CHAPTEE IX. 

 1846 — 1847. 



GENERAL WOOL INSPECTS AND MUSTERS THE WESTERN TROOPS. 



ARMY OF THE CENTRE. NEW MEXICO KEARNEY MAC- 



NAMARA CALIFORNIA. FREMONT SONOMA CALIFORNIAN 



INDEPENDENCE POSSESSION TAKEN. SLOAT STOCKTON. 



A REVOLT PICO TREATY OF COUENGA. KEARNEY AT 



SAN PASCUAL IS RELIEVED DISPUTES SAN GABRIELLE 



MESA LOS ANGELES. FREMONT'S CHARACTER, SERVICES, 



TRIAL. 



General Wool, who had been for a long period inspector gen- 

 eral of the United States army, was entrusted with the difficult 

 task of examining the recruits in the west, and set forth on his 

 journey after receiving his orders on the 29th of May, 1846. He 

 traversed the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ten* 

 nessee and Mississippi, and, in somewhat less than two months, 

 had journeyed three thousand miles and mustered twelve thousand 

 men into service. This expedition of a hardy soldier exhibits, at 

 once, the powers of a competent American officer, and the facility 

 with which an efficient corps (Parmee, may at any urgent moment, 

 be raised in our country. 



Nearly nine thousand of these recruits were sent to Taylor on the 

 Rio Grande, while those who were destined for the " Army of the 

 Centre," rendezvoused at Bejar, in Texas. At this place their 

 commander Wool joined them, and commenced the rigid system 

 of discipline, under accomplished officers, which made his division 

 a model in the army. He marched from Bejar with five hundred 

 regulars and two thousand four hundred and fifty volunteers, on the 

 20th of September, and passed onwards though Presidio, Nava, 

 and across the Sierra of San Jose and Santa Rosa, and the rivers 

 Alamos, Sabine, and del Norte, until he reached Monclova. He 

 had been directed to advance to Chihuahua, but as this place was 

 in a great measure controled by the states of New Leon and Coa- 

 huila which were already in our possession, he desisted from pur- 

 suing his march thither, and, after communicating with General 

 Taylor and learning the fall of Monterey, he pushed on to the fer- 

 tile region of Parras and thence to the headquarters of General 

 Taylor, in the month of December, as soon as he was apprised of 

 the danger which menaced him at that period. 



