George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Major-General United States Army
George Gordon Meade, Ed.

[86] the means and the force to take the place, and the place he must have, and he left it to them to decide whether it should be done at the expense of life and property or not. They chose the latter alternative, and retreated, and if we only had a cavalry force, such as we ought to have, we could have pursued and taken the whole of them.

I do not think any plans are yet decided on for our future movements. The General will collect here and organize the large volunteer force sent from Louisiana and Texas, which, when it all gets here, will swell our force to over ten thousand men. By that time, probably, definite instructions will come from Washington by which he will be guided.

We have all been very much disappointed in the appearance of the town; decidedly the most pleasing view of it is from the other side. It is built in the Spanish fashion—low houses with flat roofs —but has evidently been on the decline for many years, as a majority of the houses are decayed and falling to pieces. It is almost entirely abandoned by the better part of the community, and those in it now are the most miserable-looking beings you ever saw; and as to the black-eyed senoras we all longed to see, we find nothing but old hags, worse looking than Indians. So you may rest easy, notwithstanding Master John's insinuations against me.

General Taylor would not occupy the town, but has encamped outside of it, and only allows a certain number of the men to go in at a time. He has a patrol on duty night and day, to pick up any of our people who are disorderly, and as yet not one injury has been committed on person or property.

I have been in the saddle all day, making a reconnoissance of the environs of the town, with a view to select suitable sites for encampments and for the defence of the place. Indeed, I am kept going all the time, and to this activity do I attribute my very good health. The weather is warm, but not so disagreeable as it is in Philadelphia at this season, as we always have a fine breeze.

Congratulate the Major (I mean Bache) for me on his return home. Say to him I wish sincerely he were here. There is a fine field for him, and I feel confident he would have a most eminent position.

I forgot to mention we lost yesterday a fine officer, Lieutenant Stevens, of the Dragoons, who was drowned in swimming his horse across the river.