troubles at home to carry its Italian policy to extremes. The Polish
refugees at Paris had long determined to strike another blow for the
freedom of their country. It was arranged that the Polish provinces in
Austria and Prussia should rise and revolt, early during this year, and
extend the revolution to Russian Poland. But the Prussian Government
crushed the conspiracy before a blow was struck. In Austria the attempt was
more successful. Late in February insurrection broke out in the free city
of Cracow. General Collin occupied the city, but his forces proved too
weak. The Polish nobles around Tarnow in Northern Galicia raised the
standard of revolt. Some 40,000 Polish insurgents marched on Cracow. A
severe reverse was inflicted upon them by the government troops. Now the
peasants turned against the nobles, burning down the largest estates and
plunging the country into anarchy. The landowners, face to face with the
humiliating fact that their own tenants were their bitterest foes, charged
the Austrian Government with having instigated a communistic revolt. In a
circular note to the European courts, Metternich protested that the
outbreak of the Polish peasantry was purely spontaneous. A simultaneous
attempt at revolution in Silesia was ruthlessly put down. Austria, Russia
and Prussia now revoked the treaty of Vienna in regard to Poland. Cracow,
which had been recognized as an independent republic, was annexed by
Austria with the consent of Russia and Prussia, and against the protests of
England, France and Sweden. New measures of repression against Polish
national aspirations were taken in Russia. The last traces of Poland were
blotted from the map of nations. It was then that Tennyson wrote his famous
sonnet on Poland:
"How long, O God, shall men be ridden down,
And trampled under by the last and least
Of men? The heart of Poland hath not ceased
To quiver, tho' her sacred blood doth drown
The fields, and out of every smouldering town
Cries to Thee, lest brute Power be increased."
In Russia during this year Otto von Kotzebue, the great navigator and
Arctic explorer, died in his fifty-ninth year.
[Sidenote: Civil war in Portugal]
Almost simultaneously with the attempted revolution of Poland, another
revolt broke out in Portugal. On April 20, the northern provinces rose
against the Ministry of Costa Cabral, the Duke of Tomar. After desultory
fighting, the Duke of Plamella, one of the commanders of the constitutional
army, gave up the struggle. He resigned his post and was banished from the
country. Late in the year the Marquis of Saldanha, with a force of Pedro
loyalists, defeated Count Bonfinn at the Torres Vedras.
[Sidenote: Spanish princesses married]
In Spain, the long-pending diplomatic struggle over the Spanish marriages
culminated, on October 10, in the wedding of Queen Isabella to her cousin,
Don Francisco d'Assisi, Duke of Cadiz. Put forward by France, this prince
was physically unfit for marriage. Simultaneously with the Queen's wedding,
her sister was married to the Duke of Montpensier, the son of Louis
Philippe. Thus the King of France and his Minister, Guizot, had their way.
[Sidenote: Guizot's doubtful success]
Lord Palmerston's candidature of the Prince of Saxe-Coburg for Queen
Isabella's hand was foiled. It proved a doubtful success for France. The
_entente cordiale_ between France and Great Britain was broken. Guizot was
charged in the Chambers with sacrificing the most valuable foreign alliance
for the purely dynastic ambitions of the House of Orleans. Having cut loose
from England, Guizot now endeavored through his diplomatic envoys to form a
new concert of Europe from which England should be left out.
[Sidenote: Oregon treaty signed]
[Sidenote: Rae's Arctic explorations]
Great Britain's diplomatic dispute with America, concerning the
northwestern boundary, was satisfactorily settled by the Oregon treaty,
signed on June 15. Before this a peremptory demand had been put forward by
the American Congress that the joint occupation of Oregon should cease. The
British originally claimed all the territory west of the Rocky Mountains,
from Mexico to Alaska. For years the land was settled jointly. Now the
forty-ninth degree of northern latitude was accepted as the boundary
between British North America and the United States. The Columbia River was
retained by the United States, with free navigation conceded to English
ships, while the seaport of Vancouver, the importance of which was not as
yet recognized, fell to England. The value of this possession was soon
revealed. Agents of the British Hudson's Bay Company selected Victoria, on
the Island of Vancouver, as the most promising British port in the Pacific.
During this same year, Dr. John Rae, by sledge journeys of more than 1,200
miles, explored the northernmost region, Boothia, wherein was determined
the northern magnetic pole.
[Sidenote: Ether in surgery]
[Sidenote: Chloroform]
On October 16, Dr. J.C. Warren of Boston, to whom Drs. Wells and Morton had
communicated their discoveries with sulphuric ether, demonstrated the
potency of the drug in a public test. A severe operation was performed at
the Boston Hospital, in the presence of some of the foremost medical men of
the city, while the patient remained unconscious. The news was heralded
abroad and was received by medical men throughout the world as a new
revelation. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the famous physician and author,
named the new method "Anaesthesia." The credit of the new discovery was
claimed forthwith by several persons--notably by Dr. Charles T. Jackson of
Boston, and Dr. Crawford W. Long of Alabama. A few months after the value
of ether in surgery had come to be clearly recognized, a Scotch surgeon,
Sir J.V. Simpson, discovered that chloroform could be administered with
analogous effect.
[Sidenote: Mexican war begun]
[Sidenote: Mexican success]
[Sidenote: American reverse at Fort Brown]
[Sidenote: Palo Alto]
[Sidenote: Resaca de la Palma]
[Sidenote: Invasion of Mexico]
In the United States, during this period, the long-expected war with Mexico
was well under way. By a joint resolution of Congress, Texas had at last
been admitted into the Union. General Taylor took position in Texas,
opposite Matamoras on the Rio Grande, where the Mexican troops were
gathering. Taylor presently moved his troops to Point St. Isabel. There a
fleet of seven ships brought supplies. Leaving a part of his force there,
he marched to a point on the Rio Grande opposite Matamoras, where he built
Fort Brown, named after Major Brown, whom he left in command. The ground
was malarious, and many soldiers died of disease. On April 12, the Mexican
general, Ampudia, moved forward with a strong force to drive Taylor beyond
the Rio de la Nueces. Ampudia demanded that Taylor should withdraw within
twenty-four hours, but Taylor refused to leave what he claimed to be the
soil of the United States. Ampudia hesitated, and General Arista was
appointed in his place. Learning that two vessels with supplies for the
Mexicans were about to enter the Rio Grande, Taylor caused the river to be
blockaded, at the "cost of war." Arista prepared to attack Fort Brown, and
cut off communication between Taylor and his supplies. Captain Thornton's
command, sent out to reconnoitre, was captured on April 26. Only Thornton
escaped by leaping his horse over a dense hedge. On May 1, leaving Major
Brown in command at the fort, Taylor made a forced march to Point Isabel.
The Mexicans promptly sent men across the river to the rear of Fort Brown,
and opened fire together with the guns of Matamoras on that work. Major
Brown was first among the killed. Signal guns were fired to recall Taylor.
With 2,300 men he turned back on May 6. Meanwhile, 6,000 Mexicans had
arrived and taken up a strong position at Palo Alto. On the 8th, Taylor
assaulted the superior force confronting him. Two eighteen-pounders and two
light batteries made fearful havoc in the closed ranks of the Mexican
infantry. The prairie grass between the two armies took fire. Both lines
drew back, but soon renewed the fight. Taylor's left was met by cannonade,
but the Mexican column was overthrown and the entire force fell back to
Resaca de la Palma. The Americans took up their march to Fort Brown. When
within three miles of the fort they encountered the Mexicans, strongly
posted in Resaca de la Palma, a ravine three hundred feet wide bordered
with palmetto trees. Taylor deployed a portion of his force as skirmishers,
and a company of dragoons overrode the first Mexican battery. The
Americans then advanced their battery to the crest. A regiment charged in
column, and, joined by the skirmishers, seized the enemy's artillery. After
hard fighting in the chaparral, the Mexicans were put to flight. The
Mexicans lost one thousand men, the Americans conceded but one hundred.
Refusing an armistice, Taylor crossed the river on May 18, and unfurled the
Stars and Stripes on Mexican territory. Another attempted stand of the
Mexicans resulted in worse defeat. Arista's retreat became a rout. Of 7,000
men he brought only 2,500 to Linares. The American troops occupied
Matamoras, Reinosa and Camargo. The three States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila
and Nuevo Leon were annexed to the territory of the Rio Grande. In the
interior of Mexico a revolution broke out. General Paredes was made
President.
[Sidenote: Kearney annexes New Mexico]
[Sidenote: Fremont in California]
In July, Colonel Philip Kearney, with an American force, marched unopposed
from the Arkansas River and took possession of Santa Fe. On August 1, he
annexed the State of New Mexico as a Territory of the United States. In
May, Captain John C. Fremont, in charge of an exploring expedition in the
South, received a message from Secretary of State Buchanan and Senator
Benton, whose daughter he had married, suggesting that he should remain in
California. Fremont took the hint and returned to Sacramento. There he
learned that the Mexican commander was about to take the offensive. He at
once assumed command of the American forces, and on June 15 captured
Sonoma. Meanwhile Commodores Sloat and Stockton took possession of the
coast towns as far as Los Angeles, and, on August 13, held Monterey, the
capital of California. Fremont set up a provisional government, placing
himself at the head. In the meantime, the United States had sent a company
of artillery, which took two hundred days in making the journey around the
Horn. Among its members were three future heroes of the American Civil
War--Lieutenants Sherman, Halleck and Ord.
[Sidenote: Tardy declaration of war]
The news of these events did not reach Washington until after Congress had
declared war on April 26, authorized a call for 50,000 volunteers, and made
an appropriation of $10,000,000. Three hundred thousand volunteers
responded. Of these some 75,000 were enrolled with the regular army of
40,000. President Polk, on May 11, sent to Congress an aggressive measure,
announcing that war existed by the act of Mexico. On May 23, Mexico made
her formal declaration of war. General Taylor, with the army of occupation,
was ordered to seize and hold points on the Rio Grande.
[Sidenote: Assault of Monterey]
[Sidenote: Hoffman's stanzas]
[Sidenote: Long armistice]
General Taylor waited at Matamoras until September 19, when, having been
joined by General Worth, he encamped with 6,000 men within three miles of
Monterey, a strongly fortified place, ninety miles distant from Matamoras.
On the north, Monterey was protected by a strong citadel, with lunettes on
the east, and by two fortified hills on either side of the river just above
the town. Worth's division planted itself above the city on the Mexican
line of retreat. Garland's brigade, advancing between the citadel and the
first lunette, reached the city with heavy loss. After three companies had
failed to move to Garland's support, two other companies passed to the rear
of the citadel and compelled the Mexicans to abandon that point. An attempt
on the second lunette failed with heavy loss to the Americans. The next
morning Worth endeavored to capture the fortified eminence south of the
river. The Americans advanced in the face of a plunging artillery fire. A
host of skirmishers clambered over the parapet and turned its guns on the
fleeing Mexicans, and, with two supporting regiments moving along the
slope, drove the Mexicans out of Fort Saldado. At daybreak the hill on the
north side of the river was carried. These positions commanded the western
half of the city. On the morning of the 23d, the American troops fought
their way in, but were driven out again. Worth's men then pushed into the
town from the west, and finding the streets swept by artillery, broke into
the houses. On the next morning, September 24, Ampudia capitulated. The
capture of Monterey inspired the American poet, Charles F. Hoffman, to a
song modelled after the famous St. Crispin's Day speech in Shakespeare's
"King Henry V.":
We were not many--we who stood
Before the iron sleet that day;
Yet many a gallant spirit would
Give half his years if he but could
Have been with us at Monterey.
Our banners on those turrets wave,
And there our evening bugles play;
Where orange-boughs above their grave
Keep green the memory of the brave
Who fought and fell at Monterey.
An armistice of eight weeks was agreed upon. The armistice was disapproved
by the American Secretary of War, and, in November, General Scott was
ordered to take command and conduct the war on his own plans.
[Sidenote: Revolution in Mexico]
In Mexico, General Paredes, who favored the restoration of monarchical
rule, was opposed by General Alvarez in the south. When Paredes left the
capital to go to the front, revolution broke out behind him. Don Mariano
Solas, the commandant of the City of Mexico, summoned to his aid General
Santa Anna. On his arrival this popular general, but recently banished from
the capital, was hailed as the saviour of his country and was invested with
the supreme military command. Paredes went into exile. Santa Anna, after
inexplicable delay, raised war funds to the amount of six million dollars,
and advanced toward San Luis Potosi. There the "Napoleon of the West," as
they called him in Mexico, wasted more precious months.
[Sidenote: Howe's sewing machine]
[Sidenote: Iowa becomes a State]
On the American side, too, little was done. On August 8, the Wilmot Proviso
was considered. It was a proviso to the $2,000,000 bill asked by the
President to arrange peace with Mexico, and it declared it to be "an
express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from
Mexico, that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist
therein." August 10 the proviso came up for final passage, but John Davis
of Massachusetts, in order to defeat action on the bill, held the floor
till the session expired. Congress adjourned on that day. Great agitation
prevailed in the North over the defeat of this proviso. The Democrats lost
their majority in the Twenty-ninth Congress, owing to the new tariff and
the predominance of pro-slavery issues in the war. Polk had but 110 votes
against 118 when the new Congress met. Now the new tariff went into effect.
Howe, the American inventor, secured a patent for an improvement in
sewing-machines, which embodied the main features of the machine used at
present; to wit, a grooved needle provided with an eye near its point, a
shuttle operating on the side of the cloth opposite the needle to form a
lockstitch, and an automatic feed. On December 28, Iowa was admitted to the
Union as the twenty-ninth State.
1847
[Sidenote: Santa Anna's advance]
[Sidenote: Buena Vista]
General Winfield Scott reached the harbor of Vera Cruz in January, and
assumed command of all the American forces. He took with him the best
officers and troops on the field of action, and left Taylor with only 5,200
men, most of whom were volunteers. Santa Anna, who had gathered 12,000 men
eager to be led against the Americans, was approaching Saltillo. Leaving
Monterey on January 31, Taylor reached Saltillo on February 2, and passed
on to Aqua Nueva, twenty miles south of Saltillo, where he remained three
weeks. Thence he fell back to a mountain gorge opposite Buena Vista. On
February 22, his troops and those of Santa Anna were within sight of each
other. Under a flag of truce, Santa Anna demanded Taylor's surrender, which
was refused. The famous battleground, taking its name from the estate of
Buena Vista, is a rugged valley from two to five miles wide, between rocky
walls a thousand feet high. The slopes on either side are cut by deep
ravines. Taylor placed his forces in groups on the crests of the bluffs, at
the base of the eastern mountain, and in the southern edge of the plateau.
The Mexican troops attempted to flank his position, but were driven off.
The Mexican cavalry were sent to Taylor's rear to intercept the American
retreat, but they were beaten back after a fierce hand-to-hand fight, led
by Taylor himself. Santa Anna made his first attack in three columns. Two
of these combined and turned the American left. The third, thrown against
the American right, was forced to retreat, the Americans having formed a
new front. Again the Mexicans sought to gain Taylor's rear, but with two
regiments supported by artillery and dragoons, the American commander drove
them back, firing into their heavy mass.
[Sidenote: Taylor's order to Bragg]
[Sidenote: Conflicting claims of victory]
At one point in the engagement, an Indiana regiment, through a mistaken
order, gave way, thereby placing the American army in peril. But the
Mississippians and the Kentuckians threw themselves forward; the Indiana
troops rallied, and the Mexicans were repulsed. General Taylor, standing
near Captain Bragg's battery, saw signs of wavering in the enemy's line.
"Give them a little more grape, Captain Bragg," he exclaimed--a command
which was repeated all over the United States during the political campaign
two years later. The Mexican column broke, and Taylor drove it up the slope
of the eastern mountain. By means of a false flag of truce the endangered
wing, however, escaped. Santa Anna, forming his whole force into one
column, advanced. The Americans fell back, holding only the northwest
corner of the plateau. When morning broke, the enemy had disappeared. The
Mexican loss was 2,000, that of the Americans 746. Henry Clay, a son of the
Kentucky statesman, as he lay wounded, was despatched by a Mexican
vacquero. Colonel Jefferson Davis commanded with distinction a regiment of
Mississippi riflemen. Buena Vista was Taylor's last battle. Its fame was
heralded throughout America. Both sides claimed the victory. The Mexicans
chanted Te Deums. In the United States the poet Kifer sang:
From the Rio Grande's waters to the icy lakes of Maine,
Let us all exult! for we have met the enemy again.
Beneath their stern old mountains we have met them in their pride,
And rolled from Buena Vista back the battle's bloody tide;
Where the enemy came surging swift, like the Mississippi's flood,
And the reaper, Death, with strong arms swung his sickle red with blood.
After the battle of Buena Vista, General Taylor returned to the United
States, his task finished. The exploit shed such lustre on his name that he
was soon regarded as the fittest candidate for the Presidency.
[Sidenote: San Juan d'Ulloa captured]
[Sidenote: Battle of Cerro Gordo]
[Sidenote: American advance into Mexico]
In March, Scott's army of 12,000 landed at Vera Cruz. After four days'
bombardment by land and water, the city and castle of San Juan d'Ulloa
surrendered. General Worth was left in command at Vera Cruz, and Scott
started on his march to the City of Mexico, two hundred miles away. Santa
Anna, with the flower of his army, awaited him in the strong position of
Cerro Gordo, fifty miles northwest. General Twiggs turned the Mexican left
flank. On the following morning, April 18, the Americans attacked in three
columns. Pellow advanced against the Mexican right, where three hills at an
angle in the road were crowned with batteries. Shields' division, climbing
by a pass, fell upon Santa Anna's right and rear. Twiggs and Worth,
bearing to the right, covered the El Telegrafo Hill, and attacked the
height of Cerro Gordo, where Santa Anna commanded in person. Carrying this
position, they turned its guns on the retreating Mexicans. Caught between
the columns of Pellow, Twiggs and Worth, Santa Anna's forces surrendered.
The American troops thus gained the national road to the capital of Mexico.
They had made 3,000 prisoners and taken forty-three cannon, with $22,000 in
silver and immense munitions of war. They lost, at Cerro Gordo, 481 killed
and wounded; the Mexican loss was 2,000. Jalapa was occupied on April 19,
and on the 22d the American flag waved above the Castle of Perote, fifty
miles beyond. Puebla, containing 80,000 inhabitants, was occupied without
opposition on May 15. On account of the sufferings of the men in the hot
climate, General Scott rested at Puebla for several months.
[Sidenote: Doniphan's exploit]
The authority of the United States was established on the Pacific Coast,
after a final defeat of the Mexicans at San Gabriel. Colonel Doniphan of
Kearney's command, having been left in charge in New Mexico, compelled the
Navajo Indians to enter into a treaty of peace, after which he set out with
1,000 Missourians to join General Wool. At Bracto, a Mexican commander with
a superior force sent a black flag demanding his surrender. On refusal of
this summons notice was given that no quarter should be granted. The
Mexicans then advanced firing; the Americans lying down to escape the
bullets. Cheering, the Mexicans ran forward, when suddenly Doniphan's
command rose and fired, killing more than 200 Mexicans. The rest turned and
fled. Near the capital of Chihuahua, Doniphan, after a sharp encounter,
dispersed 4,000 Mexicans. The Stars and Stripes were raised above the
citadel. In May, Doniphan rejoined Wool at Saltillo. Then followed a long
lull in the Mexican campaign.
[Sidenote: Slavery controversy revived]
The question concerning the power of the American Congress to legislate on
slavery again came up in connection with the bill for the establishment of
the Oregon Territorial government. In February Calhoun had introduced his
new slavery resolution, declaring the Territories to be the common property
of all the States, and denying the right and power of Congress to prohibit
slavery in any Territory. Thus began the agitation which led to the
abrogation of the Missouri Compromise. By the terms of an amendment offered
for the extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean,
slavery was to be excluded from all future territory in the West. This
amendment was lost, but the bill passed with another, incorporating the
anti-slavery clause of the ordinance of 1787. Calhoun declared that the
exclusion of slavery from any Territory was a subversion of the Union, and
proclaimed "the separation of the Northern and Southern States complete."
[Sidenote: John Franklin's career]
[Sidenote: Long overland journey]
[Sidenote: The Northwest Passage]