Page:A series of intercepted letters in Mexico.djvu/10

 and commissaries' departments, without which the army could neither move nor remain in position. Justice will also be done to the talents, i?kill and humanity of our admirable corps of medical officers. So also a just view of the army will exhibit to the world its great excellence of personnel in officers and men, in all the different regiments and corps. Then, too, will be made manifest the extraordinary ability of the commander of this army, in all respects worthy of it, as he has given the most abundant proofs, by the directness and greatness of his objects, and the certainty and comparative ease with which he has accomplished them. Such splendid results could only be achieved by a commander gifted with the highest powers of combination, capable of the clearest views, and endowed with the most unwavering firmness and steadiness of purpose.

Excepting some very few of the letters, they were written on the 21st of August, and refer principally to the events of the few preceding days, especially to those of the 20th of August. The letters were written by Mexicans to Mexicans—they exhibit the unrestrained outpourings of friends to friends, when all motives of concealment and misrepresentation seem to have been entirely out of the question. These letters. therefore, furnish valuable testimony on the points within the knowledge of the writers, though they contain some unintentional errors when statements are made respecting facts not personally known. Thus, when these letters state, as they do. that the aggregate strength of the army concentrated by Gen. Santa Anna for the defence of Mexico exceeded thirty thousand men, there is every reason for relying upon this statement; and thus, in the same manner, we have unquestionable evidence that not fewer than twenty-six thousand men were engaged in battle on the Mexican side, on the 20th of August. But the evidence is not equally good when the letters refer to the strength of the American army; for the fact could not be equally well known. Thus, it is not true, though stated in some of these letters, that the American army was twelve thousand strong; but it happens to be true, as stated in others, that the American force was about ten thousand—though not all of this force was at any one time engaged in battle. Valencia's entrenched camp at Contreras was taken in seventeen minutes, by the watch, by about fifteen hundred men, without artillery and without cavalry—he having five thousand men, with twenty-three pieces of fine artillery, covered with about two thousand cavalry. The fruits of this brilliant surprise, in the immediate vicinity of Contreras, in prisoners, &c., were secured by other troops, besides the assaulting columns,