September 17, 1845 Article 1
The Army of Observation. — We abridge
from an official statement in the Union, some information in regard to
the force under Gen. Taylor, prepared when the latest dates from the
camp at Corpus Christi were the 26th ult. It appears that
Gen. Taylor has, at no time since his arrival at Aransas Bay, felt any
solicitude for the safety of his command, or the necessity of calling
for auxiliary force, even from Texas. The two gallant companies of
artillery which, with such promptness and patriotic spirit,
volunteered to go to Texas from New Orleans, under the belief that
their country stood in need of their services, have arrived at Gen.
Taylor’s camp. As there has not been, and probably will no be, any
emergency requiring them, they will not, probably, be long detained
from their homes. It is the General’s intention to discharge them as
soon as a few more of the regular artillery, now on the way to Texas,
shall have arrived, unless things on the Mexican side of the Rio
Grande shall assume a more threatening aspect.
Tho mos reliable accounts represent
that there were, near the middle of August, only about 500 regular
Mexican troops at Matamoros, and that Gen. Arista was to leave Monterey
on the 4th of that month, for the former place, a distance of
300 miles, with 1500 more troops, 500 of them cavalry, but there was no
news of his arrival at Matamoros. It is not known or believed that
there are regular Mexican troops at any other point on the Rio Grande.
It was probably the original intention to employ these troops in
carrying out the threat of Mexico to take possession of Texas;
but the presence of the United States army, and the
preparations in Texas to meet and repel their advance, have caused this
design to be abandoned – for the present, at least.
The regular troops of the United States now in Texas, and those on the
way there, are deemed sufficient to keep in check the Mexican forces
assembled, or likely to be assembled, on the Rio Grande. General
Taylor’s attention has not been exclusively confined to the Mexicans; he
has had an eye to the Camanches, and taken measures to guard the country
from their incursions.
Source: The Daily Picayune,
September 17, 1845, p. 2, col. 2.
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