Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 1.djvu/290

Rh a quantity of indifferent gunpowder and a number of cannon, many of them bad, was ours, and soon the people of the United States, Whom a costly but valorous battle impressed far more than orderly, scientific operations could have done, were again acclaiming Taylor. By distance, by his courage, by his picturesque individuality, and by his very position as commander of the one American army fighting the Mexicans, he was idealized. His excellent reports — the work of Bliss — confirmed every favorable impression; and the writers of the day, fully aware that he was already a popular hero and anxious to suit the prevailing taste, colored the facts until these could hardly be recognized. Men on the ground, in contact with the crude realities, felt otherwise. Taylor's want of prevision and of generalship was in fact bitterly censured there. Worth "is the high comb cock of the army," wrote one officer. He has won all the laurels, though Taylor will have the glory at home, remarked a surgeon.

As for the conduct of the troops in general, however, there could be only one opinion. "Three glorious days," was General Scott's description of the struggle. War is — war. Dreadful things were done, splendid men Were cut down. Yet if there be glory in fidelity and courage, in meeting extraordinary hardships, and in triumphing over extraordinary difficulties, then Scott's description was correct.