[14.] There was also a notable want of order and energy, said Worth, in the control of the steamboats ([69]to Bliss, July 27).
[15.] By August 4 substantially all of the regulars except the cavalry and two or three batteries set out. June 16, the adj. gen. (Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 454) estimated that Taylor would have under his immediate command about 11,840 twelve-months volunteers and would soon receive nearly 800 regulars. This left out of account a regiment and a half from Texas and some other small corps. Taylor may, then, have had at about this time (not allowing for discharges) 15,500 men. An account printed in the Cincinnati Chronicle of Sept. 6 gave him 15,810. Lieut. Col. Clarke, Eighth Infantry, remained in command at Matamoros, and Major Gardner, Fourth Artillery, at Point Isabel and Brazos Island (Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 533). The rank of these officers indicates that but few soldiers were left behind, and at Reynosa and Mier there were only detachments. During July Capt. Gillespie with a company of Texas Rangers marched from San Antonio and passed through Laredo, Guerrero and Mier, finding the people quiet in those towns (Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 402).
[16.] Occupation of Camargo, etc. The distance from the Gulf to Camargo by water was also called 450 miles (Smith, To Mexico, 92). Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 690–1 (Hunt). (Mishaps) [76]Letter from Matamoros, July 13; Whiting, Aug. 3 in Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 675; Gaceta de Ciudad Victoria, July 21; Matamoros Reveille, June 24 (“The channel [of the river] shifts and fills with incredible rapidity”); Niles, July 18, p. 310; Aug. 1, p. 341. Ho. 60; 30, 1, pp. 300, 336–8, 397–402, 408. Henry, Camp. Sketches, 120, 123, 125, 132–151. [69]Smith to Bliss, July 8. Donnavan, Adventures. [180]Pillow to wife, Aug. 8. Meade, Letters, i, 106–7, 118. Henshaw narrative. Claiborne, Quitman, i, 239. Robertson, Remins., 107–9. Brackett, Lane’s Brig., 23–4. Tilden, Notes, 10. [69]Miles to Bliss, July 8, 14. (Alcalde) Encarnacion Prisoners, 25. [76]Comte. gen., Saltillo, July 20. [76]Mejía, July 19. Picayune, July 26; Aug. 1, 6, 9, 14, 15. Wilhelm, Eighth Infantry, ii, 279. Taylor, Letters (Bixby), 25, 30, 39, 40. [65]Id., gen. orders 93, July 30. Ewing, diary, Aug. 20–31, 1846. [76]García to Parrodi, Aug. 10. Grant, Mems., i, 104. [267]Memo. [apparently from Maj. Smith]. Kenly, Md. Vol., 61–4. French, Two Wars, 59. Niles, Sept. 5, p. 1; 19, p. 56. Sanders, June 5 in Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 551. (Mier) [69]Vinton to Lee, Aug. 1; Smith, To Mexico, 66; Green, Journal, 82.
[17.] At Camargo. [99]Gov. Tamaul. to Tampico ayunt., July 23. [80]Gov. N. León, July 2, 1846. Picayune, Aug. 1, 6, 9, 14, 15; Sept. 12. Smith, Remins., 35. Sanders, June 5 in Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 551. McClellan, diary. Henshaw narrative. Meade, Letters, i, 119, 121. Ewing, diary, Aug. 31-Sept. 19. Robertson, Remins., 109–11. Wash. Union, Sept. 14; Oct. 5. Bishop, Journal. [185]Worth to Duncan, July 30. (Worth) Wilhelm, Eighth Inf., ii, 278; Special orders 72 in Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 529; [61]W. to adj. gen., May 9; [61]Marcy to W., May 11. Henry, Camp. Sketches, 121, 152–4. Giddings, Sketches, 83. Taylor, Letters (Bixby), 42, 176. Trans. Ills. State Hist. Soc., 1906, pp. 176–7. Vedette, ix, no. 10. Tennery, diary, Oct. 28. [139]Campbell to D. C., Aug. 28. Nashville Union, Oct. 17. Niles, Sept. 12, p. 23; Jan. 2, 1847, p. 286. [117]Pillow to wife, Sept. 6; Dec. 24. Sedgwick, Corres., i, 13, 30. [169]Taylor to Crittenden, Sept. 1, 1846. (Mier) Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 1180 (Taylor).
Camargo was the proper place for Taylor’s dépôt, but no Americans were needed there except the quartermaster’s force and a guard of regulars. For these there was sufficient elevated ground. The regulars occupied this ground (Picayune, Aug. 15), and suffered comparatively little; but we know enough of the conditions existing at Camargo to pronounce the place unfit for the number of men encamped there.
[18.] May 9 Paredes decided that all the American consuls should cease to exercise their functions, and four days later orders were issued that wherever a U. S. war vessel should appear, the Americans should embark or go twenty leagues into the interior. Mexican consuls in the United States were soon directed to close their offices. [52]B. E. Green, Apr. 25, 1844: Tornel “hates us with a most envenomed spite.” [52]Ellis, Sept. 20, 1839: Tornel shows a bitter and unrelenting hostility toward the United States.
[19.] Feb. 4, 1846, El Tiempo, the favorite journal of Paredes, had said: “We are not a people of traders and adventurers, the scum and dregs of all countries, whose only mission is to rob the Indians of their land and then seize the fertile regions opened to civilization by the Spanish race.” June 13 La Esperanza, of Tampico, close to the field of war, printed the Address of a Patriotic Junta [Committee] to raise funds for the campaign, which used the following language about the Americans: “People without morality, composed of the scum of all nations; people without honesty, who count their bankruptcies by the numberless number of their enterprises; people without religion, who tolerate all beliefs and mock at the most sacred things; people for whom probity is not a virtue, who value money and know nothing of glory, a monstrous collection of the most heterogeneous elements united by the double bond of crime and fear, etc.”
[20.] Paredes, Mexico and the war. (Paredes’ appearance) Portrait, City Hall, Mexico; Aguila del Norte, Mar. 18. London Times, Mar. 13, 1846. Bankhead, nos. 13, 45, 72, 92, 100, 1846. [52]Slidell, Feb. 6, 17. México á través, iv, 567–8. Dublán, Legislación, v, 134–6. Apuntes, 68. Diario, May 18; June 2, 7, 12, 17, 26–30; July 2, 4, 6, 21, 23, 25, 26, 28, 30. Memoria de ... Relaciones, 1846. Bustamante, Nuevo Bernal, ii, 58. [52]Black, no. 379, July 4. Monitor Repub., June 1, 4, 30, 1846. Imparcial, July 15, 1846. Indicador, June 4; July 24, 1846. Esperanza, May 30, 1846. Pregonero, June 18, 1846. [84]S. L. Potosí assembly, procl., May 22, 1846. Wash. Union, June 18, 1846. Balbontín, Estado Militar. [13]Foreign Office to Bankhead, June 1, 1846. [76]Parrodi, June 8, 1846.
[21.] Mar. 31, 1846 (no. 8), the British Foreign Office wrote to Bankhead, the minister at Mexico, that according to the British minister at Madrid the project of setting up a monarch in Mexico was entertained in Spain. See also chap. iv, [note 15] and chap. vi, [note 32].
[22.] The political situation of Paredes. [52]Slidell, Jan. 14; Feb. 6, 17; Mar. 1, 18, 27; Apr. 2, 1846. [13]Bankhead, nos. 12, 15, 22, 27, 34, 45, 49, 57, 62, 63, 80, 92, 98, 111, 1846. Conner, Mar. 2 in Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 121. Dublán, Legislación, v, 134–6. Diario, April 19; May 4, 13; June 7, 28, 1846. Tributo á la Verdad. [52]Black, June 1; July 29; Aug. 12. London Times, Mar. 13; Apr. 11; Aug. 7; Sept. 5, 9; Oct. 7. Gov. Durango to Dur. cong., Nov. 8, 1846 (pamphlet). [47]Wood to Bancroft, June 4. Bermúdez de Castro, no. 316, res., Aug. 28, 1846. [76]Acta, Mazatlán, May 7, 1846. [52]Dimond, no. 317, Feb. 2, 1846. Paredes, Papers (García, ed.), 43, 46. México á través, iv, 556, 558. [75]Gov. Jalisco, Feb. 24, 1846. [75]Circular, Apr. 18, 1846. Monitor Constit., Jan. 9, 1846. Boletín de Noticias, June 1, 1846. Monitor Repub., May 23; June 6, 7, 9, 22; July 5, 14, 1846. Republicano, June 27, 1846. [80]Gov. Jalisco, decree, May 25, 1846. Bustamante, Nuevo Bernal, ii, 15. [76]Paredes, manifiesto, Mar. 21. Memoria de ... Guerra, Dec., 1846. [76]Comte. gen. Méx., Aug. 2, 1846. Niles, June 6, p. 211; June 20, p. 242. [80]Gov. Méx., April 20, 1846. Lerdo de Tejada, Apuntes, ii, 524, 530, 531, 536. Sierra, Evolution, i, 215. [13]Forbes to Bankhead, July 2, 1846.