invasion, and that negotiations would ultimately terminate the dispute. This is the only ground upon which we can reasonably account for the apparent carelessness of our government in not placing a force upon the Rio Grande, adequate to encounter all the opposing array. Congress was in session when the news reached Washington. The president immediately announced the fact, and, on the 13th of May, 1846, ten millions of dollars were appropriated to carry on the war, and fifty thousand volunteers were ordered to be raised. An "Army of the West" was directed to be formed under the command of Kearney, at fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri, which was to cross the country to the Pacific, after capturing New Mexico. An "Army of the Centre," under General Wool, was to assemble at San Antonio de Bejar whence it was to march upon Coahuila and Chihuahua, and, whilst the heart and the west of Mexico were penetrated by these officers, it was designed that Taylor should make war on the northern and eastern states of the Mexican republic. In addition to these orders to the army, the naval forces, under Commodores Stockton and Sloat in the Pacific, and Commodore Conner, in the Gulf of Mexico, were commanded to co-operate with our land forces, to harass the enemy, and to aid, with all their power, in the subjugation and capture of Mexican property and territory.
Immediately after Thornton's surrender, General Taylor, availing himself of authority with which he had been invested to call upon the governors of Louisiana and Texas for military aid, demanded four regiments of volunteers from each state, for the country in the neighborhood of the Rio Grande was alive with belligerant Mexicans. He then visited the fortifications opposite Matamoros, and finding the garrison but scantly supplied with provisions, hastened back to Point Isabel with a formidable escort, and obtaining the requisite rations, commenced his march back to Matamoros and the fort on the 7th of May. But, in the interval, General Arista, had crossed the Rio Grande with his forces, and