by many acts of daring bravery.
Amongst others, we find mention of the feat
performed by a Captain Walker. The Americans
were in total ignorance of the movements of
the enemy, when they heard cannonading in
the direction of a fort with which they had
been unable to keep open communications.
Taylor dispatched a squadron of cavalry, who
returned without definite information, and the
General was in suspense as to the condition
of his friends in the fort, when Captain Walker
arrived in the camp bearing dispatches from
the leader of the beleaguered party in Fort
Brown. He had left the small stronghold
under the cover of night, and with no other
guide than the wind on his cheek had tracked
his way through the enemy's camp, and through
the wild, roadless country that lay between it
and the army of General Taylor. He brought
the news that the Mexicans had attacked Fort
Brown, opening upon it a heavy cannonade.
The besieged had, however, returned the fire
with spirit, and had succeeded in dismounting
some of the Mexican guns. General Taylor
at once set off to raise the siege, taking with
him two thousand three hundred men. With
this force he encountered the enemy at Palo
Alta, and the battle so named was fought.
For five hours was the strife continued, when
the attacking party carried the day. The
Mexicans fell back.

On the next morning another engagement
took place with the same result. The Mexicans
lost a thousand men; some cannon; and had
one of their generals taken prisoner;—and
Fort Brown was relieved.

The war had thus commenced. The
Mexicans loudly denounced what they called
the dismemberment of their empire; the
Americans heard with evident joy that their
small army had won two battles of an enemy
who had provoked the encounter.

President Polk (the history of whose
administration, by L. B. Chase, affords us some
of these particulars) was, after much debate,
authorised to call into the field volunteers, "to
serve for a year or during the war." Double
the number asked-for soon offered themselves,
and General Taylor found himself at the head
of a force comparatively undisciplined but
eager to advance, and equal to almost any
amount of endurance in the prosecution of
the enterprise on hand. The temper of the
new levies was soon tried. The fight at
Monterey was a repetition, on a larger scale,
of the scenes and successes near Fort Brown.
The Americans attacked and put to flight an
enemy four times as numerous as the attacking
force. The Mexicans seemed to think their
invaders invincible; victory for the American
flag was the result of each encounter, and
before long General Taylor had a greater
extent of country in his possession than the
whole force under his command could well
grasp with security. At this juncture General
Scott, who for some time before this war
began, had been Commander-in-Chief of the
American Army, finding that great renown
was being won by his junior officer, wrote
from New York to General Taylor to state
his intention of taking command in Mexico,
and leading forward an additional force in
advance of the positions conquered and
held by Taylor. General Scott decided
upon attacking Vera Cruz, and Taylor, being
ordered to act on the defensive, complained
bitterly when he found that Scott was to
withdraw from his command all the regular
troops he had, with the exception of one
thousand men, leaving him to defend his
position chiefly with volunteers, and these in
deficient force. The military law of obedience
to orders, however, left no choice, and though
stating his belief in the weakness of his army
he declined to fall back, urging the bad effect
such a step must have on the minds of his
new levies. He enjoyed the prestige of
successive victories, and by supporting that alone
could he hope to maintain his small force
against an enemy so largely outnumbering him.

About twelve thousand Americans had
marched under Scott against Vera Cruz;
about five thousand mustered under the flag
of Taylor, when the news came that Santa
Anna, with an army of twenty thousand
strong, was marching upon the scattered and
weakened forces of the smallest of the two
American armies. Scott was too far on his
way towards the sea coast to march to the
rescue of Taylor, and the latter was left to do
his best alone. On the morning of the
23rd of February, 1847, the unequal battle
began. General Taylor had secured for his
five thousand men a strong position at Buena
Vista, in which the artillery of his antagonist
could not readily be brought into play.
When Santa Anna approached with twenty
thousand men, he sent a message to Taylor to
surrender at discretion; a request which the
American chieftain abruptly declined, and
the fight began. The contest was long and
doubtful. The disparity of numbers was soon
felt, and the feeling that all depended on
their valour nerved the attacked party to
greater desperation in their defence. Less
than five hundred of Taylor's men were
regular troops; more than four thousand of
them, but a few months before, were at work
in the fields, and on wharfs, and in warehouses
in the States. But volunteers though they
were, no veterans could have done more.
About seven hundred of them fell, killed and
wounded, but night, which stayed the battle,
saw the Mexicans in retreat before a force over
which, in the morning, they expected a rapid
and easy victory. The gallantry of the Anglo-
Saxons prevailed over the numbers of their
semi-Spanish antagonists, and Santa Anna
retreated with an army weakened by the loss
of nearly two thousand killed and wounded.
"Along the road leading from Buena Vista
to Agua Nueva (says Mr. Chase), a scene of
horror was presented on the night of the
23rd of February. The means of transporting