USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 39
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General Taylor to prepare for a concentration of his forces with the view of storming the enemy in his last works on the following day. This movement never was made, for on the morning of the next day, before the general advance could be begun, the enemy sent a flag to General Taylor and the surrender of the city followed without further engagements. A splendid military position and great quan- tities of army stores was thus gained, but at the costly sacrifice of five hundred American soldiers killed and wounded.
The Louisville Legion formed a part of the attacking forces and acquitted itself with honor to the army and the state whence it came.
With headquarters established at Monterey, General Taylor pressed forward a portion of his troops occupying Saltillo and Pardo, while the Mexican army retreated to San Luis Po- tosi. In the meantime, General Santa Anna, who was perhaps the first of Mexican gen- erals of his day, had returned to his country, assuming not only the direction of the army hut of the government as well. By December, 1846. he had an army of 20,000 men, with which force he proposed to engage and crush the small force under General Taylor. The latter had been weakened by withdrawals, sent to join in a proposed attack on Vera Cruz. He was advised from Washington to withdraw from Monterey, as the small force left him was composed mostly of volunteers. In the face of this advice, the indomitable old sol- dier, who was too old to begin to run away from a fight, chose rather to go out and look for one. And he found it, too, at Buena Vista. Finding there a position which pleased him, he sat down to await a call from Santa Anna, having under his command but forty-seven hundred officers and men, while the Mexican forces numbered 20,000.
The Louisville Legion was the only Ken- tucky organization in the' attack on Monte- rey, but soon afterwards the Second Ken-
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tucky Infantry and the First Kentucky Cav- alry, reached Monterey, and joined the forces of General Taylor. There were therefore three regiments of Kentucky present for duty when the little army marched out to defy Santa Anna and his twenty thousand.
The Mexican general was not unaware of the withdrawal from General Taylor's force of most of the regulars who were sent to- wards Vera Cruz. He knew also that most of the men remaining under General Taylor's command were volunteers, only a few of whom had ever been under fire. To the wily Mexican general, the situation seemed full of promise, and he doubtless contemplated an easy victory.
But the battle is not always to the strong, as was proven at Buena Vista. This latter was but a ranch village on the road to San Luis Potosi, and five miles from Saltillo, which latter had been occupied by the Americans after the battle of Monterey. On the road to Potosi, the mountains were on each side rising to great heights and enclosing a narrow val- ley. Three miles from Buena Vista, the val- ley narrowed forming the. Pass of Angostura, and here the main battle was fought and won by the little handful of untrained American soldiers.
The official report of the engagement made to the war department is too lengthy for in- sertion here, but extracts therefrom follow which, in the main refer to the parts taken by the Kentucky troops.
General Taylor under date of March 6, 1847, says: "I have the honor to submit a detailed report of the operations of the forces under my command which resulted in the en- gagement of Buena Vista, the repulse of the Mexican army, and the occupation of this position (Agua Nueva). On the morning of the 22d, I was advised that the enemy was in sight, advancing. Upon reaching the ground, it was found that his cavalry advance was in our front having marched from Encarnacion,
as we have since learned, at eleven o'clock on the day previous and driving in a mounted force left at Agua Nueva to cover the removal of public stores. Our troops were in position occupying a line of remarkable strength. The road at this point is a narrow defile, the val- ley on the right being rendered quite imprac- ticable for artillery by a system of deep and impassable gullies, while on the left a succes- sion of rugged edges and precipitous ravines extends far back towards the mountain which bounds the valley. The features of the ground were such as nearly to paralyze the artillery and cavalry of the enemy, while his infantry could not derive all the advantage of its nu- merical superiority. In this position, we pre- pared to receive him.
"Captain Washington's battery, Fourth Ar- tillery, was posted to command the road, while the First and Second Illinois regiments, un- der Colonels Hardin and Bissell, each eight companies, to the latter of which was attached Captain Conner's company of Texas volun- teers, and the Second Kentucky under com- mand of Colonel McKee, occupied the crest of the ridges on the left and in rear. The Arkansas and Kentucky regiments of cavalry, commanded by Colonel Yell and Colonel Humphrey Marshall, occupied the extreme left near the base of the mountain, while the Indiana brigade under Brigadier General Lane, composed of the Second and Third regiments under Colonels Bowie and Lane; the Mississippi Rifles, under Colonel Jeffer- son Davis, the squadrons of the First and Second Dragoons under Captain Steen and Lieutenant Colonel May, and the light batter- ies of Captains Sherman and Bragg, Third Artillery, were held in reserve.
"At eleven o'clock I received from General Santa Anna a summons to surrender at dis- cretion which, with a copy of my reply, I have already transmitted. The enemy still forbore his attack, evidently waiting for the arrival of his rear columns which could be distinctly
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seen by our lookouts as they approached the field. A demonstration made on his left caused me to detach the Second Kentucky reg- iment and a section of artillery to our right, in which position they bivouacked for the night. In the meantime, the Mexican light troops had engaged ours on the extreme left, composed of parts of the Kentucky and Ar- kansas Cavalry dismounted, and a rifle bat- talion from the Indiana brigade under com- mand of Major Gorman, the whole com- manded by Colonel Humphrey Marshall (of the First Kentucky Cavalry), and kept up a sharp fire, climbing the mountain side and apparently endeavoring to gain our flank. Three pieces of Captain Washington's bat- tery had been detached to the left and were supported by the Second Indiana regiment. An occasional shell was thrown by the enemy into this part of our line, but without effect. The skirmishing of the light troops was kept up, with trifling loss on our part, until dark, when I became convinced that no serious attack would be made before the morning, and re- turned with the Mississippi regiment and squadron of the Second Dragoons to Saltillo. The troops bivouacked without fires and laid upon their arms. A body of cavalry some fif- teen hundred strong, had been visible all the day in rear of the town, having entered the valley through a narrow pass east of the city. This cavalry, commanded by General Minon, had evidently been thrown in our rear to break up and harass our retreat and perhaps make some attempt against the town, if prac- ticable. The city was occupied by four ex- cellent companies of Illinois volunteers, un- der Major Warren of the First Regiment. A field work which commanded most of the ap- proaches, was garrisoned by Captain Web- ster's company, First Artillery, and armed with two twenty-four pound howitzers, while the train and headquarters camp was guarded by two companies of Mississippi riflemen un- der the command of Captain Rogers, and a
field piece commanded by Captain Shover, Third Artillery. Having made these disposi- tions for the protection of the rear, I pro- ceeded on the night of the 23d to Buena Vista, ordering forward all available troops. The action had commenced before my arrival on the field.
"During the evening and night of the 22d, the enemy had thrown a body of light troops on the mountain side, with the purpose of outflanking our left, and it was here that the action of the 23d commenced at an early hour. Our riflemen, under command of Colonel Humphrey Marshall, who had been re-en- forced by three companies under Major Trail, Illinois Volunteers, maintained their ground handsomely against a greatly superior force, holding themselves under cover and using their weapons with terrible effect. About eight o'clock a strong demonstration was made against the center of our position, a heavy column moving along the road. This force was soon dispersed by a few rapid and well- directed shots from Captain Washington's battery. In the meantime, the enemy was concentrating a large force of infantry and cavalry under cover of the ridges, with the obvious intention of forcing our left. which was posted on an extensive plateau.
The Second Indiana which had fallen back, could not be rallied, and took no further part in the engagement, except a handful of its men, who under its gallant Colonel Bowles, joined Colonel Jefferson Davis' Mississippi regiment, and did good service, and those fugi- tives who, at a later period of the day, as- sisted in defending the train and depot at Buena Vista. * * *
"Colonel Bissell's regiment, Second Illinois, which had been joined by a section of Captain Sherman's battery, had become completely outflanked and was compelled to fall back, being entirely unsupported. The enemy was now pouring masses of infantry and cavalry along the base of the mountain on our left
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and was gaining our rear in great force. At First Illinois and Second Kentucky, had en- this moment, I arrived upon the field. The Mississippi regiment had been directed to the left before reaching the position, and imme- diately came into action against the Mexican infantry which had turned our flank. The Second Kentucky Infantry and a section of artillery under Captain Bragg, had previously been ordered from the right to reenforce our left, and arrived at a most opportune moment, The regiment and a portion of the First Il- linois, under Colonel Hardin, gallantly drove the enemy and recovered a portion of the ground we had lost. *
* I had placed all the regular cavalry and Captain Pike's squadron of Arkansas horse under the com- mand of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel May, with directions to hold in check the enemy's columns, still advancing to the rear along the base of the mountains, which was done in con- junction with the Kentucky and Arkansas cavalry under Colonels Marshall and Yell. * Before our cavalry had reached the hacienda, that of the enemy had made its at- tack, having been handsomely met by the Ken- tucky and Arkansas cavalry under Colonels Marshall and Yell. The Mexican column immediately divided, one portion sweeping by the depot where it received a destructive fire from the force which had collected there, and then gaining the mountain opposite, un- der a fire from Lieutenant Reynolds' section, the remaining portion regaining the base of the mountain on our left. In the charge at Buena Vista, Colonel Yell fell gallantly at the head of his regiment; we also lost Adju- tant Vaughn, of the First Kentucky Cavalry,
a young officer of much promise.
*
*
"In the meantime, the firing had partially ceased upon the principal field. The enemy seemed to confine his efforts to the protec- tion of his artillery, and I had left the plateau for a moment when I was recalled thither by a very heavy musketry fire. On regaining that position, I discovered that our infantry,
gaged a greatly superior force of the enemy, evidently his reserves, and they had been overwhelmed by numbers. The situation was most critical. Captain O'Brien with two pieces, had sustained this heavy charge to the last, and was finally obliged to leave his guns on the field, his infantry support being entire- ly routed. Captain Bragg, who had just ar- rived from the left, was ordered at once into battery. Without any infantry to support him and at the imminent risk of losing his guns, this officer came rapidly into action, the Mexican line being but a few yards from the muzzles of his pieces. The first discharge of canister caused the enemy to hesitate, the sec- ond and third drove him back in disorder and saved the day. (This Captain Bragg was later very widely known as General Braxton Bragg who, at the head of a Confederate army, came into Kentucky in 1862 and fought the battle of Perryville.) The Second Ken- tucky regiment which had advanced beyond supporting distance in this affair. was driven back and closely followed by the enemy's cav- alry. Taking a ravine which led in the direc- tion of Captain Washington's battery, their pursuers became exposed to his fire which
soon drove them back with loss. * In this last conflict we had the misfortune to sustain a very heavy loss. Colonel Hardin, first Illinois; Colonel McKee and Lieu- tenant Colonel Henry Clay, of the Second Kentucky regiments, fell at this time while gallantly holding their commands. (Colonel Hardin, though commanding a regiment of Illinois volunteers, was a native of Kentucky and a member of the noted family of that name in this state. )
"No further attempt was made by the ene- my to force our position and the approach of night gave an opportunity to pay proper at- tention to the wounded and also to refresh the soldiers, who had been exhausted by in- cessant watchfulness and combat. During
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the night the wounded were removed to Sal- tillo and every preparation made to receive the enemy should he again attack our position. Seven fresh companies were drawn from the
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MILITARY MONUMENT Erected in Kentucky A. D. 1850, in Frank- fort Cemetery. Around it is the "Bivouac of the Dead"
town and Brigadier General Marshall, who had made a forced march from the Rinconada with a reinforcement of Kentucky cavalry, and four heavy guns, under Captain Pren- tiss. First Artillery, was near at hand, when it was discovered that the enemy had aban- doned his position during the night. Our scouts soon ascertained that he had fallen
back on Agua Nueva. The great disparity of numbers and the exhaustion of our troops, rendered it inexpedient and hazardous to at- tempt pursuit. A staff officer was despatched to Santa Anna to negotiate an exchange of prisoners, which was satisfactorily completed on the following day. Our own dead were collected and buried and the Mexican wound- ed, of whom a large number had been left on the field, were removed to Saltillo and made as comfortable as circumstances would per- mit. * X-
"On the 27th, our troops resumed their for- mer camp at Agua Nueva, the enemy's rear- guard evacuating the place as we approached, leaving a considerable number of wounded. It was my intention to beat up his quarters at Encarnacion early the next morning, but upon examination, the weak condition of the cav- alry horses rendered it unadvisable to attempt so long a march without water. A command was finally despatched to Encarnacion on the Ist of March, under Colonel Belknap. Some two hundred wounded and about sixty Mexi- can soldiers were found there, the enemy hav- ing passed on in the direction of Matahuala, with greatly reduced numbers and suffering much from hunger. The dead and dying were strewn along the road and crowded the buildings of the haciendas.
"The American force engaged in the action of Buena Vista is shown by the reports to have been 334 officers and 4.425 men. exclu- sive of the small force left in and near Saltillo. Of this number, two squadrons of cavalry and three batteries of light artillery, making not more than four hundred and fifty-three men, composed the only force of regular
troops. The strength of the Mexican army is stated by General Santa Anna, in his sum- mons, to be twenty thousand, and that esti- mate is confirmed by all the information since obtained. Our loss is two hundred and sixty- seven killed, four hundred and fifty-six wounded and twenty-three missing. Of the
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numerous wounded, many did not require re- moval to the hospital and it is hoped that a comparatively small number will be perma- nently disabled. The Mexican loss in killed and wounded may be fairly estimated at fif- teen hundred and will probably reach two thousand. At least five hundred of the killed were left upon the battle-field. We have no means of ascertaining the number of desert- ers and dispersed men from their ranks, but it is known to be very great.
"Our loss has been especially severe in offi- cers, twenty-eight having been killed upon the field. *
* No loss falls more heavly upon the army in the field than that of Col- onels Hardin and McKee and Lieutenant Col- onel Clay. Possessing in a remarkable de- gree the confidence of their commands, and the last two having enjoyed the advantage of a military education, I had looked particularly to them for support in case we met the enemy. I need not say that their zeal in engaging the enemy and the cool and steadfast courage with which they maintained their positions during the day, fully realized my hopes and caused me to feel more sensibly their untimely loss.
"The Mississippi riflemen, under Colonel Jefferson Davis, were highly conspicuous for their gallantry and steadiness, and sustained throughout the engagement the reputation of veteran troops. Brought into action against immensely superior force, they maintained themselves for a long time unsupported and with a heavy loss, and held an important po- sition in the field until reinforced. * * The Kentucky cavalry, under Colonel Mar- shall, rendered good service dismounted, act- ing as light troops on our left, and afterwards with a portion of the Arkansas cavalry, in meeting and dispersing the column of cavalry at Buena Vista. The First and Second Illinois and the Second Kentucky regiments served immediately under my eye and I bear a will- ing testimony to their excellent conduct
throughout the day. The spirit with which the First Illinois and Second Kentucky en- gaged the enemy in the morning restored con- fidence to that part of the field, while the list of casualties will show how much these reg- iments suffered in sustaining the heavy charge Af- of the enemy in the afternoon. * ter the fall of the field officers of the First Illinois and Second Kentucky regiments, the command of the former devolved upon Lieu- tenant Colonel Weatherford; that of the latter upon Major Fry."
General Wm. O. Butler, of Kentucky, who had been appointed a major general of volunteers early in the war, was not present at Buena Vista because of painful wounds re- ceived in the affair of Monterey. In this battle another Kentuckian, Major Philip N. Barbour, of the Third United States Infantry, was killed. Among other Kentuckians then in the Army of the United States destined to high rank and distinction in later days was a young lieutenant, Simon Bolivar Buckner, not long from West Point. from which he had graduated but a few years before. He en- gaged in the war with Mexico as a second lieu- tenant of infantry and by promotions won by bravery in action, came back to the United States as a captain in the regular army.
It is claimed that of the troops who under General Taylor, won the battle of Buena Vista and sent General Santa Anna hurrying from the field, nineteen per cent were Ken- tuckians.
January 29, 1847, Major John P. Gaines, Captain Cassius M. Clay and thirty men of the First Kentucky Cavalry, were captured at Encarnacion, remaining in the hands of the enemy at Mexico City for several months.
It will be recalled that Captain John S. Will- iams' company of Kentuckians had been ac- cepted for service in Mexico by special order of the war department. This company was not engaged at Monterey nor at Buena Vista, as it had been ordered to the command of
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General Winfield Scott at Vera Cruz, with whom it took part in the movement against the City of Mexico. The enemy was first encountered at Cerro Gordo, to which point Santa Anna had proceeded after his disas- trous experience with General Taylor at Buena Vista. Cerro Gordo was a strong nat- ural position and the Mexican engineers had added to the difficulties of attack by the erec- tion of fortifications. In the initial attack upon this stronghold, General Pillow was in the advance, the post of honor being accorded to Colonel Haskell's Tennessee regiment, to which Captain Williams' company had been assigned. Twice the gallant assailants were driven back, but they were not to be denied and a third time, facing a hail of shot and shell, they advanced-halting not, faltering not until the works of the enemy were carried and the flag of the United States flaunted in the breeze where but a few moments before that of Mexico had waved defiance to the gal- lant invaders. Captain Williams and his Kentuckians, touching elbows with the brave sons of the Volunteer state, were in the fore- front of the battle and won the plaudits of all who noted their desperate courage. It was there, as has been before noted in this work, that Captain Williams won the sobriquet of "Cerro Gordo" which clung to him during all the succeeding years of his long life. As "Cerro Gordo" Williams, he led a brigade of cavalry in the Confederate army, and as "Cerro Gordo" Williams he sat in the senate of the United States from Kentucky. He was a gallant soldier and led men of like caliber over the hot plains of Mexico, and in other and later years, in the army of the Confed- eracy.
Professor N. S. Shaler of Harvard College, himself a Kentuckian and a former volunteer soldier in the Federal army, 1861-5, says in "The American Commonwealth :" "These battles of the Mexican war proved that the American militia, properly commanded, could
sustain a long series of attacks, or stand steadily under the heaviest fire from over- whelming numbers without becoming demor- alized by the many well-delivered blows which might strike their lines. Mexico became a training ground in the art and skill of military tactics of many men, both in the regular and volunteer service, who afterwards became dis- tinguished by their important parts in the Civil war. Many of these soldiers reappear in the subsequent civil and military history of the state, both on the Federal and Confed- erate sides. Here they received the training which gave them successful leadership. At the beginning of the Mexican war, there was no state in the Union where there had been for a generation a greater neglect of the mil- itary art on the part of her people. There remained from the military life of the old days but two elements of value to the soldier -an instinctive as well as a trained ability in the use of firearms, and a strong combative spirit. These proved of great efficiency. These troops were to be tried against a people who possessed a large degree of soldierly qualities. The Mexicans were hardy, brave and patient, and well-trained in the simpler art of war; their frequent internal struggles having given them recent and extensive ex- perience in military affairs. The experience proved that the Kentucky troops showed little of that intractable and insubordinate spirit, or unwillingness to submit to command, that marked their ancestors in 1812. The long training in civic life had finally subjugated the wilder impulses of insubordination that were the reproach of the pioneer soldier. There was no time to give these volunteers even a good camp training, and their officers were incompetent to the task. They fought as raw militia." And they likewise won.
Every one knows the result of the war with Mexico; how the American troops following victory after victory, finally marched into the City of Mexico and dictated terms of peace,
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which provided that the Rio Grande from its mouth westward towards the Pacific, should be the boundary line between the two coun- tries, thus giving in its entirety the splendid domain of Texas to the United States, as well as New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and California. In consideration of this vast acquisition of territory, the United States paid to Mexico, though the former had been the victor and therefore entitled to make terms the sum of fifteen million dollars. Those uninformed persons who consider the payment of twenty million dollars to Spain for the Philippine Islands, at the close of the war between the two countries, an anomaly in treaties between a victorious and a de- feated country, have perhaps never heard of the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, which gave to the United States a territory one-fourth as large as the then existing United States and for which it paid fifteen million dollars.
The conclusion of hostilities between the two countries has here been considered before its actual occurrence, since this work proposes to be a history of Kentucky rather than of the war with Mexico. But before that war had ended, the president had made a second call upon Kentucky for troops to the extent of two regiments. There was no more hesitancy in responding to this call than there had been to the first. Immediately two regiments were formed. The first one, numbered as the Third Kentucky Infantry, had for its field officers: Colonel, Manlius V. Thompson ; lieutenant colonel, Thomas L. Crittenden, and major. John C. Breckinridge. The Fourth regiment was commanded by Colonel John S. ("Cerro Gordo") Williams, Lieutenant Col- onel William Preston, and Major William T. Ward. These regiments, however, saw no active service, as peace was declared before they could reach the seat of war.
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