on and we answered the sign."

"Kearney was the bravest man and the most perfect soldier I ever saw,"
said General Scott. "A man made for the profession of arms," says Rope.
"In the field he was always ready, always skillful, always brave, always
untiring, always hopeful, and always vigilant and alert."

He distinguished himself in the War with Mexico, and lost an arm while
he was leading cavalry troops in close pursuit of the retreating
Mexicans, at the battle of Churubusco, when they retreated into the city
of San Antonio itself.

Mounted upon his great gray steed, "Monmouth," he spurred through a
rampart, felling the Mexicans as he went. A thousand arms were raised to
strike him, a thousand sabers glistened in the air, when he hurriedly
fell back, but too late to escape the wound which necessitated the
amputation of his left arm.

At Churubusco ended the spectacular career of the celebrated San
Patricios battalion of Irish deserters, who deserted to the American
army on the Canadian border and afterwards deserted to the Mexicans from
the Texan border, fighting against the American in every Mexican war
battle of consequence from Palo Alto to Churubusco. After capture the
leaders and many of the men were court-martialed and shot; their
commander, the notorious Thomas Riley, among the latter. The survivors
were branded in the cheek with the letter "D" as a symbol of their
treachery.

General Kearney resigned from the army in 1851 and made a tour of the
world. He then went to France and fought in the war of that country
against Italy. At Magenta, while he was leading the daring and hazardous
charge that turned the situation and won Algiers to France, _he charged
with the bridle in his teeth_.

For his bravery he received the Cross of the Legion of Honor, being the
first American thus honored.

When the Civil War cloud burst, he came back to the United States and
was made brigadier general in the Federal army and given the command of
the First New Jersey Brigade.

His timely arrival at Williamsburg saved the day for the Federals.

In the engagement at Fair Oaks,

"Where the red volleys poured, where the clamor rose highest,
Where the aim from the thicket was surest and nighest,"

there was no charge like Kearney's.

"How he strode his brown steed! How we saw his blade brighten,
In the one hand still left,--and the reins in his teeth!"

General Oliver O. Howard lost his _right_ arm in this