Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/561

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EFFICIENCY OF A CITIZEN SOLDIERY.

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science; attacking them, with inferior numbers, in the open field, or assailing them when posted behind fortifications constructed with superior skill, yet ever achieving the same result — a brilliant and glorious victory. We have shown that, in an emergency, every citizen may become a soldier; — that, at all times, a powerful opponent, in a defensive war, we would be absolutely invincible; — that the military school at West Point has diffused a large amount of valuable information through the land;^[1] and that, while we have officers, whose clear and matchless combinations, and sound and accurate judgments, entitle them to take rank with the Marlboroughs, the Ruperts, and the Fredericks of the past, and the noblest captains of the present age, — we have, also, a citizen soldiery, prompt to obey their country's call, and ready to brave the dangers of war, and the vicissitudes of an unfriendly climate — disregarding, alike, the bolts of their antagonists, and the invisible shafts of man's great enemy.^[2]

↑ A large number of the officers belonging to the ten new regiments added to the regular army by the act of 1847, were educated at West Point; and there were nine colonels, nine lieutenant Colonels, eight majors, and eight captains, of the volunteer regiments, who were graduates of that institution. — Statement G, accompanying the report of Captain Brewerton, of the corps of engineers, superintendent of the Military Academy, to the board of visitors, June, 1847.
↑ The aggregate loss of the Americans, during the war, in killed and wounded, was about 5,500; of whom probably two thousand were killed on the field of battle, or subsequently died of their wounds. But the ravages of disease were far more appalling. Even in the city of Mexico, there were nearly 1,000 deaths in the army. in a single month, — the climate of the table land being as fatal to the constitutions of the soldiers enlisted in the southern states of the Union, as was the noxious atmosphere of the tierra caliente, to those from the northern states. The 1st and 2nd Pennsylvania regiments, which left home 1800 strong, lost 400 men by disease alone, and a large number were discharged as being unfit for duty, many of whom are supposed to have died. More than

[1] A large number of the officers belonging to the ten new regiments added to the regular army by the act of 1847, were educated at West Point; and there were nine colonels, nine lieutenant Colonels, eight majors, and eight captains, of the volunteer regiments, who were graduates of that institution. — Statement G, accompanying the report of Captain Brewerton, of the corps of engineers, superintendent of the Military Academy, to the board of visitors, June, 1847.

[D561-2] The aggregate loss of the Americans, during the war, in killed and wounded, was about 5,500; of whom probably two thousand were killed on the field of battle, or subsequently died of their wounds. But the ravages of disease were far more appalling. Even in the city of Mexico, there were nearly 1,000 deaths in the army. in a single month, — the climate of the table land being as fatal to the constitutions of the soldiers enlisted in the southern states of the Union, as was the noxious atmosphere of the tierra caliente, to those from the northern states. The 1st and 2nd Pennsylvania regiments, which left home 1800 strong, lost 400 men by disease alone, and a large number were discharged as being unfit for duty, many of whom are supposed to have died. More than

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