This victory gave General Taylor the command of the whole country we have been traversing the last four days. In fact, it gave him control up to the capital. Had it not been for political fears lest his great success, especially if he added to it the capture of the city, would insure him the Presidency, he would have undoubtedly been ordered to advance. As it was, his troops were taken from him, and transferred to General Scott. Among them was a youth who was lowest on the roster, Lieutenant Grant. General Taylor was left idle, while a new fighting to the same city level had to be bloodily carried up Cerro Gordo and like terrible heights, simply to divide the honors between two generals of the same party, and so prevent the Presidential success of either. The Government squandered millions of dollars and many lives for purely political reasons. Mexico was actually conquered at the battle of Buena Vista. Had it been vigorously followed, a month would have seen Zachary Taylor at Chapultepec.
along the narrow pass, surged a chosen column of Mexicans. History tells how they were rolled back. In all the annals of war nothing more gallant on both sides, scarcely any thing more bloody and terrible. From the position of the Third Indiana at that moment, away over the plateau, quite to the mountain, reaches a breastwork not there when our comrades fought, but signalizing an incident in the war of the Mexicans against the French. "The last time I was on the sacred ground, I saw a 'greaser' working with a hoe on the side of a hill by which we identify the position of the Third Indiana at the turning-point of the battle. My curiosity was excited. I rode to see what he could be doing. A moment ago I said the field was unchanged. I was mistaken. The man was conducting a little stream of water from the mountain miles away to irrigate a wheat-field below, in the mouth of the very ravine down which the regiments of Hardin, Yell, and M'Kee had retreated, seeking the cover of Washington's battery—the very ravine where the blood was thickest on the rocks at the end of the fight. I looked down upon the velvet green of the growing stalks, darker from the precious enrichment the soil had that day received, and then at the stream of water which came creeping after the man, like a living plaything. I looked at them, and understanding the moral of the incident, thanked God for the law that makes war impossible as a lasting condition, however it inspires the loves and memories of comradeship, and teaches that each succeeding generation of freemen are as brave as their ancestors."
