The NORTH GERMAN UNION was formed on the basis of Protestantism and
the unity of the German race. Already the Empire might be seen in the
distance.


CAPTURE OF MEXICO.

Whatever may be said of the justice of our war with Mexico, no
criticism can be offered as to the brilliancy of the result. The
campaign of General Scott against the ancient capital of the Aztecs,
was almost spectacular; certainly it was heroic.

On the ninth of March, 1847, the General, then nearly sixty-one years
of age, arrived at Vera Cruz, with an army of 12,000 men. That city
was taken in about a week, and the way was opened from the coast to
the capital. The advance began on the eighth of April, and ten days
afterward the rocky pass of Cerro Gordo was carried by assault. Santa
Anna barely escaped with his life, leaving behind 3000 prisoners, his
chest of private papers, and his _wooden leg!_

On the twenty-second of the same month, the strong castle of Perote,
crowning a peak of the Cordilleras, was taken without resistance. Then
the sacred city of Puebla was captured. On the seventh of August,
Scott, with his reduced forces, began his march over the crest of the
mountains against the city of Mexico. The American army, sweeping over
the heights, looked down on the valley. Never before had a soldiery in
a foreign land beheld a grander scene Clear to the horizon stretched
a living landscape of green fields, villages, and lakes--a picture too
beautiful to be marred with the dreadful enginery of war.