hout the least apparent regard for
his own personal safety. This victory had a decisive influence upon the
turn of the war; and the government immediately testified their sense of
its importance by conferring upon its gallant winner the rank of
brigadier-general by brevet.

In the following May, General Taylor succeeded General Jesup in the
command of the Florida army, and in this capacity, during two years, he
rendered vast services to the country by quelling the atrocities of
Indian warfare, and restoring peace and security to the southern
frontier. In 1840, at his own request, he was relieved by
Brigadier-general Armistead, and was ordered to the southwestern
department. Here he remained at various head-quarters until government
had occasion for his services in Texas.

The project for the annexation of Texas, which was first officially
broached in the last year of President Tyler's administration, acquired
more and more weight and influence, until finally, in March, 1845, an
act to that effect was passed by both Houses of Congress, and was soon
after ratified by the Texian government. Mexico, although the
independence of Texas had been long before _de facto_ secured, stoutly
protested against the annexation. The special American envoy sent to the
Mexican capital to attempt an adjustment of this and other difficulties,
was refused a hearing, and great preparations were carried on by the
Mexican government for another invasion of Texas. In June, General
Taylor received orders to advance with his troops over the Sabine, and
protect all of the territory east of the Rio Grande, over which Texas
exercised jurisdiction. He accordingly marched into Texas, and in August
concentrated his forces, amounting to about 3000 men, at Corpus Christi.
Receiving orders from Washington to proceed to the Rio Grande, the
general, with his little army, moved westward in March, 1846: and after
considerable suffering from the heal and the want of food and water,
reached the banks of the river opposite Matamoras on the 28th of the
month. Colonel Twiggs, with a detachment of dragoons, in the mean time
took possession of Point Isabel, situated on an arm of the Gulf, about
25 miles east. General Taylor took every means to assure the Mexicans
that his purpose was not war, nor violence in any shape, but solely the
occupation of the Texian territory to the Rio Grande, until the boundary
should be definitively settled by the two republics.

After