Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/489



THE ARMY UNDER TAYLOR.

he severe defeat experienced by the Mexicans, at Buena Vista, threw them far back into the interior; and no further attempt was made seriously to molest the American forces on the line of the Sierra Madre, and in the valley of the Rio Grande. Reposing quietly and contentedly on the laurels he had won, — his name potential as that of the Black Douglass in overawing the enemy, — General Taylor remained in his camp near Monterey, not seeking an opportunity to achieve new victories, but prepared, at all times, to maintain and enforce the authority of his government over the territory occupied by the troops under his command. Generals Urrea and Canales hovered in the vicinity with their bands of rancheros, but they were careful not to approach within reach of an arm, which, as they well knew, was not more prompt, than it was powerful, to strike.

In accordance with the directions of General Taylor, most of the ranches between Mier and Monterey, which had been the harboring-places of the marauding bands who had obstructed his line of communications, were laid