Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

This country seemed to be protected by its own immensity; but the Americans, who have been too often accused of tardiness, soon overcame this obstacle. Their columns swept rapidly over the territory, while a few insignificant bands rushed upon it with a degree of audacity which demands our attention for a moment.

At the outset of the war General Kearny starts from Fort Leavenworth with twenty-seven hundred men, for the purpose of conquering New Mexico, the State of Chihuahua, and California —countries the surface of which is three or four times as large as that of France. This column, however, consists only of three squadrons of regular cavalry, the rest being made up of volunteers recruited in haste, two regiments of Missouri cavalry, one battalion of Mormons, and some artillery. A considerable train of provisions and ammunition accompanies them, for they have to cross a desert of four hundred leagues in order to reach the capital of New Mexico, Santa Fe which is situated between two branches of the Cordilleras, upon an elevated plateau on which rain seldom falls, and where there is only to be met a narrow strip of grass on the margin of the little river, called even at this point the Rio Grande. At the entrance of this plateau the Mexicans occupy a defile of less than twelve metres in width. The Americans enter it with all their train, knowing well that in the event of their being driven back into the desert which stretches behind them, they must perish to a man; but their audacity disconcerts the Mexicans, who disappear at their approach, and fifty days after quitting the borders of the Missouri, Kearny and his little band enter the capital (August 22, 1846) without striking a blow.

But this conquest was only the first stage in the undertaking; it has scarcely been secured when Kearny, with a simple escort of one hundred dragoons and two mountain-howitzers, launches out into a new desert of four hundred leagues in extent to join hands with Colonel Fremont on the shores of the Pacific, and share with him the conquest of California. Fremont, a skilful