The twelve months volunteers were meanwhile being enlisted and organized, and at the end of a year many of them reenlisted for the war. Under the act of February, 1847, thirty volunteer regiments were organized for the war." They were principally from the West and South, the call apparently not being in proportion to population. Massachusetts furnished only one regiment, and the other New England States none at all; New York and Pennsylvania two each, and the same from Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky, while Tennessee furnished three. The practice which has prevailed in subsequent wars of allowing regular officers to accept higher rank in the volunteers, was not permitted. The young officers remained with their regular commands and received no promotion except by seniority; Grant, for instance, came out of the war with the same rank he had at the beginning-Second Lieutenant - although he had been in nearly every battle and greatly distinguished him-. self.

was defeated in 1852, and Pierce who was elected the same year. The service of the latter was creditable, although not conspicuous. He had never been in the army but was appointed Colonel of one of the new regular regiments authorized in 1847, was soon promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General and joined Scott at Puebla, serving during the rest of the cam

On the other hand, officers who had resigned from the service came back with high rank, A. S. Johnston as colonel of a Texas regiment, and Jefferson Davis as colonel of one from Mississippi.

The army reached its maximum strength in the autumn of 1847, after Scott had captured the City of Mexico. The regular army then consisted of 1,373 officers and 20,333 men, and the volunteers of 1,437 officers and 27,452 men. About 32,000 were with Scott, 11,000 with Taylor, 3,000 in New Mexico, 1,000 in California, and only 1,381 at the home stations. The total enlistments during the war were 101,280, nearly three-fourths of which were volunteers. The total losses were 1,557 killed and 3,420 wounded, two-thirds of which were in the regulars.

The only blot upon the war was the jealousy between the principal generals, due to political reasons. The war produced three Presidential candidates: Taylor who was elected in 1848, Scott who

paign in command of a brigade. Scott's name had already been before the convention of 1839 when Harrison was nominated. He was a pronounced Whig. Taylor was a Whig in sentiment, but not active in politics and without political ambition at the outbreak of the war. Scott requested, in May, 1846, that he be sent to command the principal army against Mexico; his request was not granted. In September, 1846, he applied for the command of the army on the Rio Grande, and was curtly informed that the President had no intention of superseding General Taylor. It was manifest that the Administration did not wish to build up the military reputation of a political opponent. Taylor, being

unknown in politics, having an excellent military reputation, and being stationed close to Texas, was selected for the command and continued in it until after the battle of Monterey. He had then acquired so much reputation that his name was constantly mentioned in connection with the Presidency. The Administration. then turned to Scott, and in November directed him to proceed to the Gulf, organize his expedition for the Vera Cruz route according to the plan which he had submitted in the previous spring, but which had then been disapproved, and to take from Taylor such part of his army, either regular or volunteer, as he thought proper. As soon as Scott had sailed the Administration tried to pass a measure creating the grade of Lieutenant-General, with the intention of appointing Thomas H. Benton and sending him out to supersede Scott, but this failed in Congress. It did not fail to embitter Scott against the Administration; and Taylor naturally felt ag

Expedition Against the Mormons in the Winter of 1857-Page 462.

grieved at Scott, believing him a party to the scheme for carrying off the best of his troops. The two men were unlike in temperament and not congenial. Their personal faults. were well described in their nicknames, Scott as "Fuss and Feathers," Taylor as "Rough and Ready." Scott, in spite of his great ability, was somewhat pompous, vain, and egotistical; Taylor, on the other hand, affected an excess of simplicity, was very careless in his dress, rarely wore his uniform, etc.

When Scott went to Vera Cruz, the Administration was careful to see that his principal subordinates were of their own political faith; Worth, Twiggs, Pillow and Quitman, the four division commanders, were all ardent Democrats, and in the inaction following the capture of the City of Mexico they all became insubordinate. It became necessary to put Worth and Pillow under arrest and prefer charges against them, and Worth in turn preferred charges against Scott; whereupon the President relieved Scott from command of the Army and ordered him home to appear before a Court of Inquiry at Frederick, Md. Worth was restored to duty by the President without trial, Pillow and Scott were acquitted. The feeling against the Administration on account of its treatment of Scott and Taylor was an important factor in the election of the latter in the ensuing fall. It was unfortunate that the conclusion of so splendid a military campaign should have been marked with such unseemly controversies.

men; the regiment of mounted riflemen (afterward 3d Cavalry) was retained in addition to the two of dragoons, four of

artillery and eight of infantry. The actual strength was about 850 officers and 8,000 men, and this continued until the Civil War, with the exception of a slight increase in 1855.

The result of the war was an enormous accession of territory, over 960,000 square miles; and the still larger territory acquired in 1803 was as yet only slightly settled. With the return of peace the army was sent to explore this vast region and to protect settlers against the Indians. Part of the cavalry was already in New Mexico, another part was now marched from Monterey, through New Mexico and Arizona, to southern California; in the following year the Mounted Rifles marched from Fort Leavenworth to Oregon, without seeing in the whole 2,500 miles a white man, except an occasional fur trader. Of the artillery, only a portion went back to the Atlantic forts. The 3d Artillery embarked for California by way of Cape Horn, but off Cape Hatteras the vessel was wrecked and one-third of the regiment lost. Of the rescued, part were carried to Liverpool, and part to New York. The next year ten companies went to California via Panama, and the other two marched overland from Leavenworth, through Salt Lake City, to Benicia. The infantry regiments were brought North for a short period and then they also for the most part went West; the 3d, 5th, and 8th to Texas, the 2d, via Cape Horn, to California, the 4th, via Panama, to Oregon, losing more than 100 men from cholera and fever en route, the 6th to the upper Mississippi and Missouri, and the 7th to New Mexico. The Engineers were

The President's proclamation of July 4, 1848, announced the termination of the war. The volunteers were promptly discharged and the regular army reduced to its normal strength of less than 10,000

almost all employed in some one of the various surveying and exploring expeditions. One commission surveyed and marked the Mexican boundary, another the northwestern boundary from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast; three separate expeditions were sent out to find feasible routes for transcontinental railways; within seven years they had explored the whole vast region and had recommended the three routes along which the Southern, the Union-Central, and the Northern Pacific Railroads were subsequently built. There were other general exploring expeditions, and the result of them all was soon to make public maps and reports giving clear descriptions of the nature of this great tract of country, larger than all of Europe, outside of Russia; then uninhabited, but now occupied by over twenty million people, and destined to support a population many times as great.

In this work of settling the West the army was in almost constant conflict with the Indians; the actual losses were not great, a few score, or perhaps a hundred every year, but the campaigning was incessant, the marches were sometimes prodigious in length, the suffering in the torrid deserts of Arizona or the frigid snows of Nebraska intense.

The only change in the strength of the army between the Mexican and Civil Wars occurred in 1855. It became evident that the fifteen small regiments could not cover the entire West, and an increase of two regiments of cavalry and two of infantry was authorized. Jefferson Davis was then Secretary of War and he selected for the chief officers of these regiments men who afterward proved themselves to be great soldiers. Of the 1st (afterward 4th) Cavalry, the field officers were Sumner, J. E. Johnston, Emory, and Sedgwick; McClellan was among the captains, Stanley and J. E. B. Stuart among the lieutenants. Of the 2d (afterward 5th) Cavalry, A. S. Johnston, Lee, Thomas, and Hardee were the field officers; and Van Dorn, Kirby Smith, Stoneman, and Hood were among the subalterns. Of the officers of these two regiments nearly one-fourth were killed in the Civil War, and the others, with hardly an exception, became generals; six of them, Lee, McClellan, the two Johnstons, Thomas, and VOL. XXX.-50

Kirby Smith commanded great armies. The officers of the two infantry regiments were less distinguished, but included in their number C. F. Smith, Canby, and Casey.

In addition to subduing the Indians, the army was called upon in 1855-56 to preserve peace between the warring political factions in Kansas, and in 1857 to bring the Mormons to submission. These people had crossed the plains and the Rocky Mountains, and in the Salt Lake Valley had founded a settlement, where they presently thought themselves strong enough to defy the authority of the United States and ignore its laws. To put down this incipient rebellion, a governor and other territorial officers were appointed, and a large military force was organized. to escort them to Salt Lake and protect them in the performance of their official duties. It consisted of the 2d, 6th, 10th, and part of the 3d Infantry, the 2d Dragoons, one battalion of the Mounted Rifles, and two light batteries-about 2,500 men in all.

In successive detachments this force marched from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Bridger, during the summer and autumn of 1857. Colonel A. S. Johnston was detached from his regiment in Texas and placed in command of the expedition, overtaking it at Fort Bridger, in November, and deciding to winter there. This post, originally established by the Mormons on the head-waters of the Green River, in the southwestern corner of Wyoming, was long an important station in the army. It was about 1,100 miles west of Fort Leavenworth, and in that long stretch of plains and mountains there were only three important posts: Riley, Kearney, and Laramie; it was at an altitude of near 7,000 feet above the sea, on the western side of the Rocky Mountains, and a temperature of 30° below zero was not uncommon in winter, sometimes accompanied with a keen wind and blinding snow, and at other times calm with a dense cloud of frozen fog; the distance to Salt Lake City was about 100 miles. In this remote spot Johnston's little army passed the winter in tents; the troops were cheerful and made light of their sufferings, although the sage-brush which served for fuel had to be hauled five miles through the snow, frost bites and amputations were not infrequent, more than 500 ani

mals perished in one night. The greatest hardship was due to the exhaustion of the supply of salt, producing suffering which only those who have endured it can appreciate. Lieutenant-Colonel P. St. George Cooke, who commanded the 2d Dragoons, gives a graphic account in his report of this march. On November 7th, "The morning light had nothing cheerful to reveal; the air still filled with driven snow. The animals soon came, driven in, and mingled in confusion with the men, went crunching the snow in the confined and wretched camp, trampling all things in their way. It was not a time to dwell on the fact that from that mountain desert there was no retreat nor any shelter near, but a time for action. No murmurs, not a complaint was heard, and certainly none saw in their commander's face a doubt or cloud; but with cheerful manner he gave orders as usual for the march. And then the sun showed his place in the sky, and my heart, for one, beat lighter. But for six hours the frost or frozen fog fell thickly, and again we marched on as in a cloud." The next day "we had for fuel, besides the sage, the little bush-willow sticks." The mercury marked 10° below zero. The day after, the thermometers were broken, but by comparison the temperature was estimated at 25° below zero. "A wagon that day cut partly through the ice of a branch, and there froze so fast that eight mules could not move it empty." November 11th "The guide's search resulted in his reporting 'no grass.' There remained but one day's corn after that night. It proved intensely cold.

The mules for once were ordered to be tied to the wagons. They gnawed and destroyed four wagon tongues, a number of wagon covers, ate their ropes, and getting loose, ate the sage fuel collected at the Some of the tents they also attacked. Nine died." November 19th he went into camp three miles below Fort Bridger: "I have 144 horses, and have lost 134.

tents.

Most of the loss has been this side of South Pass, in comparatively moderate weather. It has been of starvation. The earth has no more lifeless, treeless, grassless desert; it contains scarcely a wolf to glut itself on the hundreds of dead and frozen animals which for thirty miles nearly block the

road with abandoned and shattered property; they mark, perhaps beyond example in history, the steps of an advancing army with the horrors of a disastrous retreat."

It is small wonder that Brigham Young, having traversed the same country in summer, and having found a protected valley which he made fertile by irrigation, believed that he was beyond the reach of possible attack.

The little army passed the winter in tents, herding its animals in the mountain valleys and caring particularly for its beef cattle, on which their own lives depended, for there was no canned food in those days. At Fort Bridger there was a stone fort, and intrenched in its vicinity an organized and armed force of 2,700 Mormons. There were no hostilities, although the Mormons frequently tried to steal the cattle or stampede the herds. In June they evacuated the fort and retreated into the Salt Lake Valley. The little army followed them, and on June 10th entered the Mormon city. Colonel Brackett, in his "History of the United States Cavalry," thus describes the event:

"The entrance of the army into Salt Lake City was one of the most remarkable scenes in American history. All day long the troops marched through the long streets. The only sounds which broke the stillness of the scene were the music of the military bands and the dull clanking of the baggage wagons as they rolled along. The streets and houses were deserted. The stillness was so profound that, during the intervals of the columns, the gurgling of the creek which runs through the city could be distinctly heard by the few who were passing silently along. It was like the city of the dead, so quiet was it."

The expedition accomplished its purpose without bloodshed. The Mormons promised to obey the laws, and the troops went on about forty miles beyond the city and there established a large post named Camp Floyd. The orders to the 2d Cavalry to march from Texas were revoked. The 6th Infantry, which had left Fort Leavenworth in March and arrived at Fort Bridger in August, was sent on across the dreary wastes of Utah and Nevada, and over the Sierras to California, arriving at Benicia in November, and completing a march of something more than 2,000 miles in 242 days.