In May, 1848, during the armistice, and while negoti- ations for peace were pending, a party of American officers and soldiers, ten in number, were arrested for the crime of burglaiy and murder, committed in the city of Mexico. It was probably owing to the peculiarly dis- graceful character of the outrage, and its perpetration during a suspension of hostihties, that it was deemed ex- pedient to institute a judicial inquiry. Four lieutenants, two corporals, and one private were tried and convicted by a court-martial, and sentenced to be hung. A fifth officer " belonging to one of the old infantry regiments,"
is said to have been implicated in the affair, but he eluded arrest. On the conclusion of the peace, all the culprits were pardoned by the commanding officer, and set at hberty. It is not surprising that so large an assembly of men as an army, should include some thieves and murder- ers. This case is important only because, with multitudes of others, it tends to dispel the popular illusion, that there is some mysterious undefined connection between gallantry and honor, and that a brave soldier must be both honest and merciful. One of these four officers was, it seems, a graduate of the West Point military academy ; and of another, a newspaper says, " It is a fact worthy of notice, that Lieutenant Hare was one of the most valiant spirits of the army, during ' the battles of the valley,' and that on account of his unconquerable courage, he was selected by the commanding officer to command one of the * forlorn hopes,' at the storming of the Castle of Chapultepec. He was allowed to select fifteen men to accompany him.
and out of these fifteen, onl,^^ five escaped the deadly fire of the enemy ; and the Lieutenant conducted himself throughout with the utmost coolness and high-toned courage," And yet his brother-officers who composed the court-martial, adjudged him to be a thief and a mur- derer.