horses, convinced Worth he was again in danger, and preparations were made at once to conquer or die. Butler, who succeeded him in command, and even the more experienced Wool felt disturbed by rumors of impending attack, which considerate Mexicans, anxious to entertain their American visitors, frequently set afloat, though some of our officers believed that Scott’s movement ensured them against molestation.[4]
Finally, the rather approved idea of thorough scouting presented itself; and on January 19 Major Gaines of the First Kentucky cavalry, with Captain Cassius M. Clay, Lieutenant Davidson and thirty or forty men, was detached for this purpose by General Butler.[1] After making a circuitous journey and meeting with only bland, inoffensive Mexicans, from whom—naturally enough—no important news could be obtained, he found himself on the twenty-first at the hacienda of La Encarnación, a point on the main road from San Luis Potosí to Saltillo, and about fifty-three miles distant from the latter place. Here quite unexpectedly he lighted upon forty or fifty of the Arkansas cavalry under Major Borland, whose orders from Wool had been to visit the hacienda and immediately return. If, however, Taylor could do as he pleased about instructions, why should not Borland? And when obliging Mexicans told him of a small force lying at El Salado, only thirty-five or forty miles farther on, he determined to have the glory of capturing it, and sent back to his colonel for reinforcements. Gaines’s party, added to his own, seemed adequate, however, and early on the night of the twenty-second the troopers rode gayly forward.[4]
CARELESSNESS OF TAYLOR’S OFFICERS
Before long it appeared that the distance was sixty miles and the Mexican force mythical—besides, rain began to fall; so the Americans returned to La Encarnación for the night. “The general and the soldier of each side should ... be always expecting to fall into danger,” as Thucydides wrote long ago, and of course our officers understood that in a hostile country picket guards were sometimes deemed advisable; but, operating on the higher plane of action, they felt that a comfortable sleep was what all needed most, and accordingly at daybreak they found themselves in the midst of Miñón’s cavalry brigade of, say, 1200 men, magnified in their opinion—doubtless by the fog—to 3000. The Mexican general was, however, a most accomplished and elegant gentleman, and he at once relieved their embarrassment by taking them under his full—indeed, close—protection.[4]
Not aware of this comforting fact, Brigadier General Lane detached eighteen men under Captain Heady of the Kentucky cavalry, two days later, to look up their comrades. These men found liquor at a ranch and perhaps—as a letter from Saltillo stated—a fandango, too. Firmly persuaded that joy should be unconfined, they “got drunk,” and so without using up a grain of powder they ascertained by ocular proof the fate of the other detachments. Apparently there was some ground for Wool’s remark that the volunteers, though now almost eight months old in the service, could not easily be made to obey instructions on such duty. Indeed, even after Borland’s mishap and in spite of strict orders, two outposts now went to sleep without a picket or a sentry.[4]
To be sure, the men were ready enough to fight. “Why we have no more fear of a Mexican than if they were [prairie] Wolves,” wrote a soldier. Wool’s men felt particularly keen. On the way from La Vaca to San Antonio they had passed a spot where about 400 Texans had been massacred by Santa Anna’s order in 1836. A fire had lighted up their faces that meant, “No mercy,” said one of them; and exhausted though they were after their wonderful march from Parras, they felt very much dissatisfied on reaching the front, “there being no prospect of a fight.” But the recent disasters had made it seem as if the mountains were full of the enemy, and one of Gaines’s men, who contrived to escape, brought fearful tales. Even those Americans who did not care to do picket duty felt little desire to wake up some foggy morning as prisoners. Signs of a panicky feeling could be observed, and Wool found it necessary to invoke Taylor’s aid.[4]
The General’s position in his army was now extraordinary. To the troops, while they gloried in his courage, his achievements had seemed at the time commonplace enough; but sentiment at home as exhibited in the newspapers—reacting from painful anxiety, indulging in the common taste for exaggeration, and instinctively demanding a national figure for this national crisis—had not only done justice to his great qualities, but, partly in order to explain victories clearly marked with errors, made him out a genius and worker of miracles; and all this laudation, read by the army, created an impression which both duty and interest forbade the more discriminating to impair.[4]
ARMY FEELING TOWARD TAYLOR
The General, moreover, though nursing the mammoth conceit that he was qualified to be President of the United States, was careful to spare the self-love of all who came in contact with him; and while no one could enter Scott’s presence without feeling himself before a superior man aware of his superiority, probably most of Taylor’s visitors had an agreeable sense of excelling him in personal appearance, dress, education and talents, and enjoyed also a flattering conviction of their insight, because they recognized that he possessed high merits after all. How the soldiers, oppressed by the lordliness of many generals, adored his plainness we have seen. They felt they could bow down to such a man without losing self-respect, since the obeisance was due to their own choice, not his demand; and when he welcomed one to his unguarded tent and talked with him about home and friends, or shook a delinquent by the two ears with a kindly warning not to do so again, he established a positive dominion over their minds and hearts. It has been said that no woman loves a man unless she can despise him for something, and the saying may be extended to the rest of humanity. Taylor had thus a double hold on his troops. His black body-servant referred to him as “De ole hoss,” but would have died for him; and while the army would probably have expressed itself about him as lightly as did the street urchins of Philadelphia: