Part 27

On October 16, Dr. J.C. Warren of Boston, to whom Drs. Wells and Morton had communicated their discoveries with sulphuric ether, demonstrated the potency of the drug in a public test. A severe operation was performed at the Boston Hospital, in the presence of some of the foremost medical men of the city, while the patient remained unconscious. The news was heralded abroad and was received by medical men throughout the world as a new revelation. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the famous physician and author, named the new method "Anaesthesia." The credit of the new discovery was claimed forthwith by several persons--notably by Dr. Charles T. Jackson of Boston, and Dr. Crawford W. Long of Alabama. A few months after the value of ether in surgery had come to be clearly recognized, a Scotch surgeon, Sir J.V. Simpson, discovered that chloroform could be administered with analogous effect.

[Sidenote: Mexican war begun]

[Sidenote: Mexican success]

[Sidenote: American reverse at Fort Brown]

[Sidenote: Palo Alto]

[Sidenote: Resaca de la Palma]

[Sidenote: Invasion of Mexico]

In the United States, during this period, the long-expected war with Mexico was well under way. By a joint resolution of Congress, Texas had at last been admitted into the Union. General Taylor took position in Texas, opposite Matamoras on the Rio Grande, where the Mexican troops were gathering. Taylor presently moved his troops to Point St. Isabel. There a fleet of seven ships brought supplies. Leaving a part of his force there, he marched to a point on the Rio Grande opposite Matamoras, where he built Fort Brown, named after Major Brown, whom he left in command. The ground was malarious, and many soldiers died of disease. On April 12, the Mexican general, Ampudia, moved forward with a strong force to drive Taylor beyond the Rio de la Nueces. Ampudia demanded that Taylor should withdraw within twenty-four hours, but Taylor refused to leave what he claimed to be the soil of the United States. Ampudia hesitated, and General Arista was appointed in his place. Learning that two vessels with supplies for the Mexicans were about to enter the Rio Grande, Taylor caused the river to be blockaded, at the "cost of war." Arista prepared to attack Fort Brown, and cut off communication between Taylor and his supplies. Captain Thornton's command, sent out to reconnoitre, was captured on April 26. Only Thornton escaped by leaping his horse over a dense hedge. On May 1, leaving Major Brown in command at the fort, Taylor made a forced march to Point Isabel. The Mexicans promptly sent men across the river to the rear of Fort Brown, and opened fire together with the guns of Matamoras on that work. Major Brown was first among the killed. Signal guns were fired to recall Taylor. With 2,300 men he turned back on May 6. Meanwhile, 6,000 Mexicans had arrived and taken up a strong position at Palo Alto. On the 8th, Taylor assaulted the superior force confronting him. Two eighteen-pounders and two light batteries made fearful havoc in the closed ranks of the Mexican infantry. The prairie grass between the two armies took fire. Both lines drew back, but soon renewed the fight. Taylor's left was met by cannonade, but the Mexican column was overthrown and the entire force fell back to Resaca de la Palma. The Americans took up their march to Fort Brown. When within three miles of the fort they encountered the Mexicans, strongly posted in Resaca de la Palma, a ravine three hundred feet wide bordered with palmetto trees. Taylor deployed a portion of his force as skirmishers, and a company of dragoons overrode the first Mexican battery. The Americans then advanced their battery to the crest. A regiment charged in column, and, joined by the skirmishers, seized the enemy's artillery. After hard fighting in the chaparral, the Mexicans were put to flight. The Mexicans lost one thousand men, the Americans conceded but one hundred. Refusing an armistice, Taylor crossed the river on May 18, and unfurled the Stars and Stripes on Mexican territory. Another attempted stand of the Mexicans resulted in worse defeat. Arista's retreat became a rout. Of 7,000 men he brought only 2,500 to Linares. The American troops occupied Matamoras, Reinosa and Camargo. The three States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo Leon were annexed to the territory of the Rio Grande. In the interior of Mexico a revolution broke out. General Paredes was made President.

[Sidenote: Kearney annexes New Mexico]

[Sidenote: Fremont in California]

In July, Colonel Philip Kearney, with an American force, marched unopposed from the Arkansas River and took possession of Santa Fe. On August 1, he annexed the State of New Mexico as a Territory of the United States. In May, Captain John C. Fremont, in charge of an exploring expedition in the South, received a message from Secretary of State Buchanan and Senator Benton, whose daughter he had married, suggesting that he should remain in California. Fremont took the hint and returned to Sacramento. There he learned that the Mexican commander was about to take the offensive. He at once assumed command of the American forces, and on June 15 captured Sonoma. Meanwhile Commodores Sloat and Stockton took possession of the coast towns as far as Los Angeles, and, on August 13, held Monterey, the capital of California. Fremont set up a provisional government, placing himself at the head. In the meantime, the United States had sent a company of artillery, which took two hundred days in making the journey around the Horn. Among its members were three future heroes of the American Civil War--Lieutenants Sherman, Halleck and Ord.

[Sidenote: Tardy declaration of war]

The news of these events did not reach Washington until after Congress had declared war on April 26, authorized a call for 50,000 volunteers, and made an appropriation of $10,000,000. Three hundred thousand volunteers responded. Of these some 75,000 were enrolled with the regular army of 40,000. President Polk, on May 11, sent to Congress an aggressive measure, announcing that war existed by the act of Mexico. On May 23, Mexico made her formal declaration of war. General Taylor, with the army of occupation, was ordered to seize and hold points on the Rio Grande.

[Sidenote: Assault of Monterey]

[Sidenote: Hoffman's stanzas]

[Sidenote: Long armistice]

General Taylor waited at Matamoras until September 19, when, having been joined by General Worth, he encamped with 6,000 men within three miles of Monterey, a strongly fortified place, ninety miles distant from Matamoras. On the north, Monterey was protected by a strong citadel, with lunettes on the east, and by two fortified hills on either side of the river just above the town. Worth's division planted itself above the city on the Mexican line of retreat. Garland's brigade, advancing between the citadel and the first lunette, reached the city with heavy loss. After three companies had failed to move to Garland's support, two other companies passed to the rear of the citadel and compelled the Mexicans to abandon that point. An attempt on the second lunette failed with heavy loss to the Americans. The next morning Worth endeavored to capture the fortified eminence south of the river. The Americans advanced in the face of a plunging artillery fire. A host of skirmishers clambered over the parapet and turned its guns on the fleeing Mexicans, and, with two supporting regiments moving along the slope, drove the Mexicans out of Fort Saldado. At daybreak the hill on the north side of the river was carried. These positions commanded the western half of the city. On the morning of the 23d, the American troops fought their way in, but were driven out again. Worth's men then pushed into the town from the west, and finding the streets swept by artillery, broke into the houses. On the next morning, September 24, Ampudia capitulated. The capture of Monterey inspired the American poet, Charles F. Hoffman, to a song modelled after the famous St. Crispin's Day speech in Shakespeare's "King Henry V.":

We were not many--we who stood Before the iron sleet that day; Yet many a gallant spirit would Give half his years if he but could Have been with us at Monterey.

Our banners on those turrets wave, And there our evening bugles play; Where orange-boughs above their grave Keep green the memory of the brave Who fought and fell at Monterey.

An armistice of eight weeks was agreed upon. The armistice was disapproved by the American Secretary of War, and, in November, General Scott was ordered to take command and conduct the war on his own plans.

[Sidenote: Revolution in Mexico]

In Mexico, General Paredes, who favored the restoration of monarchical rule, was opposed by General Alvarez in the south. When Paredes left the capital to go to the front, revolution broke out behind him. Don Mariano Solas, the commandant of the City of Mexico, summoned to his aid General Santa Anna. On his arrival this popular general, but recently banished from the capital, was hailed as the saviour of his country and was invested with the supreme military command. Paredes went into exile. Santa Anna, after inexplicable delay, raised war funds to the amount of six million dollars, and advanced toward San Luis Potosi. There the "Napoleon of the West," as they called him in Mexico, wasted more precious months.

[Sidenote: Howe's sewing machine]

[Sidenote: Iowa becomes a State]

On the American side, too, little was done. On August 8, the Wilmot Proviso was considered. It was a proviso to the $2,000,000 bill asked by the President to arrange peace with Mexico, and it declared it to be "an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from Mexico, that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist therein." August 10 the proviso came up for final passage, but John Davis of Massachusetts, in order to defeat action on the bill, held the floor till the session expired. Congress adjourned on that day. Great agitation prevailed in the North over the defeat of this proviso. The Democrats lost their majority in the Twenty-ninth Congress, owing to the new tariff and the predominance of pro-slavery issues in the war. Polk had but 110 votes against 118 when the new Congress met. Now the new tariff went into effect. Howe, the American inventor, secured a patent for an improvement in sewing-machines, which embodied the main features of the machine used at present; to wit, a grooved needle provided with an eye near its point, a shuttle operating on the side of the cloth opposite the needle to form a lockstitch, and an automatic feed. On December 28, Iowa was admitted to the Union as the twenty-ninth State.

1847

[Sidenote: Santa Anna's advance]

[Sidenote: Buena Vista]

General Winfield Scott reached the harbor of Vera Cruz in January, and assumed command of all the American forces. He took with him the best officers and troops on the field of action, and left Taylor with only 5,200 men, most of whom were volunteers. Santa Anna, who had gathered 12,000 men eager to be led against the Americans, was approaching Saltillo. Leaving Monterey on January 31, Taylor reached Saltillo on February 2, and passed on to Aqua Nueva, twenty miles south of Saltillo, where he remained three weeks. Thence he fell back to a mountain gorge opposite Buena Vista. On February 22, his troops and those of Santa Anna were within sight of each other. Under a flag of truce, Santa Anna demanded Taylor's surrender, which was refused. The famous battleground, taking its name from the estate of Buena Vista, is a rugged valley from two to five miles wide, between rocky walls a thousand feet high. The slopes on either side are cut by deep ravines. Taylor placed his forces in groups on the crests of the bluffs, at the base of the eastern mountain, and in the southern edge of the plateau. The Mexican troops attempted to flank his position, but were driven off. The Mexican cavalry were sent to Taylor's rear to intercept the American retreat, but they were beaten back after a fierce hand-to-hand fight, led by Taylor himself. Santa Anna made his first attack in three columns. Two of these combined and turned the American left. The third, thrown against the American right, was forced to retreat, the Americans having formed a new front. Again the Mexicans sought to gain Taylor's rear, but with two regiments supported by artillery and dragoons, the American commander drove them back, firing into their heavy mass.

[Sidenote: Taylor's order to Bragg]

[Sidenote: Conflicting claims of victory]

At one point in the engagement, an Indiana regiment, through a mistaken order, gave way, thereby placing the American army in peril. But the Mississippians and the Kentuckians threw themselves forward; the Indiana troops rallied, and the Mexicans were repulsed. General Taylor, standing near Captain Bragg's battery, saw signs of wavering in the enemy's line. "Give them a little more grape, Captain Bragg," he exclaimed--a command which was repeated all over the United States during the political campaign two years later. The Mexican column broke, and Taylor drove it up the slope of the eastern mountain. By means of a false flag of truce the endangered wing, however, escaped. Santa Anna, forming his whole force into one column, advanced. The Americans fell back, holding only the northwest corner of the plateau. When morning broke, the enemy had disappeared. The Mexican loss was 2,000, that of the Americans 746. Henry Clay, a son of the Kentucky statesman, as he lay wounded, was despatched by a Mexican vacquero. Colonel Jefferson Davis commanded with distinction a regiment of Mississippi riflemen. Buena Vista was Taylor's last battle. Its fame was heralded throughout America. Both sides claimed the victory. The Mexicans chanted Te Deums. In the United States the poet Kifer sang:

From the Rio Grande's waters to the icy lakes of Maine, Let us all exult! for we have met the enemy again. Beneath their stern old mountains we have met them in their pride, And rolled from Buena Vista back the battle's bloody tide; Where the enemy came surging swift, like the Mississippi's flood, And the reaper, Death, with strong arms swung his sickle red with blood.

After the battle of Buena Vista, General Taylor returned to the United States, his task finished. The exploit shed such lustre on his name that he was soon regarded as the fittest candidate for the Presidency.

[Sidenote: San Juan d'Ulloa captured]

[Sidenote: Battle of Cerro Gordo]

[Sidenote: American advance into Mexico]

In March, Scott's army of 12,000 landed at Vera Cruz. After four days' bombardment by land and water, the city and castle of San Juan d'Ulloa surrendered. General Worth was left in command at Vera Cruz, and Scott started on his march to the City of Mexico, two hundred miles away. Santa Anna, with the flower of his army, awaited him in the strong position of Cerro Gordo, fifty miles northwest. General Twiggs turned the Mexican left flank. On the following morning, April 18, the Americans attacked in three columns. Pellow advanced against the Mexican right, where three hills at an angle in the road were crowned with batteries. Shields' division, climbing by a pass, fell upon Santa Anna's right and rear. Twiggs and Worth, bearing to the right, covered the El Telegrafo Hill, and attacked the height of Cerro Gordo, where Santa Anna commanded in person. Carrying this position, they turned its guns on the retreating Mexicans. Caught between the columns of Pellow, Twiggs and Worth, Santa Anna's forces surrendered. The American troops thus gained the national road to the capital of Mexico. They had made 3,000 prisoners and taken forty-three cannon, with $22,000 in silver and immense munitions of war. They lost, at Cerro Gordo, 481 killed and wounded; the Mexican loss was 2,000. Jalapa was occupied on April 19, and on the 22d the American flag waved above the Castle of Perote, fifty miles beyond. Puebla, containing 80,000 inhabitants, was occupied without opposition on May 15. On account of the sufferings of the men in the hot climate, General Scott rested at Puebla for several months.

[Sidenote: Doniphan's exploit]

The authority of the United States was established on the Pacific Coast, after a final defeat of the Mexicans at San Gabriel. Colonel Doniphan of Kearney's command, having been left in charge in New Mexico, compelled the Navajo Indians to enter into a treaty of peace, after which he set out with 1,000 Missourians to join General Wool. At Bracto, a Mexican commander with a superior force sent a black flag demanding his surrender. On refusal of this summons notice was given that no quarter should be granted. The Mexicans then advanced firing; the Americans lying down to escape the bullets. Cheering, the Mexicans ran forward, when suddenly Doniphan's command rose and fired, killing more than 200 Mexicans. The rest turned and fled. Near the capital of Chihuahua, Doniphan, after a sharp encounter, dispersed 4,000 Mexicans. The Stars and Stripes were raised above the citadel. In May, Doniphan rejoined Wool at Saltillo. Then followed a long lull in the Mexican campaign.

[Sidenote: Slavery controversy revived]

The question concerning the power of the American Congress to legislate on slavery again came up in connection with the bill for the establishment of the Oregon Territorial government. In February Calhoun had introduced his new slavery resolution, declaring the Territories to be the common property of all the States, and denying the right and power of Congress to prohibit slavery in any Territory. Thus began the agitation which led to the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise. By the terms of an amendment offered for the extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean, slavery was to be excluded from all future territory in the West. This amendment was lost, but the bill passed with another, incorporating the anti-slavery clause of the ordinance of 1787. Calhoun declared that the exclusion of slavery from any Territory was a subversion of the Union, and proclaimed "the separation of the Northern and Southern States complete."

[Sidenote: John Franklin's career]

[Sidenote: Long overland journey]

[Sidenote: The Northwest Passage]

In British North America a new era of home rule began after the Earl of Elgin took his oath as Governor-General of Canada in January. The imperial government abandoned all control over the customs of Canada. The building of the first great Canadian railroad was begun on the main line of the Grand Trunk system. Discouraging reports from the extreme northern regions of America at last confirmed the impression that Sir John Franklin, with the other members of his expedition, had perished in the Arctic regions. A romantic naval career was thus brought to a close. Born in 1786, John Franklin entered the British navy at the age of fourteen as a midshipman, and soon saw his first active service at the battle of Copenhagen in 1801. In the following year he was taken on his first trip of exploration to Australia by his cousin, Captain Flinders of the "Investigator." In 1818 he was a member of an expedition sent out by the British Government to attempt a passage to India by crossing the Polar Sea. His bold seamanship during this voyage brought him into such prominence that during the next year he was appointed by the Admiralty to command an expedition to travel overland from Hudson's Bay to the Arctic Ocean. During the course of this expedition he and his companions walked 5,560 miles and endured many hardships, of which Franklin wrote a thrilling narrative on his return to England in 1822. He then married Eleanor Porden, the author of the heroic poem "Coeur de Lion." In 1825 he was appointed to the command of another overland Arctic expedition. When the day of his departure arrived, his wife was dying of consumption. Lying at the point of death as she was, she would not let him delay his voyage, and gave him for a parting gift a silk flag to hoist when he reached the Polar Sea. On the day after Franklin left England she died. When he returned again he was knighted and showered with honors by various scientific societies of England and France. After serving as Governor of Van Diemen's Land, Sir John, in 1845, was appointed an admiral, and then another Arctic expedition to discover the Northwest Passage was organized. He sailed from Sheerness on May 26, 1845, and was last seen by a whaler in Baffin's Bay. Many years later a record was found on the northwest shore of King William's Land, announcing that Sir John Franklin died in the spring of 1847, and that the survivors of his expedition had attempted to make their way back on the ice to the American continent. To Sir John Franklin belongs the honor of the first discovery of the northwest passage leading from Lancaster Sound to Behring Strait.

[Sidenote: O'Connell's last speech]

[Sidenote: Death of O'Connell]

On February 8, Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish Parliamentary leader, made his last speech in the English House of Commons. The question on which he spoke was a proposed bill for the relief of famine in Ireland: "I am afraid," he said, in the course of this address, "that the English people are not sufficiently impressed with the horrors of the situation in Ireland. I do not think they understand the accumulated miseries which my people are suffering. It has been estimated that 5,000 adults and 10,000 children have already died from famine, and that one-fourth of the whole population must perish unless something is done." Failing in health himself, O'Connell went to Italy. At Rome, Pope Pius IX. prepared a magnificent reception for him. Before he could reach the Eternal City, O'Connell died in his seventy-second year. Lacordaire, who but shortly before this had pronounced his greatest of funeral orations over the bier of General Drouot, thus spoke of O'Connell: "Honor, glory and eternal gratitude for the man who gave to his country the boon of liberty of conscience. Where is a man in the Church since the time of Constantine who has at one stroke enfranchised six millions of souls?" When the body of O'Connell was buried at Glasnevin, it was followed to the grave by fifty thousand mourners, among whom Orangemen and Ribbonmen walked side by side. In England, O'Connell's death was regarded with a feeling akin to relief. There his persistent demands of "justice for Ireland" had come to be regarded with derision, bringing him the nickname of "Big Beggarman."

[Sidenote: Death of Thomas Chalmers]

[Sidenote: "Vanity Fair"]

[Sidenote: "Jane Eyre"]

[Sidenote: Jenny Lind]

Another spirit that won religious renown in England passed away with Thomas Chalmers, the great Scotch divine. As a teacher of theology at Edinburgh he wrote no less than twenty-five volumes, the most famous of which is his "Evidences of the Christian Revelations," a reprint of his article on "Christianity" contributed to the "Encyclopedia Britannica." In other respects it was a notable year for English letters. Charles Dickens had just published his famous stories "Dombey and Son" and "The Haunted Man." The success of these novels was surpassed by that of Thackeray's "Vanity Fair." Three writers now made their appearance. Anthony Trollope brought out his "MacDermotts of Ballycoran"; Emily Bronte published her first novel, "Wuthering Heights," while her sister, Charlotte Bronte, at the same time achieved an immense success with her story of "Jane Eyre." These successes were more than rivalled by that of Jenny Lind, the great soprano singer, who made her first appearance in London during this season. Another event for intellectual England was the sale at auction of Shakespeare's house at Stratford. It was acquired by a united committee of Shakespeare lovers for the sum of L3,000.

[Sidenote: Jewish disabilities reconfirmed]