321 Republic of Mexico was again established, and that the invaders and usurpers thereof should be compelled to withdraw. Sheridan was sent to the performance of this difficult task. The selection of his lieutenants was left to his judgment. A few days after the occupation of Richmond, which occurred. before Appomattox, Major-General Godfrey Weitzel, of the Army of the James, by whom the Confederate capital was taken, was ordered to Washington. On arrival, and upon reporting to the War Department, he was informed by Secretary Stanton of the intended movement to the Rio Grande and of its probable character. With this information he was offered the second command, under General Sheridan as department commander. Troops to the number of 53,000 were already detailed for the new field operations, and General Weitzel was expected to proceed at once to Brownsville, Texas. Weitzel and his staff were on the ground before the grand review was over at the National Capital. Steps were quickly taken in preparation of any work that might have to be done. General John A. Logan with his famous Fourteenth Army Corps-the men who bore through so many campaigns and battles, the significant badge of a cartridge-box and forty roundswas sent from Washington to Little Rock, Arkansas. The forces in the Department of Louisiana were sent forward towards Shreveport. Major-General J. J. Reynolds, commanding the Department of Arkan 21 LAS CRUCES, VALLEY OF MESILA, NEW MEXICO. HEADQUARTERS OF THE CALIFORNIA BRIGADE. sas and the Seventh Army Corps, was at Little Rock. Major-General James G. Blunt, of Kansas, had been ordered from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Gibson, on the Arkansas and within the Cherokee country, where he was to actively equip the Indians in the Union service (three regiments), several regiments of colored infantry also, with a sufficient force of volunteer cavalry to make a mounted column of at least ten thousand men. This force was to enter Northern Texas and push towards the Rio Grande, in the neighborhood of El Paso, or, as it was then known, the frontier village of Franklin. Major-General John A. Pope, who, after the second battle of Bull Run, was placed in command of the Department of the Northwest, had been relieved by Major-General S. R. Curtis and ordered to the command of the military division of the Missouri, with headquarters at St. Louis. General Sheridan went first to New Orleans, and soon after to Brownsville, at the mouth of the Rio Grande, where General Weitzel's headquarters were already established. The Gulf coast was in our possession. Heavy reinforcements were also sent there. Matamoras on the opposite side of the river was the headquarters of the Confeder. te spies, blockade runners, and others of similar character. An immense quantity of military stores and other goods, "contraband of war," had been received through this place for the Confederacy. A strong garrison was maintained by the Austrian-French invaders and their Mexican associates. A considerable number of prominent Confederates was daily passing over the Rio Grande border. Altogether, and to all appearances, at the outset it was a lively field of operations on which Sheridan now made his advent. It was feared at first by the military authorities that detached bodies of Confederate soldiery might succeed in crossing the Mississippi in numbers sufficient to prolong the struggle. It was anticipated as a necessary consequence of this, that we should defeat and drive them westward upon Mexico, and in that way, possibly, bring on the hopedfor collision with Maximilian and his ally, Marshal Bazaine. But it was decided that the French must leave Mexico. The surrender of Kirby Smith on the eighteenth day of May to General Pope at Shreveport, Louisiana, put an end to the prospect of any further Confederate campaigning. That surrender was the last act of war in the great fouryears struggle. The last brush between troops of the two armies occurred, however, a few days later, when a Texas infantry colonel, under the pretense that he had not known of the surrender, brought on a short, sharp fight with a body of colored soldiers. This little ebullition was of no importance. Sheridan remained in command until, in fact, the invaders had left Mexico, Maximilian had been shot at Queretaro, and Jaurez, the great Indian president and liberator, was once more established in the city of Mexico. The French Emperor, as our State Department reports show in the correspondence they contain, fully understood what was meant by the ordering of Sheridan to the Rio Grande and the rapid concentration in the Southwest of so large a force. Mr. Seward succeeded in making our determination quite plain to the crafty schemer of the Tuileries. The withdrawal of Bazaine by Louis Napoleon's order, was the signal for the downfall of his puppet-the Austrian archduke who played emperor for about four years. Sheridan was near the Rio Grande until the end. He had a great deal of interesting work to attend to, and some repressive measures to rigidly enforce, amid a restless and still hostile population. It is unnecessary to say that his work was well done. The story of Mexico and our relations to the struggling republic, is one of great interest. It has never been told. Probably it never will be, for diplomats are statecraft detectives who believe in secrecy; and so many who knew since these events have "crossed the river." Seward, Jaurez, Grant, Louis Napoleon, Maximilian, Slidell, Gwin, and Mason, might have given, each in his place, the whole story. Even now Romero, the astute, yet honest Mexican representative, could outline the whole matter. It is probable, however, that, like the presence of a Russian fleet on the Pacific coast during our Civil War period, and the subsequent purchase of Alaska from Russia, the truth about the relations between the United States and Mexico during the same period will only be hinted at and never fully explained. What is known, however, is worthy of recital, especially as it remained an instrument in Sheridan's hands while on observation upon the Rio Grande. The manner in which the Mexican Republic was aided in many directions, as well as the internal questions involved in the maintenance of order within our own borders for the two years following the advent of Generals Sheridan and Weitzel, would form, if it could be fully and fairly told, one of the most interesting chapters of the war and reconstruction periods. At Brownsville the Union commander had his hands full in both directions. General Mejia, the leading Mexican commander in the service of Maximilian, had his headquarters at Matamoras. The Republican General Escabedo was operating against the Imperialists in the lower part of what is now known as the Mexican Free Zone. Cortinas, the notorious partisan leader, was fighting for the Republic, and made himself a continued thorn in the side of Mejia and the Matamoras Imperialists. The state of feeling at that place towards the Federal troops and their cause may be seen in an incident that occurred but a few evenings before General Weitzel arrived at Brownsville. A mock funeral was held of Abraham Lincoln, the news of whose assassination had just arrived. It was done in derision. Tapers were lighted, masses parodied and intoned, and at the close a bottle of wine was opened and flung over the mask that was supposed to represent the dead American President. The Imperialist Mejia sought eagerly, however, to gain the good graces of the Union commander. But Weitzel, under orders, acted with a cold reserve that quickly made the renegade Mexican and his allies understand the nature of the feeling with which he and they were regarded on this side of Rio Grande Bravo del Norte. As quickly, too, did the Republicans learn the sentiment and expectations held on our side. The staff officers and others were tacitly encouraged in making friends with the Mexicans. Cortinas and Escabedo were early and frequently in communication with our headquarters. A staff officer of General Weitzel, now a practicing physician in Providence, Dr. Graves, has given some interesting details of the condition of the Mexican camps and troops. At the first visit made to General Cortinas' camp (on leave, and privately as a guest, and not as an American officer) it was found that one thousand men were present. No two arms were of the same pattern, and in the whole command there were but eight hundred cartridges, of which no half dozen were of the same number or pattern. Escabedo's camp was in but a little better condition. Neither command possessed a quartermaster or commissary department; and they were both entirely without surgeons, medical stores, drugs, or hospital service of any kind. It is true that they possessed the Indian-Mexicans' wonderful knowledge of simples and herbs, of that remarkable pharmacopia of nature which the woods, shrubs, and plants of Mexico offer in abundance to those who know their secrets. But it soon became evident to the Imperialists that the Republicans were rapidly becoming better equipped, especially in arms and ordnance stores. They could readily guess the source of supply, but did not dare make their knowledge a cause of complaint. About that time it is probable that the records of the War Department will show an extraordinary shipment of arms and munitions of war, of quartermaster's supplies, of artillery and equipments, and of commissariat and medical stores, to the Gulf of Mexico and Browns |