r uncertain into what bushes of the neighboring
chaparral the norther had blown their tents, and they went out in search
of their missing cotton duck shelters. The entire force encamped at the
Rio Grande border was in the dark as to what it might next be ordered to
do, and all sorts of rumors went around from regiment to regiment, as if
the rumor manufacturer had gone crazy. General Taylor himself was sure
of at least the one point, that he had no right to cross the muddy river
in front of him and make a raid into Mexico until he should hear again
from the government at Washington, and be officially informed that the
war, which he was carrying on so well, had really begun. He and all his
army believed that it was already going on, and they grumbled
discontentedly that they were compelled to remain in camp, and watch for
ranchero lancers on Texan soil, if it was legally Texan at all, until
permission arrived to strike their tents and march forward.

The news of the fighting and of what were described as the great battles
on the Mexican border had reached New Orleans and Key West. It was
travelling northward at full speed, but it had not yet been heard by the
government or by the people of the North and West. None of these had as
yet so much as imagined what a telegraphic news-bringer might be, and so
they could not even wish that they had one, or they would surely have
done so. The uncertainties of that morning, therefore, hampered all the
councils of the nation. Almost everybody believed that there would soon
be a war, although a great many men were strongly opposed to the idea of
having one. Taking the war for granted, however, there were doubts and
differences of opinion among both military and unmilitary men as to how
it was to be carried on. Some were opposed to anything more than a
defence of the Rio Grande boundary-line, but these moderate persons were
hooted at by the out-and-out war party, whom nothing promised to
satisfy but an invasion which intended the capture of the city of
Mexico. Nothing less than this, they said, would obtain the objects of
the war, and secure a permanent peace at the end of it. Then, supposing
such an invasion to be decided on, an important question arose as to how
and where the Mexican territory might best be entered by a conquering
army. Many declared that General Taylor's forces were already at the
right place for pushing ahead, but the commander-in-chief, General
Winfield Scott, by a