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

148 ANTICIPATIONS OF THE BATTLE.
being generally inexperienced in military affairs, yet having
blind confidence in their Chief, had no idea that the means
in our possession were considered inadequate to the easy
accomplishment of the object in view, and I believe that
most of them would gladly have stormed at any hour.
But belligerent as man is said to be by nature, and anxious
as all were to participate in that most interesting of great
events, a battle, yet, probably, there were but few persons in
the army who could regard with indifference such a trial as
was then at hand. Officers high in rank, or occupying those
fortunate positions which secure for them a favorable mention
in the official reports, may see bright rewards glittering in
the dark and dangerous future. In their ears, the weird sisters may whisper mystic promises of the Presidency, the
Senate, and Foreign Missions. But life is their stake also,
and considering the responsibilities as well as the rewards
attending rank and station, it is doubtful whether their
minds are as much at ease on the eve of battle, as those
of the nameless soldiers, abused in the particular, and
applauded in the aggregate, who are destined to die unwept,
or live unhonored. To all ranks, particularly to us raw volunteers, the proximity of our enemy, and the certainty of combat, was strangely exciting. How anxiously did the mind at
that hour contemplate the future! How busy, too, was
memory with the past! How ineffably pleasing to the
aroused senses were all the works of nature then! For
ourselves we would confess, that when emerging from the
shadow of the wood, we entered the open, moonlight plain in
which the guard was stationed, the earth and its, 6' majestical