Such deeds as have recently been perpetrated by a portion of the Arkansas cavalry cast indelible disgrace upon our arms, and the reputation of our country. The General had hoped that he might be able, in a short tim.e, to re- sume offensive operations ; but if orders, discipline, and all the dictates of humanity are set at defiance, it is vain to expect anything but disaster and defeat. The men who cowardly put to death unofending Mexicans are not those who will sustain the honor of our arms in the day of trial."
If the General meant to intimate that cruelty and bravery are incompatible, he is contradicted by the unani- mous testimony of all military history.
The correspondent of the Charleston Mercury, writing from Monterey after its capture, says, " As at Metamoras, murder, robbery, and rape, were committed in the broad light of day ; and, as if desirous to signalize themselves at Monterey by some new act of atrocity they burned many of the thatched huts of the poor peasants. It is thought that more than one hundred of the inhabitants were mur- dered in cold blood."
It is not to be supposed that where human life is thus atrociously sacrificed with in^punity, the decencies of so- ciety and the rights of property will be respected. A correspondent of the New Orleans Picayune writes from Ceralvo : "On arriving at Mier, we learned that the second regiment of Indiana Troops had committed, the day before, outrages against the citizens of the most dis- graceful character, stealing, or rather robbing, insulting the women, breaking into houses, and other feats of similar character. Recently the people here have received treatment from men stationed here, that negroes in a state of insurrection would hardly be guilty of. The women have been repeatedly violated (almost an every day affair), houses broken open, and insults of every kind have been offered to those whom we were bound to protect."