Sketches of the campaign in northern Mexico : in eighteen hundred forty-six and seven / by an officer of the First Regiment of Ohio volunteers.

INTRODUCTION. vii
engaged in the field must be regarded, rather than the power and
resources of the belligerent countries.
As in all wars, we are compelled to lament among its consequences, the desolation of many hearts and homes; but it has also
extended the blessings of knowledge and of civil and religious
liberty to thousands; it has brought to us States, rivers and harbors, the possession of which was alone necessary for our political
and commercial pre-eminence among the nations of the earth.
More than this,-it has solved the problem of this country's
strength; and proved to European Powers, what they had previously denied, that the volunteer armies of the United States were
competent to carry on extended and offensive operations and to
conduct great wars to a successful issue. These are among its
fruits; and it is believed that,-beside the immense accession to
our territory and commerce, —the military reputation resulting
from it will tend, under Providence, to aid enlightened statesmen
in averting greater bloodshed hereafter.
On this subject it will be sufficient to quote, in conclusion, a few
lines from the admirable dispatch of our late distinguished Secretary of State (Mr. Everett) to the British and French governments
on the subject of the proposed tripartite treaty for the protection of
Cuba. In alluding to the great march of events on this continent,
he thus speaks of the splendid results of the Mexican war:"Without adverting to the difference of opinion which arose in
reference to this war, —as must always happen in free countries in
reference to great measures, —no person, surveying these events
with the eye of a comprehensive statesman, can fail to trace
in the main result, the undoubted operation of the law of our political existence. The consequences are before the world. Vast
provinces, which had languished for three centuries under the