| Show A GREAT MILITARY ACHIEVEMENT General Scotts Brilliant Campaign with 0000 Men Against UOOOO The Duke of Wellington was so interested inter-ested in the march of Scotts army f rmm Vera Cruz to the Mexican capital that he caused its movements to be marked on a map daily as information was received Admiring its triumphs up to the basin in which lies the City of Mexico he then said Scott is lost He has been carried away by his successes suc-cesses He cannot take the city and le cannot fall back upon his base I is certain that Scott had not troops enough to maintain his line of communication commu-nication with Vera Cruz and that when he entered the valley of Ana luac he was almost utterly cut off from his base as Cortez had been After winning the battles of Cerro Gordo Contreras Churubusco Molina del Key and Chapultepec the force engaged in the capture of the Mexican capital amounted to less than 6000 menThe men-The army overcome by General Scott on his march to the capital had numbered num-bered not less than 30000 and in nearly all the engagements it had neary renched in chosen positions The Mex l cans admit that even the force ultimately ulti-mately employed for the defense of the capital was about 20000 There was at all times an immense preponderance of artillery on the Mexican side I is not a pleasnt recollection for patriotic Americans that the government govern-ment at Washington influenced by po l itical considerations did Its best to discredit Scott in the hour of his great victory After peace had been made with Mexico but while the American army was still occupying the Mexican capital there came a dispatch from Washington ordering Scott to turn over the command to a subordinate general of no particular distinction and to ap pear before a court of inquiry at Pueblo Pu-eblo to answer charges which had been preferred against him but which as it t urned out were never pressed What the country thought of this treatment was expressed by Daniel Webster in a speech delivered in the Senate on February 20 1848 1 understand sir he said that there Is a report from i General Scott a man who has performed perform-ed the most brilliant campaign on recent re-cent military record a man who has warred against the climate warred against the enemy warred against a housand unpropitious circumstances I and ha carried the flag of his country to the capital Hbe enemy honorably proudly humanelyto his own perma perza neat honor and the great military credit of his country And where is he At Puebloat PUeblo undergoing an inquiry I In-quiry before his inferiors in rank and other persons without military rank while the high powers he has exercised exer-cised with so much distinction are i ransferred to anotherI do not say I t o one unworthy of them but to one I nferior I in rank station and exper i ence j The fact that Scott was an eminent I member of the Whig party and a possible I pos-sible candidate for the presidency did not prevent Gfangress from voting him A gold medal rthat was followed four years later by a joint resolution creat i ng the brevet rank of lieutenantgen eral of the army which was thereupon bestowed on Winfield Scott who thus became the first since Washington to I hold that office New York Sun |
