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

32(3 OPINIONS OF IT AT MONTEREY.'Various opinions were expressed at Mionterey, about this
sanguinary and merciless transaction. Many justified it by
the wanton cruelties inflicted upon our countrymen near
Ramas, in which some of these same MAiexicans were probably enugaged; and for which outrages the rancheros certainly had no apology whatever. Others thought it necessary as a warning and example to the people, whom we had
so long in vain endeavored to conciliate, and whom we could
only intimidate by some such sudden and heavy blow. Some
excused it as the result of a wild stormn of passion; by the
long rankling injuries of the Texans, or by the border code
of " blood for blood." It forms one of the darkest passages
in the history of the campaign; and in fact, can not be justified on the score of necessity of any kind. I would fain blot
it out from these memoirs; and it is alluded to here chiefly
because as an officer of that detachment, I desire to exculpate
my own regiment from any participation in the atrocious
on that subject. Thle outrages to which you have specifically referred became
known to me soon after their occurrence, and I can assure you that neither yourself nor the president of the republic could have felt deeper regret than myself on
those occasions. Every means in my power, within the operation of our laws,
were employed, but in most cases in vain, to identify and punish the delinquents.
I can not suppose you so badly informed as to believe that such atrocities were
committed with my connivance or consent; or that they furnish a fair example of
the mode in which the war has been conducted in this part of Mexico. They were
in truth unfortunate exceptions, caused by circumstances beyond my control. It is
proper to inform you that, firom the moment the American army first entered the
territory of Mexico, it has sustained losses of individual officers and soldiers, who
halve been murdered by Mexicans, sometimes almost within sight of its own camp.
I (:o not recall these fahets for the purpose of' justifying, in any degree, the practice
of retaliation; for nm-3y government is at any rate " civilized enough " to draw the
distinction between the lowest acts of individuals and the general policy which
governs the operations of an army; but you have chosen to institute a comparison
between our respective governments in their mode of waging war, which can not
pass unnoticed. In this connection let it be remembered that Mexican troops have
given to the world the example of killing wounded men upon the field of battle."