Although General Winfield Scott was nicknamed by the soldiers “Old
Fuss and Feathers,” they intended no disrespect. On the contrary, they
loved him, and asked only that he lead them. No general ever lived who
was more popular with the men in the ranks. They had every kind of
confidence in him; they knew that “Old Fuss and Feathers” would look
out for them like a father, and would take them through.
His arrival, all in his showy uniform, upon his splendid horse, along
the lines, was the signal for cheers and for the bands to strike up
“Hail to the Chief.” At bloody Chapultepec the soldiers crowded around
him and even clasped his knees, so fond they were of him. And when he
addressed them, tears were in his eyes.
General Scott was close to six feet six inches in height, and massively
built. He was the tallest officer in the army. His left arm was
partially useless, by reason of two wounds received in the War of 1812,
but in full uniform he made a gallant sight indeed. He never omitted
any detail of the uniform, because he felt that the proper uniform was
required for discipline. He brooked no unnecessary slouchiness among
officers and men; he insisted upon regulations and hard drilling, and
the troops that he commanded were as fine an army as ever followed the
Flag.
While he was strict in discipline, he looked keenly also after the
comforts and privileges of his soldiers. He realized that unless the
soldier in the ranks is well cared for in garrison and camp he will not
do his best in the field, and that victories are won by the men who are
physically and mentally fit. He did not succeed in doing away with the
old practice of punishment by blows and by “bucking and gagging,” but
he tried; and toward the ill and the wounded he was all tenderness.
As a tactician he stands high. His mind worked with accuracy. He drew
up every movement for every column, after his engineers had surveyed
the field; then he depended upon his officers to follow out the plans.
His general orders for the battle of Cerro Gordo are cited to-day as
model orders. Each movement took place exactly as he had instructed,
and each movement brought the result that he had expected; so that
after the battle the orders stood as a complete story of the fight.
His character was noble and generous. He had certain peculiar ways――he
spoke of himself as “Scott” and like Sam Houston he used exalted
language; he was proud and sensitive, but forgiving and quick to
praise. He prized his country above everything else, and preferred
peace, with honor, to war. Although he was a soldier, such was his
justice and firmness and good sense that he was frequently sent by the
Government to make peace without force of arms, along the United States
borders. He alone it was who several times averted war with another
nation.
General Scott should not be remembered mainly for his battles won.
He was the first man of prominence in his time to speak out against
drunkenness in the army and in civil life. He prepared the first army
regulations and the first infantry tactics. He was the first great
commander to enforce martial law in conquered territory, by which the
conquered people were protected from abuse. He procured the passage
of that bill, in 1838, which awarded to all officers, except general
officers like himself, an increase in rations allowance for every
five years of service. The money procured from Mexico was employed by
him in buying blankets and shoes for his soldiers and in helping the
discharged hospital patients; and $118,000 was forwarded to Washington,
to establish an Army Asylum for disabled enlisted men. From this fund
there resulted the present system of Soldiers’ Homes.
The Mexican War itself was not a popular war, among Americans, many
of whom felt that it might have been avoided. Lives and money were
expended needlessly. Of course Mexico had been badgering the United
States; American citizens had been mistreated and could obtain no
justice. But the United States troops really invaded when they crossed
into southwestern Texas, for Mexico had her rights there.
The war, though, brought glory to the American soldier. In the
beginning the standing army of the United States numbered only about
eight thousand officers and men, but it was so finely organized and
drilled that regiment for regiment it equalled any army in the world.
The militia of the States could not be depended upon to enter a foreign
country; they had to be called upon as volunteers. Mexico was prepared
with thirty thousand men under arms; her Regulars were well trained,
and her regular army was much larger than the army of the United States.
When General Zachary Taylor, “Old Rough and Ready,” advanced with his
three thousand five hundred Regulars (almost half the United States
army) for the banks of the Rio Grande River, he braved a Mexican army
of eight thousand, better equipped than he was, except in _men_.
A military maxim says that morale is worth three men. All through the
war it was skill and spirit and not numbers that counted; quality
proved greater than quantity. “Old Zach,” with seventeen hundred
Regulars, beat six thousand Mexican troops at Resaca de la Palma. At
Buena Vista his four thousand Volunteers and only four hundred and
fifty or five hundred Regulars repulsed twenty thousand of the best
troops of Mexico. General Scott reached the City of Mexico with six
thousand men who, fighting five battles in one day, had defeated thirty
thousand. Rarely has the American soldier, both Regular and Volunteer,
so shone as in that war with Mexico, when the enemy outnumbered three
and four to one, and chose his own positions.
The battles were fought with flint-lock muskets, loaded by means of a
paper cartridge, from which the powder and ball were poured into the
muzzle of the piece. The American dragoons were better mounted than the
Mexican lancers, and charged harder. The artillery was the best to be
had and was splendidly served on both sides, but the American guns were
the faster in action.
Thoroughly trained officers and men who had confidence in each other
and did not know when they were beaten, won the war. Many of the most
famous soldiers in American history had their try-out in Mexico, where
Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan were young engineers, U. S.
Grant was a second lieutenant, and Jefferson Davis led the Mississippi
Volunteers. The majority of the regular officers were West Pointers.
General Scott declared that but for the military education afforded by
the Academy the war probably would have lasted four or five years, with
more defeats than victories, at first.
Thus the Mexican War, like the recent World War, proved the value of
officers and men trained to the highest notch of efficiency.
In killed and wounded the war with Mexico cost the United States
forty-eight hundred men; but the deaths from disease were twelve
thousand, for the recruits and the Volunteers were not made to take
care of themselves. In addition, nearly ten thousand soldiers were
discharged on account of ruined health. All in all the cost of the war,
in citizens, footed twenty-five thousand. The expense in money was
about $130,000,000.
By the war the United States acquired practically all the country west
from northern Texas to the Pacific Ocean, which means California,
Utah, Nevada, the western half of Colorado and most of New Mexico and
Arizona. This, it must be said, was an amazing result, for in the
outset we had claimed only Texas, as far as the Rio Grande River.