ted by the authorities in Washington,
favored the movement on the City of Mexico from Monterey and _via_ San
Luis Potosi, but General Scott had already formulated and determined
on the movement which he made with such brilliant success. Orders were
accordingly issued from Camargo, January 3, 1847, for the movement of
troops from Monterey, and General Scott returned to Brazos Santiago.
The embarkation for Vera Cruz was delayed by the non-arrival of the
troops from Monterey and want of transportation. The Lobos Islands was
selected as the place of rendezvous. This point is one hundred and
twenty miles from Vera Cruz. When the greater part of the troops had
arrived, they sailed past Vera Cruz and anchored, on March 7th, at
Anton Lizardo, from which point it was determined to make the
necessary reconnoissances.

General Scott was at this time ignorant of the movement of General
Santa Anna toward Monterey, and expected, on landing or attempting to
land, to be met by a formidable force of the enemy. On March 9th, the
weather proving good, the fleet, consisting of some eighty vessels,
including transports, moved up the coast with the naval steamers and
five gunboats. General Scott was on board of the Massachusetts, and as
she moved up, the troops from the decks of the vessels cheered him
with great enthusiasm. The anchorage was made outside the range of the
enemy's guns. General Scott had provided sixty-seven surf boats, and
in these and some cutters fifty-five hundred men--the boats being
steered by sailors furnished by Commodore David Conner--passed the
Massachusetts and repeated their cheers to the commanding general. The
whole force was landed at half past five in the afternoon, without the
loss of a man or a boat and without serious opposition from the enemy.
The remainder of the force was soon landed, amounting in all to
something less than twelve thousand men.

The following appeared in the New Orleans Bulletin of March 27, 1847:
"The landing of the American army at Vera Cruz has been accomplished
in a manner that reflects the highest credit on all concerned; and the
regularity, precision, and promptness with which it was effected has
probably never been surpassed, if it has been equaled, in modern
warfare. The removal of a large body of troops from numerous
transports into boats in an open sea, their subsequent disembarkation
on the sea beach, on an enemy's coast, through a surf, with all their
arms and accouterments