districts as regarded the subsistence of an army, would not conduce to a speedy termination of the war.
Meantime Taylor's movements were delayed from want of the means of transportation. When the fresh troops began to arrive, he contemplated advancing against Monterey; and to carry on operations in the valley of the San Juan toward that city, the establishment of his depôt at Camargo was necessary. To effect this, the Rio Grande presented the only feasible means of communication, and the shallowness of the water necessitated the use of light-draught steamers, to navigate which across the gulf from New Orleans was a hazardous undertaking. On the 28th of May Captain John Sanders was despatched by him to that city to procure steamboats suitable to the navigation of the river; but though the official correspondence proves that both the general's agents and the officers of the quartermaster's department promptly performed their duties, Taylor complained of the delay.[1]
He nevertheless pushed troops up the river in furtherance of his design against Monterey. Reynosa, Camargo, and Mier were occupied without resistance, and on the 24th of July General Worth[2] arrived with his division at Camargo. As the steamboats kept arriving, the difficulties of water transportation were to a great extent removed, but still innumerable inconveniences had to be overcome,[3] and it was not until the 8th of August that he was able to make that town his headquarters. The different
- ↑ On Sept. 1st, just before marching for the interior, he addressed a letter to the adjutant-general, impeaching in unqualified terms the management of the quartermaster's department. The correspondence on this subject will be found in Id., pp. 557-61.
- ↑ As the reader is aware, Worth had left the army in April and returned home, with the intention cf resigning. He had already sent in his resignation, when the news reached Washington that hostilities had commenced. He at once withdrew it and returned to the Rio Grande, where he resumed command of his division on the 28th of May.
- ↑ Taylor, writing to the adjutant-general July 22d, says: 'I find the difficulties of throwing supplies up the river to be very great, in consequence of the rapidity of the current and the entire absence of dry steamboat fuel.' Id., p. 399
