CHAPTER VI.

ADVANCE OF THE ARMY--CROSSING THE COLORADO--THE RIO GRANDE.

At last the preparations were complete and orders were issued for the

advance to begin on the 8th of March. General Taylor had an army of not

more than three thousand men. One battery, the siege guns and all the

convalescent troops were sent on by water to Brazos Santiago, at the

mouth of the Rio Grande. A guard was left back at Corpus Christi to

look after public property and to take care of those who were too sick

to be removed. The remainder of the army, probably not more than twenty

five hundred men, was divided into three brigades, with the cavalry

independent. Colonel Twiggs, with seven companies of dragoons and a

battery of light artillery, moved on the 8th. He was followed by the

three infantry brigades, with a day's interval between the commands.

Thus the rear brigade did not move from Corpus Christi until the 11th of

March. In view of the immense bodies of men moved on the same day over

narrow roads, through dense forests and across large streams, in our

late war, it seems strange now that a body of less than three thousand

men should have been broken into four columns, separated by a day's

march.

General Taylor was opposed to anything like plundering by the troops,

and in this instance, I doubt not, he looked upon the enemy as the

aggrieved party and was not willing to injure them further than his

instructions from Washington demanded. His orders to the troops

enjoined scrupulous regard for the rights of all peaceable persons and

the payment of the highest price for all supplies taken for the use of

the army.

All officers of foot regiments who had horses were permitted to ride

them on the march when it did not interfere with their military duties.

As already related, having lost my "five or six dollars' worth of

horses" but a short time before I determined not to get another, but to

make the journey on foot. My company commander, Captain McCall, had two

good American horses, of considerably more value in that country, where

native horses were cheap, than they were in the States. He used one

himself and wanted the other for his servant. He was quite anxious to

know whether I did not intend to get me another horse before the march

began. I told him No; I belonged to a foot regiment. I did not

understand the object of his solicitude at the time, but, when we were

about to start, he said: "There, Grant, is a horse for you." I found

that he could not bear the idea of his servant riding on a long march

while his lieutenant went a-foot. He had found a mustang, a three-year

old colt only recently captured, which had been purchased by one of the

colored servants with the regiment for the sum of three dollars. It was

probably the only horse at Corpus Christi that could have been purchased

just then for any reasonable price. Five dollars, sixty-six and

two-thirds per cent. advance, induced the owner to part with the

mustang. I was sorry to take him, because I really felt that, belonging

to a foot regiment, it was my duty to march with the men. But I saw the

Captain's earnestness in the matter, and accepted the horse for the

trip. The day we started was the first time the horse had ever been

under saddle. I had, however, but little difficulty in breaking him,

though for the first day there were frequent disagreements between us as

to which way we should go, and sometimes whether we should go at all.

At no time during the day could I choose exactly the part of the column

I would march with; but after that, I had as tractable a horse as any

with the army, and there was none that stood the trip better. He never

ate a mouthful of food on the journey except the grass he could pick

within the length of his picket rope.

A few days out from Corpus Christi, the immense herd of wild horses that

ranged at that time between the Nueces and the Rio Grande was seen

directly in advance of the head of the column and but a few miles off.

It was the very band from which the horse I was riding had been captured

but a few weeks before. The column was halted for a rest, and a number

of officers, myself among them, rode out two or three miles to the right

to see the extent of the herd. The country was a rolling prairie, and,

from the higher ground, the vision was obstructed only by the earth's

curvature. As far as the eye could reach to our right, the herd

extended. To the left, it extended equally. There was no estimating the

number of animals in it; I have no idea that they could all have been

corralled in the State of Rhode Island, or Delaware, at one time. If

they had been, they would have been so thick that the pasturage would

have given out the first day. People who saw the Southern herd of

buffalo, fifteen or twenty years ago, can appreciate the size of the

Texas band of wild horses in 1846.

At the point where the army struck the Little Colorado River, the stream

was quite wide and of sufficient depth for navigation. The water was

brackish and the banks were fringed with timber. Here the whole army

concentrated before attempting to cross. The army was not accompanied by

a pontoon train, and at that time the troops were not instructed in

bridge building. To add to the embarrassment of the situation, the army

was here, for the first time, threatened with opposition. Buglers,

concealed from our view by the brush on the opposite side, sounded the

"assembly," and other military calls. Like the wolves before spoken of,

they gave the impression that there was a large number of them and that,

if the troops were in proportion to the noise, they were sufficient to

devour General Taylor and his army. There were probably but few troops,

and those engaged principally in watching the movements of the

"invader." A few of our cavalry dashed in, and forded and swam the

stream, and all opposition was soon dispersed. I do not remember that a

single shot was fired.

The troops waded the stream, which was up to their necks in the deepest

part. Teams were crossed by attaching a long rope to the end of the

wagon tongue passing it between the two swing mules and by the side of

the leader, hitching his bridle as well as the bridle of the mules in

rear to it, and carrying the end to men on the opposite shore. The bank

down to the water was steep on both sides. A rope long enough to cross

the river, therefore, was attached to the back axle of the wagon, and

men behind would hold the rope to prevent the wagon "beating" the mules

into the water. This latter rope also served the purpose of bringing

the end of the forward one back, to be used over again. The water was

deep enough for a short distance to swim the little Mexican mules which

the army was then using, but they, and the wagons, were pulled through

so fast by the men at the end of the rope ahead, that no time was left

them to show their obstinacy. In this manner the artillery and

transportation of the "army of occupation" crossed the Colorado River.

About the middle of the month of March the advance of the army reached

the Rio Grande and went into camp near the banks of the river, opposite

the city of Matamoras and almost under the guns of a small fort at the

lower end of the town. There was not at that time a single habitation

from Corpus Christi until the Rio Grande was reached.

The work of fortifying was commenced at once. The fort was laid out by

the engineers, but the work was done by the soldiers under the

supervision of their officers, the chief engineer retaining general

directions. The Mexicans now became so incensed at our near approach

that some of their troops crossed the river above us, and made it unsafe

for small bodies of men to go far beyond the limits of camp. They

captured two companies of dragoons, commanded by Captains Thornton and

Hardee. The latter figured as a general in the late war, on the

Confederate side, and was author of the tactics first used by both

armies. Lieutenant Theodric Porter, of the 4th infantry, was killed

while out with a small detachment; and Major Cross, the assistant

quartermaster-general, had also been killed not far from camp.

There was no base of supplies nearer than Point Isabel, on the coast,

north of the mouth of the Rio Grande and twenty-five miles away. The

enemy, if the Mexicans could be called such at this time when no war had

been declared, hovered about in such numbers that it was not safe to

send a wagon train after supplies with any escort that could be spared.

I have already said that General Taylor's whole command on the Rio

Grande numbered less than three thousand men. He had, however, a few

more troops at Point Isabel or Brazos Santiago. The supplies brought

from Corpus Christi in wagons were running short. Work was therefore

pushed with great vigor on the defences, to enable the minimum number of

troops to hold the fort. All the men who could be employed, were kept

at work from early dawn until darkness closed the labors of the day.

With all this the fort was not completed until the supplies grew so

short that further delay in obtaining more could not be thought of. By

the latter part of April the work was in a partially defensible

condition, and the 7th infantry, Major Jacob Brown commanding, was

marched in to garrison it, with some few pieces of artillery. All the

supplies on hand, with the exception of enough to carry the rest of the

army to Point Isabel, were left with the garrison, and the march was

commenced with the remainder of the command, every wagon being taken

with the army. Early on the second day after starting the force reached

its destination, without opposition from the Mexicans. There was some

delay in getting supplies ashore from vessels at anchor in the open

roadstead.