Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 1.djvu/237

208 but doesn't dare undertake to drill a squad; yet the commission was issued.9 Pillow, another of the same rank, ambitious to figure but not acquainted with his proper work, did what was not proper. Some of the volunteer generals on horseback reminded Lieutenant Jamieson of the line,

Persons of a mature age, who had bulked large at home, would not stoop to plod through the rudiments of a new profession. Even good officers were in fear of the letters written by their men and the revenge that might be taken later, should real discipline be enforced; while those less conscientious threatened to resign if kept in the background, stood in the way of superiors belonging to the opposite political party, in order to prevent them from making a reputation, or even took part with the men in the hope of getting into Congress by and by.

In short, the volunteers were all one costly mass of ignorance, confusion and insubordination, said Meade; while the regular officers felt discouraged, not merely by discovering that civilians were preferred to educated soldiers for high appointments, but by finding themselves in the shadow and even under the command of men who had been discharged from West Point for incapacity or from the army for gross misconduct. At the height of this, General Taylor, who was disqualified by lack of experience and mental discipline for organizing an efficient staff. and therefore needed to use his own eyes and his own voice, held aloof. "I very seldom leave my tent," he wrote on July 25, adding helplessly, "How it will all end time alone must tell." Besides, every mail brought letters about the Presidency to distract his attention.

Probably he saw he had blundered. On April 26 he knew that war had begun, and called upon Louisiana and Texas for soldiers with a view to the invasion of Mexico, which he must have believed. under the circumstances, that his government wished. By the rules of the service it was then his duty, as he well knew, to make requisitions for everything the campaign would require," and a zealous commander, gathering — as Taylor had been instructed to do — all the information he could find regarding the local conditions, might reasonably have sent on to Washington with it an able officer