29. The text is based primarily on the full and minute account given in the diary of George B. McClellan (who accompanied Pillow and whose integrity and technical ability will not be questioned) and the following documents: reports of Engineers Stevens (66May 7) and Tower (66un dated); Haskell and sixteen officers (Picayune, May 29); Haskell (ib., June 28); Pillow, reply (ib., June 9); Id., 61substitute report, May 29 (to take the place of his published report, which he admitted was not correct); 139letters of Col. Campbell, an able and fair man (who said privately the affair was most badly managed; also that Pillow was no general, and on the field had no judgment or decision); 224Williams to Hitchcock, June 4, 1849; Wynkoop, July 16, in Picayune, Sept. 19; Stevens, I. I. Stevens, i, 125 (Stevens says, e.g., that Pillow's attack failed because made prematurely, with great precipitation, without order in the assaulting columns, and before the supporting columns were in position, and at the wrong point," and that it, "both as to time and as to direction, was arnestly remonstrated against by the engineer officer directing the attack, by the personal staff of the general, and by Col. Campbell, second in com mand"). Of course Ripley, who wrote his history of the war in consul tation with Pillow, gives a misleading account of this affair as of others
The author used also the following sources: Sen. 51; 32,1. Sen. 1; 30, 1, pp. 257 (Scott); 258 (orders 111); 294 (Patterson); 296 (Pillow 217Henshaw papers. Taylor, Letters (Bixby), 109. 69Pillow to adj. gen., June 25, 1848. 69Ripley to adj. gen., June 25, 1848. 66Tower to Twiggs, Apr. 16. Negrete, Invasión, iii, app., 50. Hitchcock, Fifty Years, 251. Furber, Twelve Months Vol., 593. Grant, Mems., i, 133. Davis, Autobiog., 146. Apuntes, 173, 181. Weekly Courier and N. Y. Enquirer, Mar. 2, 1848. Robertson, Remins., 244-8. Lawton, Artill. Officer, 139. 293Pillow to wife, June 9. 293Rains to Mrs. Pillow, Apr 18. Republicano, June 9, 24. Picayune, May 9; Sept. 11. México á través, iv, 654. Hillard, McClellan, 18, 19. Nat. Intelligencer, June 11. Monitor Repub., June 24. 358Williams to father, Apr. 21. Vedette viii, no. 5. Oswandel, Notes, 110-1, 122-35. Semmes, Service, 182-3 Hitchcock in semi-weekly Courier and Enquirer, Mar. 1, 1848. 100Mata, Apr. 18. 82Pavón to Puebla sec. state, Apr. 29. 288Tapper to wife, May 3. Niles, June 5, p. 219; Oct. 2, p. 75. Boston Atlas, Dec. 13 Griepenkerl, Applied Tactics, 116. 316Judd to Sherman, Feb. 26, 1848. Johnstone, Foundations, 180. So. Qtrly. Rev., Jan., 1852. 181Armstrong to Donelson, July 4. 139Cummings to Campbell, May 12; June 13. 76Carrera, May 1. 76S. Anna, May 7. The reason why reversing the regiments caused trouble seems to have been that infantry were accustomed to manoeuvre and fight in a certain formation, and felt awkward if the right was unexpectedly brought out on the left. As Wynkoop had farther to march than Haskell and did not wish to attack before his support was in position, placing Campbell third in the line of march involved a delay One derives a lesson on the value of official reports from Patterson's representation that Pillow was wounded while gallantly leading his bri gade (Sen. 1; 30, 1, p. 295):
30. The American soldiers were not pleased with this policy. The American government expressed itself against it and, placing an undeserved value on Mexican officers, ordered that no more of them should be paroled except for special reasons. It is probably enough to say that Scott was in the best position to judge; but one may remark that Santa Anna's difficulty was not so much to obtain men as to obtain arms. Further
