the ablest men Ohio ever produced,” Grant wrote in his memoirs. “I have always believed that had his life been spared, he would have been President of the United States during the term filled by President Pierce. Had Hamer filled that office his partiality for me was such, there is but little doubt that I should have been appointed to one of the staff corps of the army—the Pay Department probably—and would therefore now be preparing to retire. Neither of these speculations is unreasonable, and they are mentioned to show how little men control their own destiny.”
T he capture of Monterrey made Taylor a national hero, causing Polk to recalculate the politics of the war. Perhaps Taylor, not Scott, was the larger threat to a Democratic succession. Polk talked himself into discounting Taylor’s accomplishment—he complained that Taylor shouldn’t have letAmpudia’s army march away—and maligning Taylor’s motives. “He is evidently a weak man and has been made giddy with the idea of the Presidency,” Polk wrote in his diary. “He is a narrow minded, bigoted partisan, without resources and wholly unqualified for the command he holds.” To undermine Taylor, Polk commenced to favor Scott. He endorsed Scott’s plan for an invasion of central Mexico and let Scott strip Taylor of some of his victorious troops.
Grant’s regiment was one of those reassigned to Scott. Grant admired Taylor and was proud of what the army had achieved under the general, but he was happy to be heading to what promised to be the decisive theater of the war. The excitement of the victory at Monterrey had been followed by the tedium of camp life. “Here we are, playing war a thousand miles from home, making show and parades but not doing enough fighting to much amuse either the enemy or ourselves, consuming rations enough to have carried us to the capital of Mexico,” Grant wrote from Monterrey in December 1846. “If our mission is to occupy the enemy’s territory, it is a success, for we are inertly here; but if to conquer, it seems to some of us who have no control that we might as well be performing the job with greater energy. While the authorities at Washington are at sea as to who shall lead the army, the enterprise ought andcould be accomplished.” In his memoirs Grant would say he had doubted the justice of America’s policy toward Mexico from the moment of the annexation ofTexas. “I was bitterly opposed to the measure,” he wrote, “and to this day regard the war which resulted as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory.” But at the end of 1846 he wasn’t writing so broadly. He simply told Julia he wished the war had never started. “I begin to think like one of our captains who said that if he was the Government he would whip Mexico until they would be content to take the Sabine for their boundary and he would make them take the Texans with it.”
The reassignment to Scott’s army injected new life into the regiment. “As soon as Gen. Scott took command, everything was changed,” Grant told Julia in early 1847. The officers cracked the men into trim, and central Mexico beckoned even as it threatened. “At Vera Cruz we will probably have a desperate fight but our little Army goes so much better prepared than it has ever done before that there is no doubt as to the result. I fear, though, that there is so much pride in the Mexican character that they will not give up even if we should take every town in the Republic.”
The regiment marched from Monterrey to the mouth of the Rio Grande, where they awaited naval transport to Vera Cruz. The ships arrived after several weeks, and Grant boarded the North Carolina with four hundred of his fellows. The voyage was rough. “A great part of the time we have had a very heavy sea and
T he capture of Monterrey made Taylor a national hero, causing Polk to recalculate the politics of the war. Perhaps Taylor, not Scott, was the larger threat to a Democratic succession. Polk talked himself into discounting Taylor’s accomplishment—he complained that Taylor shouldn’t have letAmpudia’s army march away—and maligning Taylor’s motives. “He is evidently a weak man and has been made giddy with the idea of the Presidency,” Polk wrote in his diary. “He is a narrow minded, bigoted partisan, without resources and wholly unqualified for the command he holds.” To undermine Taylor, Polk commenced to favor Scott. He endorsed Scott’s plan for an invasion of central Mexico and let Scott strip Taylor of some of his victorious troops.
Grant’s regiment was one of those reassigned to Scott. Grant admired Taylor and was proud of what the army had achieved under the general, but he was happy to be heading to what promised to be the decisive theater of the war. The excitement of the victory at Monterrey had been followed by the tedium of camp life. “Here we are, playing war a thousand miles from home, making show and parades but not doing enough fighting to much amuse either the enemy or ourselves, consuming rations enough to have carried us to the capital of Mexico,” Grant wrote from Monterrey in December 1846. “If our mission is to occupy the enemy’s territory, it is a success, for we are inertly here; but if to conquer, it seems to some of us who have no control that we might as well be performing the job with greater energy. While the authorities at Washington are at sea as to who shall lead the army, the enterprise ought andcould be accomplished.” In his memoirs Grant would say he had doubted the justice of America’s policy toward Mexico from the moment of the annexation ofTexas. “I was bitterly opposed to the measure,” he wrote, “and to this day regard the war which resulted as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory.” But at the end of 1846 he wasn’t writing so broadly. He simply told Julia he wished the war had never started. “I begin to think like one of our captains who said that if he was the Government he would whip Mexico until they would be content to take the Sabine for their boundary and he would make them take the Texans with it.”
The reassignment to Scott’s army injected new life into the regiment. “As soon as Gen. Scott took command, everything was changed,” Grant told Julia in early 1847. The officers cracked the men into trim, and central Mexico beckoned even as it threatened. “At Vera Cruz we will probably have a desperate fight but our little Army goes so much better prepared than it has ever done before that there is no doubt as to the result. I fear, though, that there is so much pride in the Mexican character that they will not give up even if we should take every town in the Republic.”
The regiment marched from Monterrey to the mouth of the Rio Grande, where they awaited naval transport to Vera Cruz. The ships arrived after several weeks, and Grant boarded the North Carolina with four hundred of his fellows. The voyage was rough. “A great part of the time we have had a very heavy sea and
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