ing question, but a complex problem in the art of war, which addresses itself to the highest genius of the commander. It needs but a glance at his left to show him that no skill and courage can turn the enemy's right. To the left of his line alone a flanking movement can be aimed. And here on his right are these entangled spurs; and the resources of reconnoissance have been tasked in vain to find a pathway through them.

Shall the army be sacrificed in forcing the defile? Shall it be decimated in storming the fort? Shall the expedition be abandoned ?

When Scott reaches the ground, his experienced eye speedily detects the sole expedient which can brush this great obstruction from his path. Let Pillow's brigade seriously threaten, and if practicable carry, these batterieş of the enemy on the left of the road. Let Twiggs' division, before it reaches the defile, wheel sharp to the right into this forest of chaparral, and cutting a pathway behind those elongated ridges, and encircling all the Mexican works, debouch beyond them all into the national road.

Assail Cerro Gordo, the key of the whole position, in the rear; and at the same time cut off the retreat of the enemy to Jalapa. This was Scott's preliminary order of battle, omitting only his directions to the artillery and cavalry reserve, to Worth-to follow and support the operations of Twiggs, and the directions for the vigorous pursuit of the foe after his intrenchments were carried.

The performance corresponds with the programme, except that Twiggs, being annoyed by a party of skirmishers in executing his movement, throws off to his left a detachment to scatter them, which unexpectedly carries the cone-shaped Atalaya, and, encouraged thereby, scales Cerro Gordo in front, and turns to flight one division of

Santa Anna's Mexican army before Twiggs' right, on the march, has reached the Jalapa Road to intercept it.

Such was Grant's first participation in a flanking

movement.

There was another man in this army who might be mentioned in this connection, and whom General Grant, long years afterwards, met under peculiar circumstances. It was Robert E. Lee, then serving on General Scott's staff as captain of engineers.

General Grant's First Half Year of War-It Opens on Fields of
Sublimest Imagery, but they are Storied in Human
Sacrifice and Midnight Superstitions-Grant
Amid Pyramids, Smoking Mountains,

and on the Heights of
Chapultepec.

Grant's first half year of war was one of peculiar enchantment.

War assumed her most comely guise, her most captivating airs, her most bewitching smile, and wove round the entranced young warrior all her fascinating spells.

It is hard to conceive, it is impossible to describe, the exhilaration with which he participated in that series of hard-fought engagements which bore triumphantly the flag of the young Republic from the shores of the Gulf to the lake-encircled metropolis of the ancient Aztecs, in the footprints of previous conquerors, whose names recalled the palmiest days of the proudest monarchy; through scenery grand and picturesque beyond all example; along the base of volcanoes once crowned with fire, now lifting eternal snow far into the azure depths of air; amid the ruins of temples which once smoked with human sacrifice; and along the majestic front of colossal pyramids, which

carry the mind back to a primeval race and an extinct civilization.

General Scott, who visited the Pyramid of Cholula, thus describes it:

"During his halt, every corps of the army, in succession, made a most interesting excursion of six miles to the ruins of the ancient City of Cholula, long, in point of civilization

and art, the Etruria of this continent, and, in respect to religion, the Mecca of many of the earliest tribes known to tradition.

"One grand feature, denoting the ancient grandeur of Cholula, stands but little affected by the lapse of, perhaps, thousands of years-a pyramid built of alternate layers of brick and clay, some two hundred feet in height, with a square basis of more than forty acres, running up to a plateau of seventy yards square. There stood, in the time of Cortez, the great pagan temple of the Cholulans, with a

perpetual blazing fire on its altar, seen in the night many miles around.

Coming up with the brigade, marching at ease, all intoxicated with the fine air and splendid scenery, he (General Scott) was, as usual, received with hearty and protracted cheers. The group of officers who surrounded him differed widely in their objects of admiration; some preferring this or that snow-capped mountain, others the city, and some the Pyramid of Cholula, that was now opening upon the view."

Prescott says: "The great Volcan, as Popocatapetl was called, rose to the enormous height of 17,852 feet above the level of the sea-more than 2,000 feet above the 'monarch of the mountains,' the highest elevation in Europe. During the present century it has rarely given evidence of its volcanic origin; and the hill that smokes' has almost forfeited its claim to the appellation. But at the time of the Conquest it was frequently in a state of activity, and raged with uncommon fury while the Spaniards were at Tiascala."

"On they trudged, however, stopping now and then to quench their thirst at some mountain brook, or to gaze at the quenched volcano of Popocatapetl, its sides begrimed with lava, and its peak soaring above the clouds.”—Scott's Battles in Mexico.

Of Cholula, Prescott says: "It was of great antiquity, and was founded by the primitive races that overspread the land before the Aztecs.

"The Mexican temples-teocallis, houses of God' as they were called-were very numerous.

"Human sacrifices were adopted by the Aztecs early in the fourteenth century, about two hundred years before the Conquest."-Prescott's Conquest of Mexico.

Nor was it any drawback to his enjoyment, that, with every step of this exciting campaign, Lieutenant Grant was

advancing in military knowledge and capacity, and also in professional reputation and rank.

He was favorably noticed for his skill in gunnery, when that cordon of earthworks was tightening round Vera Cruz, the "Invincible."

He was complimented for his gallantry at Churubusco, when the tete de pont was carried by the bayonet alone.

He won his brevet of first lieutenant in those bloody hours when Molino Del Rey succumbed to the impetuosity of our soldiery; and the full grade on that day, ever memorable in our annals, when the steep and frowning heights of Chapultepec were carried and the trembling city below implored the mercy of our victorious soldiery.