Free The Training Ground by Martin Dugard

their exotic language, which very few Americans spoke and even fewer saw the need to learn. Most of the Americans didn’t know, for instance, that the Mexican army was much like their own in many ways, structured in the European manner, with infantry, cavalry, engineers, and artillery, or that the total size of the Mexican army — 18,882 regular soldiers, 10,495 militiamen, and 1,174 irregulars — outnumbered theirs almost five to one, which was perhaps a case of ignorance being bliss.
    Nor did most Americans know that the Mexicans were divided into five separate armies, each focused around a region of the country. Nor that the cavalry, which they could so clearly hear across the river, were the Mexicans’ most elite corps, composed of nine regiments (each broken into four squadrons that were made up of two companies of roughly thirty-five to fifty-five men), or that the horsemen were extremely well armed, often carrying an arsenal of pistols, sabers (with long blades designed for slashing, making them ideal weapons for soldiers on horseback), lassos (ideal for capturing a man and dragging him to death), a blunderbuss-style shotgun known as an
escopeta,
and a nine-foot-long lance — a weapon that had first been used prominently by William the Conqueror’s troops at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and had seen little design change since the Middle Ages. “The Mexican soldiery,” reported the
Times
of London, are of “middle stature, or below it, small-boned, slightly built, graceful, with a smooth, soft, glossy skin, scarcely any muscle, no visible sinews, and of extremely light weight. He can be agile for a short time, but is constitutionally indolent. This is the Mexican Indian from the interior. The soldiers of mixed blood, partaking of the more northern races, and of old Spain, are stronger, rather sinewy, and capable of more continued exertion.”
    Longstreet visualized the battle in his head and liked what he saw. “We looked with confidence for a fight and the flow of blood down the salt water,” he wrote enthusiastically.
    On the morning of March 20, a Mexican officer splashed across the river on horseback. Captain José Barragan carried with him a proclamation that had been circulated to Mexican citizens, ordering them to take up arms against the American soldiers. The proclamation was glorious and poetic, issued by Mexican general Francisco Mejía in Matamoros. It went on to say of the Americans that “posterity will regard with horror their perfidious conduct” and that “the flames of patriotism which burn in our hearts will receive new fuel from the odious presence of the conquerors.” In closing, it referenced Mexico’s national War of Independence and promised the Mexican people that “the cry of Dolores and Iguala shall be re-echoed with harmony to our ears, when we take up our march to oppose our naked breasts to the rifles of the hunters of the Mississippi.”
    Captain Barragan promised Taylor that if his army tried to cross the river, the Mexicans would have no choice but to use force. And then, before mounting his horse for the ride back to his own lines, Barragan warned the Americans to turn around.
    Taylor’s response was not at all what the Mexicans had hoped for.
    THREE
    Rough and Ready
    M ARCH 21, 1846
    B arragan might as well have insisted that the Americans attack immediately, for his defiant words had that very effect on Old Rough and Ready. The American commander brusquely ordered that the Rio Colorado be crossed. At 10:30 on the morning of March 21, one day after Barragan’s visit, Taylor commanded four companies of infantry to wade the salty river (thanks to the Colorado’s close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico) and assault the Mexican positions. It would be the first time since the War of 1812 that American troops had battled another regular army. The honor of leading the two-hundred-man force was given to Captain Charles Ferguson Smith. Grant knew Smith well: the dignified and