THE MEXICAN WAR: HISTORY OF ITS ORIGIN, AND A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE VICTORIES WHICH TERMINATED IN TO WHICH IS ADDED THE TREATY OF PEACE, AND VALUABLE TABLES OF THE STRENGTH AND LOSSES OF THE UNITED BY EDWARD D. MANSFIELD, GRADUATE OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY. TENTH EDITION. A. S. BARNES AND COMPANY, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO. 1873. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, BY A. S. BARNES & Co., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 9932 Ref 973.5 PREFACE. It has been wisely remarked by a distinguished American statesman, that "the commencement of the Mexican War was the opening of a new volume of American history." Nations, like individuals, are often borne along in their progress, without pausing to consider the particular acts which are to shape and control their future destiny; and perhaps there is no subject on which the public mind is less likely to act with caution and deliberation than on the momentous question of peace or war. The present Mexican war is a striking illustration of this principle. It would appear, from the public documents, that neither the President nor Congress anticipated it until hostilities had actually commenced, and it may well be doubted if either can see the consequences which yet may flow from it. To pause, therefore, and review the past, to examine into all the causes which have led to the unhappy estrangement of two sister Republics, |