VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
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wick boundaries, reported with his battery,
Baylor's, to General Taylor, at Brownsville,
Texas, for duty on the Rio Grande, war
being declared with Mexico, May 12, 1846.
From this time until the battle of Cheru-
busco. August 20, 1847, he was in active
service. In this encounter his right arm was
severed by a grape-shot while his battery
was hotly engaged with the enemy, which
was strongly entrenched behind stone walls,
pierced for musketry and artillery, but de-
spite the shock, he formally gave Jackson
command of the battery and rode unassisted
from the field. He was breveted major after
this battle, his commission reading "For
Gallant and Meritorious Conduct at the
Battles of Contreras and Cherubusco."
While this exhibition of fortitude and pluck
won the admiration of his men, it was dur-
ing the three days' assault on Monterey,
September 21, 22 and 23, 1846, that General
Martin, then a second lieutenant, gained his
highest place in the afifections of his men.
At this assault he was in command of the
battery, "Stonewall" Jackson second in com-
mand, and distinguished himself by fight-
ing his guns through to the Plaza, clearing
the houses of the enemy's riflemen as he
went and arriving before the infantrymen
advancing up converging streets. The pride
of the artillery branch of the service over
this achievement was so great that General
Martin was ever after known in his old
regiment as the "Man of Monterey."
After his discharge from the hospital in the city of Mexico after the close of the war. General Martin was transferred to the stafT, appointed assistant quartermaster, and was stationed first in the east and later in the west, located at Fort Riley in the ter- ritory of Kansas when the political situation became so strained that the secession of the southern states from the Union began. When the news of the decision of North Carolina arrived at distant Fort Riley, Gen- eral Martin, by training and conviction a believer in "State's Rights," forwarded his resignation from the army of the United States to Washington, and started upon his long journey to Raleigh to ofifer his sword to his native state and his services to the cause his sword upheld. The severance of old ties was no easy task, and bitter was the furling of the well loved flag, but con- science, obeying her insistent master, duty,
ofi'ered soothing balm in the realization of a
righteous decision.
Upon his arrival in Raleigh, General Martin immediately called upon Governor Ellis and tendered his services in any capacity in which he could serve the state. He was given his late rank in the United States army, that of major, and was ap- pointed adjutant-general of the force of ten thousand volunteers known as the "State Troops of North Carolina," then mobilizing at the capital under act of the legislature of Alay 10. In this office he devoted himself to the arming, equipping, drilling, and dis- ciplining of this body of men until he took charge of all the troops of the state by commission from the governor, under act of the legislature of September 20, empower- ing the governor to appoint "an adjutant and inspector general with the rank of major general, who shall be general-in- chief of all the forces of North Carolina." The rapidity with which preparation fol- lowed preparation under General Martin's all-seeing eye and tireless direction revealed the practical, prudent, wise, and forceful commander, who marshaled his forces with unerring accuracy and placed into use al! of the state's resources. Everything in the state was at his disposal, men, money, prop- erty, for he was "charged with the defense of the state," and to that end endowed with authority almost boundless. That a full realization of the numberless pressing duties bearing upon his shoulders may be gained is the following incomplete list of the action he directed : The militia laws were changed ; horses for the mounted arms and transport service were bought in Kentucky and hur- ried in droves through the mountains ; saddles and harness material were secured by special agents in New Orleans and rushed to Raleigh ; powder works and ar- senals for the manufacture and remodeling of arms were established ; camps of military instruction set up ; skilled armorers were secured to produce sabres, bayonets, and small swords ; shoe and clothing factories were located at several points in the state ; quartermaster, commissary, and ordinance stores were collected from all sections ; pieces for the artillery provided ; the coasts defended, notwithstanding the fact that the Confederacy had undertaken that ; the mili- tia called out, drilled, disciplined, and, as
