Mihtar}^ discipline confines to the commanding officer the prerogative of plundering the enemy, and he would no doubt wish to protect it from encroachment at all times.
On the present occasion the General thought proper to dissuade the army from indulging their larcenous propen- sities, not from motives of justice and humanity, but the difficulty ofprocuring supplies !
This same General, in an order issued at Yera Cruz, 1st April, 1847, declared that " many undoubted atrocities have been committed in this neighborhood by a few worthless soldiers, both regulars and volunteers." The army was about marching into the interior, and to conciliate the inhabitants, and remove the unfavorable impressions made by these " atrocities," he issued a proclamation promising protection to the Mexicans, and teUing them, that for out- rages committed upon them, several Americans had already been punished by fine and imprisonment, and one " has- been hung by the neck." " Is not this," said he, " a proof of good faith and energetic discipline ?" The Gene- ral did not tell the Mexicans how very cheap a sacrifice he had offered to propitiate them. The one " hung by the neck," was a negro, and hence no military popularity was lost by his execution, and being a free negro, no 'pro- perty was destroyed. We have no evidence that during the whole war, a single soldier was punished with death for any outrage committed on ^lexicans, however atro- cious.
General Taylor, in a despatch to the War Department, 16th June, 1847, remarks, "I deeply regret to report that many of the twelve months' volunteers, in their route hence to the lower Rio Grande, have committed extensive depredations and outrages upon the peaceable inhabitants.