One of the principal histories of the war gives the deaths resulting from battle as 5101, and the total number as “not less” than 25,000! Many men afflicted with chronic diseases enlisted in the hope of deriving benefit from the climate of Mexico, but died there. Many came home bringing the germs of disease or with enfeebled constitutions.
[16.] (New regiments) [364]Worth to S., Sept. 5, 1846. (Invalids) [291]Smith to Pierce, Feb. 2, 1848; [254]McClellan, diary, Dec. 5, 1846; Meade, Letters, i, 161–2. (Waste) Meade, Letters, i, 161–2. (Arms) [256]Scott to Marcy, Jan. 16, 1847, private. (Undisciplined) [221]Hill, diary; [95]report of comtee., Jan. 4, 1848; Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 336 (Taylor); [327]Sutherland to father, Aug. —, 1847; Scott, supra. (Close) Hitchcock, Fifty Years, 346; Olmsted, Journey, 463. (One) [280]Nunelee, diary. (Another) Oswandel, Notes, 476. (Officer) [146]Caswell, diary. (N. Car.) Greensborough (N. C.) Morning Post, Apr. 5, 1903. (Braver) Grant, Mems., i, 167–8. (Unreliable) Balbontín, Invasión, 75; Smith, To Mexico, 151. (Imperilled) Ho. 60; 30, 1, pp. 336, 1178 (Taylor); 1049 (Scott); Scott, Mems., ii, 540. [256]Marcy to Wetmore, Jan. 6, 1847. (Stimulated) Cong. Globe, 35, 1, pp. 971–2 (Quitman); Stevens, Campaigns, 12; [152]Claiborne, mems.
To suppose, as many appear to do, that the only business in war is to fight, is as if one should think that in railroading the only work is to run the trains. The following from Scott’s [256]letter to Marcy, Jan. 16, 1847, is pertinent: “A regiment of regulars, in fifteen minutes from the evening halt, will have tents pitched and trenched around, besides straw, leaves or bushes for dry sleeping; arms and ammunition well secured and in order for any night attack; fires made, kettles boiling, in order to wholesome cooking; all the men dried, or warmed, and at their comfortable supper, merry as crickets, before the end of the first hour.... Volunteers neglect all those points; eat their salt meat raw (if they have saved any at all) or, worse than raw, fried—death to any Christian man the fifth day; lose or waste their clothing; lie down wet, or on wet ground—fatal to health, and, in a short time, to life; leave arms and ammunition exposed to rain and dews; hence both generally useless and soon lost, and certainly hardly ever worth a cent in battle,” etc., etc. So in the field “the want of the touch of the elbow (which cannot be acquired with the best instructors in many months); the want of the sure step in advancing, falling back and wheeling; ... the want of military confidence in each other, and, above all, the want of reciprocal confidence between officers and men” cause frightful losses.
McClellan wrote in his [254]diary: “I have seen more suffering since I came out here than I could have imagined to exist—it is really awful—I allude to the sufferings of the Volunteers. They literally die like dogs—were it all known in the States, ... all would be willing to have so large a regular army that we could dispense entirely with the Volunteer system.” Trist stated in a [335]letter to the N. Y. Tribune, July 14, 1853, that the volunteer system was a debasing humbug, because the generals, aiming at political success, posed as great commanders with no basis except the courage of their men and the skill of their (regular) aides. Worth said that the intelligent volunteers ridiculed the system, except for home defence, more than the regulars did ([364]to Capt. S., Nov. 2, 1846).
Webster said the advantage of the volunteer service was that it was generous and patriotic, entered into mostly to gain distinction, and because it gave men what they liked—an opportunity to bear arms under officers chosen by themselves (Webster, Letters, 347); but one sees at once that these views came far short of covering the case practically. That very ambition to win distinction, for example, made them dissatisfied and insubordinate when expected to do the ordinary work of soldiering ([169]Taylor to Crittenden, Jan. 26, 1847); and volunteer officers like Pillow did not compare with regulars like Scott and Taylor in kindness toward the men. The battle of Buena Vista was popularly supposed to have proved the efficiency of volunteers, but failed to do so (see [chap. xx]; [316]Bragg to Sherman, Mar. 1, 1848; [330]Taylor to brother, Mar. 27, 1847; Zirckel, Tagebuch, 9), though they had had a sufficiently long training (Upton, Military Policy, 209). The Marquis de Radepont, who accompanied Scott’s army to observe its operations, was particularly astonished that the General had so little control over the volunteers, a state of things that more than once endangered all, he said. Scott, Taylor, Worth, Twiggs, Wool, Quitman, Smith and Shields were not West Pointers, but the first five were professionals. Some of the volunteer officers, who had been in business, surpassed the regulars in such work as transportation.
[17.] (Tilden) Cong. Globe, 29, 1, p. 543. (Aristocrats) N. Y. Herald, June 20, 1846. (Steadied vols.) Stevens, Camps., 12; Ruxton, Adventures (1847), 178; Hitchcock, Fifty Years, 346. (Reg. offs.) Grant, Mems., i, 168; [364]Worth to S., Sept. 5, 1846; [13]Crampton, no. 17, 1848; Collins, diary, Jan. 29, 1847; Lawton, Art. Off., 276. (Took care) [254]McClellan, diary, Dec. 5, 1846; [148]Chamberlain, recolls. (Science) Hitchcock, Fifty Years, 310; Cullum, Biog. Register, i, p. xi.
[18.] Grone, Briefe, 83. Commerc. Review of S. and W., Dec, 1846, 426–30 (Poinsett). Grant, Mems., i, 143. Sen. 1; 30, 1, p. 332 (Smith). Observador Zacatecano, Dec. 27, 1846, supplem. (Requena). Owing probably to the exigencies of the case the engineers were given a somewhat exaggerated importance. Some of their officers were not experts; were perhaps hardly more than engineers by commission. And engineers were frequently employed to do reconnaissance work that was more properly the function of infantry patrols.
[19.] Commerc. Rev.: note 18. Grone, Briefe, 70, 81. Revue des Deux Mondes, Aug. 1, 1847, 385. [73]Bermúdez de Castro, no. 517, 1847.
[20.] (Immigrants) Ho. 38; 30, 2. [278]Niehenke, statement. [136]Butterfield, recolls. Grone, Briefe, 84. Metrop. Mag., Jan., 1908. (1000) Sen. 1; 30, 1, p. 431. (600) Hitchcock, Fifty Years, 293. (6000) Sen. 1; 30, 1, p. 384. (Miracle) [358]Williams to father, Oct. 1, 1847. Journal des Débats, Aug. 15, 1848.
[21.] (Legally) [250]Lieber to Ruggles, Apr. 23, 1847. Curtis, Buchanan, i, 609. Cong. Globe, 29, 2, app., 125. (Welfare) London Athenæum, Sept. 13, 1845. (Right of way) Von Holst, U. S., iii, 272; London Atlas, May 18, 1844.