-combatant inhabitants of
the country which was passed over or occupied by the army.

The war in the Crimea proved most conclusively the vast superiority of
the French administrative system over that of the English--of the
military over a civil organization of the administrative corps of an
army. The French troops before Sebastopol were regularly, cheaply, and
abundantly supplied with every requisite of provisions, clothing,
munitions, medical stores, military utensils, and hospital and camp
equipages; while the English army, notwithstanding an immense
expenditure of money, was often paralyzed in its operations by the want
of proper military material, and not unfrequently was destitute of even
the necessaries of life.

Instead of profiting by this lesson, the recent tendency of our own
government has been (especially in supplying the army in Utah) to
imitate the sad example of the English, and to convert the supplying of
our armies into a system of political patronage to be used for party
purposes. If fully carried out, it must necessarily result in the ruin
of the army, the robbery of the treasury, and the utter corruption of
the government.

NOTE TO CHAPTER V.--TACTICS.

The war in Mexico, from the small number of troops engaged, and the
peculiar character of the ground in most cases, afforded but few
opportunities for the display of that skill in the tactics of battle
which has so often determined the victory upon the great fields of
Europe. Nevertheless, the history of that war is not without useful
lessons in the use which may be made of the several arms in the attack
and defence of positions. The limit assigned to these Notes will admit
of only a few brief remarks upon these battles.

The affairs of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma properly constitute only
a single battle. In the first, which was virtually a cannonade, the
lines were nearly parallel, and Arista's change of front to an oblique
position during the engagement, was followed by a corresponding movement
on the part of General Taylor. Being made sensible of the superiority of
the American artillery, the Mexican general fell back upon the Ravine of
Resaca de la Palma, drawing up his troops in a concave line to suit the
physical character of the ground. The Americans attacked the whole line
with skirmishers, and with dragoons supported by light artillery, and
the charge of a heavy column of infantry decided the victory. General
Taylor's operations