appointment to West Point, was major. He told me then that he could
have had the colonelcy, but that as he knew he was to be appointed a
brigadier-general, he preferred at first to take the lower grade. I
have said before that Hamer was one of the ablest men Ohio ever
produced. At that time he was in the prime of life, being less than
fifty years of age, and possessed an admirable physique, promising long
life. But he was taken sick before Monterey, and died within a few
days. I have always believed that had his life been spared, he would
have been President of the United States during the term filled by
President Pierce. Had Hamer filled that office his partiality for me
was such, there is but little doubt I should have been appointed to one
of the staff corps of the army--the Pay Department probably--and would
therefore now be preparing to retire. Neither of these speculations is
unreasonable, and they are mentioned to show how little men control
their own destiny.

Reinforcements having arrived, in the month of August the movement
commenced from Matamoras to Camargo, the head of navigation on the Rio
Grande. The line of the Rio Grande was all that was necessary to hold,
unless it was intended to invade Mexico from the North. In that case
the most natural route to take was the one which General Taylor
selected. It entered a pass in the Sierra Madre Mountains, at Monterey,
through which the main road runs to the City of Mexico. Monterey itself
was a good point to hold, even if the line of the Rio Grande covered all
the territory we desired to occupy at that time. It is built on a plain
two thousand feet above tide water, where the air is bracing and the
situation healthy.

On the 19th of August the army started for Monterey, leaving a small
garrison at Matamoras. The troops, with the exception of the artillery,