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

72 APPEARA NCE OF CAMARGO.
greet us, I was struck with the benevolent expression of his
face, and the affability of his manner. He was invested with
no silly pomp or ceremony. There was no ice to break in
approaching him; but the natural grace and kindness of his
reception at once placed us at ease, and during the time he
gave us audience, our respect and admiration for the sturdy
old republican general momentarily increased. His first
question was concerning the health of the men, about which
he seemed extremely solicitous; and he expressed his anxiety
to hasten his army forward into a more salubrious region.
He conversed with a stammering voice. But if slow of
speech, no man could be more prompt in action than Old
_RougA and Ready. On arising to take leave, which we did
at the earliest suitable moment, he desired us to report to
General W~orth, who, he said, was in command at the
camp.
Returning to the boat, we had the satisfaction of finding
the wagons already laden with our sick and baggage. The
road to camp led us through the town,-if piles of crumbling
clay and straw might be so called. A short time previous to
its occupation by our troops, Camargo had been inundated,
and many of the houses being built of soft sun-dried bricks,
had partially dissolved. The roofs of some of them were yet
clinging mournfully to one tottering wall. The little church
and a few buildings around the Plaza, were in tolerable preservation. These were occupied as store-houses by our quarter-masters and commissaries. But few lMexicans remained
in the town, the population of which could at no period