Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete
one small steamer to transport troops and baggage when the 4th infantry
arrived. Others were procured later. The distance from Shell Island to
Corpus Christi was some sixteen or eighteen miles. The channel to the
bay was so shallow that the steamer, small as it was, had to be dragged
over the bottom when loaded. Not more than one trip a day could be
effected. Later this was remedied, by deepening the channel and
increasing the number of vessels suitable to its navigation.
Corpus Christi is near the head of the bay of the same name, formed by
the entrance of the Nueces River into tide-water, and is on the west
bank of that bay. At the time of its first occupancy by United States
troops there was a small Mexican hamlet there, containing probably less
than one hundred souls. There was, in addition, a small American trading
post, at which goods were sold to Mexican smugglers. All goods were put
up in compact packages of about one hundred pounds each, suitable for
loading on pack mules. Two of these packages made a load for an
ordinary Mexican mule, and three for the larger ones. The bulk of the
trade was in leaf tobacco, and domestic cotton-cloths and calicoes. The
Mexicans had, before the arrival of the army, but little to offer in
exchange except silver. The trade in tobacco was enormous, considering
the population to be supplied. Almost every Mexican above the age of
ten years, and many much younger, smoked the cigarette. Nearly every
Mexican carried a pouch of leaf tobacco, powdered by rolling in the
hands, and a roll of corn husks to make wrappers. The cigarettes were
made by the smokers as they used them.
Up to the time of which I write, and for years afterwards--I think until
the administration of President Juarez--the cultivation, manufacture and
sale of tobacco constituted a government monopoly, and paid the bulk of
the revenue collected from internal sources. The price was enormously
high, and made successful smuggling very profitable. The difficulty of
obtaining tobacco is probably the reason why everybody, male and female,
used it at that time. I know from my own experience that when I was at
West Point, the fact that tobacco, in every form, was prohibited, and
the mere possession of the weed severely punished, made the majority of
the cadets, myself included, try to acquire the habit of using it. I
failed utterly at the time and for many years afterward; but the
majority accomplished the object of their youthful ambition.
Under Spanish rule Mexico was prohibited from producing anything that
the mother-country could supply. This rule excluded the cultivation of
the grape, olive and many other articles to which the soil and climate
were well adapted. The country was governed for "revenue only;" and
tobacco, which cannot be raised in Spain, but is indigenous to Mexico,
offered a fine instrumentality for securing this prime object of
government. The native population had been in the habit of using "the
weed" from a period, back of any recorded history of this continent.
Bad habits--if not restrained by law or public opinion--spread more
rapidly and universally than good ones, and the Spanish colonists
adopted the use of tobacco almost as generally as the natives. Spain,
therefore, in order to secure the largest revenue from this source,
prohibited the cultivation, except in specified localities--and in these
places farmed out the privilege at a very high price. The tobacco when
raised could only be sold to the government, and the price to the
consumer was limited only by the avarice of the authorities, and the
capacity of the people to pay.
All laws for the government of the country were enacted in Spain, and
the officers for their execution were appointed by the Crown, and sent
out to the New El Dorado. The Mexicans had been brought up ignorant of
how to legislate or how to rule. When they gained their independence,
after many years of war, it was the most natural thing in the world that
they should adopt as their own the laws then in existence. The only
change was, that Mexico became her own executor of the laws and the
recipient of the revenues. The tobacco tax, yielding so large a revenue
under the law as it stood, was one of the last, if not the very last, of
the obnoxious imposts to be repealed. Now, the citizens are allowed to
cultivate any crops the soil will yield. Tobacco is cheap, and every
quality can be produced. Its use is by no means so general as when I
first visited the country.
Gradually the "Army of Occupation" assembled at Corpus Christi. When it
was all together it consisted of seven companies of the 2d regiment of
dragoons, four companies of light artillery, five regiments of infantry
--the 3d, 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th--and one regiment of artillery acting as
infantry--not more than three thousand men in all. General Zachary
Taylor commanded the whole. There were troops enough in one body to
establish a drill and discipline sufficient to fit men and officers for
all they were capable of in case of battle. The rank and file were
composed of men who had enlisted in time of peace, to serve for seven
dollars a month, and were necessarily inferior as material to the
average volunteers enlisted later in the war expressly to fight, and
also to the volunteers in the war for the preservation of the Union.
The men engaged in the Mexican war were brave, and the officers of the
regular army, from highest to lowest, were educated in their profession.
A more efficient army for its number and armament, I do not believe ever
fought a battle than the one commanded by General Taylor in his first
two engagements on Mexican--or Texan soil.
The presence of United States troops on the edge of the disputed
territory furthest from the Mexican settlements, was not sufficient to
provoke hostilities. We were sent to provoke a fight, but it was
essential that Mexico should commence it. It was very doubtful whether
Congress would declare war; but if Mexico should attack our troops, the
Executive could announce, "Whereas, war exists by the acts of, etc.,"
and prosecute the contest with vigor. Once initiated there were but few
public men who would have the courage to oppose it. Experience proves
that the man who obstructs a war in which his nation is engaged, no
matter whether right or wrong, occupies no enviable place in life or
history. Better for him, individually, to advocate "war, pestilence,
and famine," than to act as obstructionist to a war already begun. The
history of the defeated rebel will be honorable hereafter, compared with
that of the Northern man who aided him by conspiring against his
government while protected by it. The most favorable posthumous history
the stay-at-home traitor can hope for is--oblivion.
Mexico showing no willingness to come to the Nueces to drive the
invaders from her soil, it became necessary for the "invaders" to
approach to within a convenient distance to be struck. Accordingly,
preparations were begun for moving the army to the Rio Grande, to a
point near Matamoras. It was desirable to occupy a position near the
largest centre of population possible to reach, without absolutely
invading territory to which we set up no claim whatever.
The distance from Corpus Christi to Matamoras is about one hundred and
fifty miles. The country does not abound in fresh water, and the length
of the marches had to be regulated by the distance between water
supplies. Besides the streams, there were occasional pools, filled
during the rainy season, some probably made by the traders, who
travelled constantly between Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande, and some
by the buffalo. There was not at that time a single habitation,
cultivated field, or herd of domestic animals, between Corpus Christi
and Matamoras. It was necessary, therefore, to have a wagon train
sufficiently large to transport the camp and garrison equipage,
officers' baggage, rations for the army, and part rations of grain for
the artillery horses and all the animals taken from the north, where
they had been accustomed to having their forage furnished them. The
army was but indifferently supplied with transportation. Wagons and
harness could easily be supplied from the north but mules and horses
could not so readily be brought. The American traders and Mexican
smugglers came to the relief. Contracts were made for mules at from
eight to eleven dollars each. The smugglers furnished the animals, and
took their pay in goods of the description before mentioned. I doubt
whether the Mexicans received in value from the traders five dollars per
head for the animals they furnished, and still more, whether they paid
anything but their own time in procuring them. Such is trade; such is
war. The government paid in hard cash to the contractor the stipulated
price.
Between the Rio Grande and the Nueces there was at that time a large
band of wild horses feeding; as numerous, probably, as the band of
buffalo roaming further north was before its rapid extermination
commenced. The Mexicans used to capture these in large numbers and
bring them into the American settlements and sell them. A picked animal
could be purchased at from eight to twelve dollars, but taken at
wholesale, they could be bought for thirty-six dollars a dozen. Some of
these were purchased for the army, and answered a most useful purpose.
The horses were generally very strong, formed much like the Norman
horse, and with very heavy manes and tails. A number of officers
supplied themselves with these, and they generally rendered as useful
service as the northern animal; in fact they were much better when
grazing was the only means of supplying forage.
There was no need for haste, and some months were consumed in the
necessary preparations for a move. In the meantime the army was engaged
in all the duties pertaining to the officer and the soldier. Twice,
that I remember, small trains were sent from Corpus Christi, with
cavalry escorts, to San Antonio and Austin, with paymasters and funds to
pay off small detachments of troops stationed at those places. General
Taylor encouraged officers to accompany these expeditions. I
accompanied one of them in December, 1845. The distance from Corpus
Christi to San Antonio was then computed at one hundred and fifty miles.
Now that roads exist it is probably less. From San Antonio to Austin we
computed the distance at one hundred and ten miles, and from the latter
place back to Corpus Christi at over two hundred miles. I know the
distance now from San Antonio to Austin is but little over eighty miles,
so that our computation was probably too high.
There was not at the time an individual living between Corpus Christi
and San Antonio until within about thirty miles of the latter point,
where there were a few scattering Mexican settlements along the San
Antonio River. The people in at least one of these hamlets lived
underground for protection against the Indians. The country abounded in
game, such as deer and antelope, with abundance of wild turkeys along
the streams and where there were nut-bearing woods. On the Nueces,
about twenty-five miles up from Corpus Christi, were a few log cabins,
the remains of a town called San Patricio, but the inhabitants had all
been massacred by the Indians, or driven away.
San Antonio was about equally divided in population between Americans
and Mexicans. From there to Austin there was not a single residence
except at New Braunfels, on the Guadalupe River. At that point was a
settlement of Germans who had only that year come into the State. At
all events they were living in small huts, about such as soldiers would
hastily construct for temporary occupation. From Austin to Corpus