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

150 VISIT TO TAYLOIR.
ally ignored. Two Catholic priests were attached to our
army, but what part they were instructed to perform in the
campaign is, to the writer at least, unknown. Qubien s;ale?
Certainly they never, perhaps for lack of encouragement,
observed the divine injunction declared by the Prophet whom
the Lord knew face to face-" And it shall be., when ye are
come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and
speak unto the people." If, as some believed, their appointment was designed by the government as a master-strole of
policy, it deserves to rank with the admission of Santa Anna
to the blockaded port of Vera Cruz. But whatever may
have been the motives of the Cabinet in the matter, the
worthy ecclesiastics were well received by the army, and
treated with due respect by the commanding general, who,
unlike the Constable de Bourbon, had no fear that men would
say-" Taylor is turned driveler, and rides to war in company with monks.9" -
At an early hour on the 20th, (Sunday,) I had occasion to
visit head-quarters, where I found the General sitting before
his tent, as "C calm as a summer's morning." I learned soon
afterward that an attack would probably not be made that
day, and that the engineers under the direction of the gallant
and accomplished Mansfield, were again busied with the
reconnoisance. The position of affairs at that period, as
will readily be seen, was well calculated to inspire the commander-in-chief with the most painful anxiety. ]No one,
* The reverend gentlemen alluded to, were Fathers McElroy and Rey. The
former, I believe, remained at Matamoros, but the latter marched with us to Monterey, and was murdered by the Mexicans soon after the capture of the city.