Chapter II: Introduction

Of all forms of history, a good autobiography is the most pleasing and attractive. If the writer has been a prominent and responsible participant in great events, if high character warrants his faithfulness to truth, and if the events of which he writes are in themselves of great historic value, his autobiography will possess a peculiar charm and interest for every intelligent reader.

The generation that recalls from memory the events of our history connected with the admission of the great State of Texas into the American Union and the war with Mexico which followed has nearly all gone. Here and there a strong man survives whose memory is clear and whose conscience is true. To hear him talk of these events, or to read after him as he writes of the universal excitement in the country--the angry debates in Congress, the opposition to the admission of Texas, and to the war with Mexico, the brilliant campaign of Taylor, the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, and Buena Vista--is to enjoy history in its most attractive form. The historian who has been an active participant in the events of which he writes, whose passions have been cooled by age, and whose judgment has been disciplined by long years of experience and reflection enjoys an immense advantage. However we may disagree with him in his criticisms upon the conduct of men or upon their motives, if he be a man of high and true character, we enjoy the greatest satisfaction in accepting his positive statements as to facts which represent his own actions and experiences.

Gen. French is such a historian. The clear, natural, dispassionate style of his book--its freedom from bitterness, the tenderness with which he dwells upon the history of his classmates at West Point, several of whom became distinguished generals in the Federal army (Grant, Franklin, Ingalls, and Quinby)--all these characteristics of his autobiography soon win the confidence of the reader.

For the general reader of to-day, and especially for the survivors of the Confederate Army, Gen. French's autobiography will possess peculiar interest. The writer has enjoyed the opportunity of reading the advance sheets of the book only through the account of the battle of Allatoona, which was fought October 5, 1864, but as Gen. French participated in the campaign of Gen. Hood up to its predestined disaster at Nashville, the autobiography will be read with more than usual interest by students of the ill-starred march into Tennessee and the battles of Franklin and Nashville.

The venerable author of "Two Wars" has been an able and gallant soldier of his country, and the simple and graphic manner in which he writes of his distinguished services, and relates the great events in which he bore a faithful part, entitle his book to the confidence of his countrymen. It is a most valuable addition to our country's history, and a book which will be of permanent use in the study of our great Confederate struggle.

ELLISON CAPERS.

Columbia, S. C., July 1, 1901.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Ancestry--Thomas Ffrench--Military Aspiration--Important 1
Document--Appointment to West Point--New Jersey Farm Life--Great
Changes--A Real Yankee--Pennsylvania Hall--The Fashions--Capture
of a Hessian Soldier--Rufus Choate and Bishop Wainwright--West
Point--Cadet Life--Senator Wall--John F. Reynolds--The
Boycott--Rufus Ingalls--Requisites of a Commander

CHAPTER II.

Graduation--Commissioned Brevet Second Lieutenant, U. S. 20
A.--Ordered to Fort Macon, N. C.--Goldsboro--Journey to
Beaufort--Officers at the Fort--Life in a Casemate--Stormy
Atlantic--That Oyster Supper--The Wandering Cot--Adieu to Fort
Macon--Journey to Washington--Lieuts. George H. Thomas and John
Pope--Weldon, N. C.--Go to West Point--Prof. Morse--First
Dispatch--Hope Club, Washington--Dinner Given by Surgeon General
Lawson--Appointed Aid to Gen. Scott--British Gold--Col. S.
Churchill--Integrity of Old Army Officers--Leave Washington for
Fort McHenry--Society in Baltimore--Chief Justice Taney

CHAPTER III.

Death of Hon. A. P. Upshur, Secretary of State--Calhoun 30
Appointed--Treaty of Annexation of Texas--Declaration of the
State of Massachusetts--Texas Accepts the Resolution of
Annexation--Formation of Army of Occupation--Transferred to Maj.
S. Ringgold's Battery of Horse Artillery--Officers Sail for
Aransas Pass--The Wicked Captain--Becalmed--Cross Bahama
Banks--Key West--Out of Drinking Water--Fare on Board
Ship--Storm--Aransas Pass--St. Joseph's Island--Maj. Ringgold's
Cook--Embark for Corpus Christi--Game and Fish--Horse
Racing--White Horse of the Prairies--Trip to San Antonio--The
Town--Incidents of the Trip

CHAPTER IV.

President of Mexico Resigns, and Paredes Is Elected--Mexican 41
Troops Concentrating at Matamoras--Taylor Marches to the Rio
Grande--Rattlesnakes--Mirage--Wild Horses--Taylor Concentrates
His Troops at Arroyo, Colo.--Bull Fight--Mexicans Flee--Taylor
Goes to Point Isabel--Join Gen. Worth--Field Works--Arrival of
Gen. Ampudia--Orders Taylor to Leave--Taylor Declines--Col.
Cross Murdered--Lieut. Porter Killed--Gen. Arista
Arrives--Declares Hostilities Commenced--Capts. Thornton and
Hardee Captured

CHAPTER V.

Arista and His Cavalry--United States Excited--Two Hundred 47
Thousand Men Offer Their Services--Congress Declares "War
Existed by the Acts of the Mexican Republic"--Taylor Marches to
Point Isabel--Bombardment of Fort Brown--Capts. May and
Walker--Taylor Marches for Matamoras--Battle of Palo
Alto--Victory--Arista Falls Back to Resaca--Battle of
Resaca--Capture of Enemies' Batteries--Capts. May and
Ridgely--Gen. La Vega Captured--His Sword Presented to
Taylor--Duncan and Ridgely Pursue the Enemy--I Capture La Vega's
Aid--Col. McIntosh--Ride over the Field of Palo Alto--Death of
Lieuts. Chadburne and Stevens--We Take Possession of
Matamoras--Gen. Twiggs Appointed Governor--Twiggs and Jesus
Maria--Arrival of Gens. W. O. Butler, Robert Patterson, Pillow,
and Others--Promoted to Second Lieutenant--Officers of the
Company--March to Camargo--Thence to Monterey--Seralvo--Arrival
at Monterey

CHAPTER VI.

Monterey--Population--Gen. Ampudia--Gen. Worth--Capture a 61
Fort--Battery in a Hot Place--Bragg's Order Countermanded--Two
Long-Haired Texans--Capture the Bishop's Palace--Our Battery
Ordered to the East End of the City--Gens. Taylor and
Quitman--Street Fighting--Gen. Ampudia Surrenders--Gen. Worth,
Gov. Henderson, and Col. Jefferson Davis Commissioners--Enter
the City--Dine with a Mexican Gentleman--Death of Ridgely--Hot
Springs--Santa Anna President--Victoria Surrenders--Gen.
Scott--Vera Cruz--Return to Monterey--Death of Lieut.
Richey--Investigation of Richey's
Death--Monterey--Saltillo--Agua Nueva--Gen. Wool--Santa Anna
Advances--Majs. Borland and Gaines Captured--Taylor Falls Back
to Buena Vista--Mexican Army--Am Wounded--The Hacienda--Cavalry
Fight with Mexican Lancers--Flag of Truce--Victory--Carried to
Saltillo

CHAPTER VII.

Drs. T. C. Madison, U. S. A., and G. M. Provost--Surgical 85
Operation--Courtesy of a Mexican Woman--Leave Saltillo--Paltry
Escort--Safe at Monterey--The Rio Grande--Maj. W. W. H.
Davis--New Orleans--Gen. Pillow--Col. McIntosh--Bailey Peyton
and Sergeant S. Prentiss--Drunk by Absorption--Steamer for
Louisville--Racing on the River--Trip to Pittsburg, Pa.--By
Canal Boat to Harrisburg--Home--Report to the Adjutant
General--Go to Trenton, N. J.--Presentation of a Sword--Go to
Washington--John W. Forney's Bargain with Secretary
Buchanan--Capt. A. W. Reynolds--Sent to Troy, N. Y--Gen.
Wool--Leave Buffalo--Toledo--To Cincinnati by Canal--Society in
Cincinnati--Appointed Captain and Assistant Quartermaster--Start
for Washington--Cross the Alleghany Mountains by Stage--Six
Commissions in United States Army--Reception by Gen.
Jesup--Capt. Rufus Ingalls

CHAPTER VIII.

Ordered to New Orleans--Baton Rouge--Col. W. W. S. Bliss--Maj. 96
J. H. Eaton--Maj. R. S. Garnett--Taylor Nominated for
President--Return to New Orleans--Ordered to Vicksburg--"Gen."
McMacken, the Prince of Landlords--Bishop Polk--Sent to
Mobile--Regular Army at East Pascagoula, Miss.--Gen. Twiggs and
His Fiancée--Sail for
Galveston--Galveston--Houston--Austin--Troops Sent to Establish
Posts, now Cities--San Antonio--Death of Gen. Worth--El
Paso--Return to San Antonio--New Orleans--Call on Gen.
Twiggs--Twiggs and Tree--Sword Presented to Me--Dine at the
President's--Death of President Taylor--Fillmore
President--Capt. Ringgold, U. S. N.--Ordered to
Louisville--Return to Washington--Col. Joseph Taylor--Gen. W. O.
Butler--Maj. Gaines--Cincinnati--Salmon P. Chase

CHAPTER IX.

January, 1851, Ordered to El Paso--Capt. Sitgreaves--Sail for 107
Havana--Barnum and Jennie Lind--Sail for New Orleans--By Steamer
to Galveston--On the Gulf for Indianola--San Antonio--Report of
Expedition--Unprecedented March without Water--Indians--With
Gen. Jesup--Hartford Convention--Battles on the Canadian
Frontier--Gov. W. P. Duval (Ralph Ringwood)--United States
Senators--Clay's Magnetism--His Duel with John Randolph--Lieut.
R. F. Stockton, United States Navy, Duel with English Officers
at Gibraltar--John Howard Payne--Commodore Van Rensselaer
Morgan--My Marriage--Assigned to Fort Smith, Ark.--Trips to
Washita, Fort Gibson, and Towson--Choctaws and Cherokees--John
Ross--Journey from Fort Smith to Natchez, Miss.--A
Misanthrope--Gen. John A. Quitman--Death of Mrs. Roberts--Tender
My Resignation--Go to My Plantation--Go to San Antonio--Death of
Mrs. French--Sail for Europe--John Brown's Raid

CHAPTER X.

Canada, Boston, Rye Beach--Antislavery Party Nominates Lincoln 135
for President--His Election Evidence of Hostility to the
South--Mississippi Secedes--Gov. Pettus--Appointed Colonel and
Chief of Ordnance in the Army of the State of Mississippi--State
Had No Arms--Governor Sends an Agent to Europe to Purchase
Arms--Laboratory for Making Ammunition--Flannel and Paper to
Make Cartridges--Cartridges and Horse Collars--Only Old Flint
Muskets--Old Shotguns--Governor Objects to the State Troops
Going out of the State--Visit Home--Am Offered the Appointment
of Brigadier General, Confederate States of America