A few quick logs to put on the fire started by the political scene.....

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    The following are a number of points that come to mind as I drive back and forth, up and down, the road twixt the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre and my various home-bases.

(1)   The Madness of Lib-Logic -   If a person proposes or supports some notion that an illegal alien who has an outstanding warrant from the Department of Homeland Security - Immigration and Customs Enforcement, should be held by local or State authority until the DHS - ICE officers come and pick up said individual.....then according to the entire Left and the Obsolete Media, that person is a racist, bigot, neanderthal, and just a plain ol' deplorable.

     The Obsolete Press, lamentably now including many of the local broadcasters, has declared the new law dealing with illegal aliens who have compounded their offense by committing a serious misdemeanour or felony is "racist".   It is pointed out that any person supporting this new law is probably a Nazi SS enforcer, a bigot, a bad person,  and as stated above, a veritable  "Deplorable".

    They equate the Texas law recently passed by both Houses of the Congress of the Republic of Texas and signed by the correctly designated Head of State as a law designed to harass and generally denigrate "hispanic" people, all of whom are assumed to be cherubs and people awaiting beatification.   The new law is said to be, in their terms, ''racist".  

     I equate those who argue in this manner to the drunken gunfighter flailing his pistol around, firing at nothing and everything.   They have chosen this time to make of a relatively simple matter something terribly complicated.

    How so?  It is simply because this new law simply states that the constabulary throughout the Republic of Texas, and more especially the elected Sheriffs of the Counties and the Chiefs of Police of the various and sundry municipal jurisdictions of the Republic of Texas honour and comply with active detain-and-deliver orders from DHS - ICE.   This means, equally simply, that illegal aliens who have been detained by arrest for suspicion or by warrant for crimes of a serious nature, once their penal obligations are acquitted, should be referred to DHS - ICE so as to facilitate their immediate deportation.   In some cases, the DHS - ICE people might recover the individual to be transferred to a holding area for later prosecution based on other pending warrants.

     We will point out that among the people whom the Obsolete Press and the general leftist movement loves to call "Hispanic", and who are American / Texian citizens or legal aliens, it is my best estimate that 80% favour this process.   Frequently, they are the ones who have to put up with the swirling mass of criminal slime that have come to our shores, plains, mountains, towns, and cities in order to commit murder, mayhem, and disorder.   Mara Salvatrucha Anyone?

     Here, locally along the frontier, the local print, television, and radio media are pointing out the obtuse racism of the Governor Greg Abbott who wants to throw all "hispanics" in jail and have them deported whether they are legal, illegal, citizens, or not.   This is not a joke.
    It is the same as the picture ID voter requirement false-issue.   They look into the camera with that "look".  The "look"?  It is that "look" that reveals the certain knowledge by the reporter that he / she has "caught" another honkey Klanner being a Mexican-hating bigot.    Little matter that most of the Latinate people who are legally in Texas and / or citizens of three to fourteen generations.....most of them want protection from illegal aliens in Texas who are here solely for criminal purposes.  Of that latter group, long ago they were very few.....now, they are legion.

      One last, and very valid, angle pertaining to this matter.   One might note that Mexico has been delivering people with wants / warrants in the United States and / or Texas on an astoundingly regular and dependable basis.  It was the norm, not more than a generation ago, that obtaining extradition for a wanted person in Mexico to be sent to Texas or elsewhere in the United States was nearly laughable.  Now it is de rigueur.    Texas especially (I sincerely do not know about the other States) has been good about delivering people who have been requested by Mexican authority when the proper charges, warrants, and causes are presented.  It is like....dare I say....the way things should be. 

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 Robert (Sheets) Byrd's ''private" train for his wife who
hated flying.  It still runs both directions, 3 times per week.
  It is especially beautiful during the Spring and Fall.  In
fairness, it is still running a 93% occupancy.

(2)  The notion of "crossing the aisle in order to get something done" - Instead of going through a long, wordy explanation concerning how this writer arrives at the conclusion that now resides in his brain (can we still say 'his'?), it is patently impossible for straight-thinking classical Liberals, classical republicans, classical parliamentary monarchists, modernist Conservatives, traditionalists, orthodox religious thinkers to "cross the aisle". 

 This is the Saloon Car

     And before the irate masses bury me up to the neck and begin the stoning, please understand.  Crossing the aisle to anyone who identifies as one of the above cohort of philosopher, thinker, or believer means being "reasonable" and caring about the opinion of another person who is not in accord with the issue at hand.
    To the Left, "crossing the aisle" means...."Agree with us and vote the way we say or we shall accuse you of wanting children to die, throwing grandma off the cliff, of having ever said the word 'mongoloid', of wanting to abolish Social Security, and being a racist.   And a HomoPhobe (fear of human-like entities)".

     Point? There is no such thing as "crossing the aisle in order to get something done"when one is dealing with leftists.  Their rule is "What is yours is negotiable.  What is mine in mine.".
   The closest we might come to that in recent times is the idea that we do some log-rolling with other peoples' money.  For instance, "You give my wife a private train to Charleston, West Virginia with AMTRAK, and I will vote for your embargo against Brazilian and Mexican sugar."
     West Virginia U.S. Senator Robert Bird (Grand Exalted Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan) had a wife Erma Ora James - Byrd,  who, like Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson (Lady Bird), and your humble servant, had severe allergy to flying.   Et Viola'! A full scale overnight train with diner, saloon car, and deluxe alcoves in the Pullman section for someone who is "very important".   And what is "mine" is mine?   The train still runs, and ironically, it is doing a little better than breaking even.  Were it to run daily, it would make good money.

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(3)  Grey Panthers form shout-down groups at Town - Hall meeting with their US Representatives -

       They are the perfect picture of America's left.  It is something like, "The Republicans have a blockade against our friends in Cuba, pushing them into extreme poverty.  And we want our free stuff, and the rich should pay for it.!!!!!  We demand it!!!!! Explain why you want us to die!!!!"   

    All of this, of course, references the "discussion" we are having with people like the Grey Panthers and other Soros Choir members who specialise in holding up pitifully impudent and meaningless placards, 'Why do you want my daughter to die?" and "When will you share?" and shouting, "If you let the planet fry, we are all going to die".
     They shout things that can not be discerned, and if discerned cannot be understood.   And then, if they are successful in totally interrupting any communication, they retire from the field of argument, content that they have won. 

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This is a delayed publication, primarily because I forgot to post it a couple of weeks back.
El Gringo Viejo

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Trumphoory - (Chopped Suey, A bunch of hooey, and lies that become gooey) The Anglican (Orthodox) Curmudgeon takes aim at the Cervantine Windmills of the Progressive, Socialist, Elitist Nabob Community

FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 2017

We have taken the self-provided privilege to republish and repost the included article (below) written by the hand of Mr. A.S. Haley.   We urge that the Order of Readers of the Old Gringo click onto accurmudgeon.blogspot.com to see the article in its native habitat, and to keep building up the traffick count of Mr. Haley in a legitimate way.   His blogsite has many magic doors as in the Magic Wardrobe of C.S. Lewis fame....(Chronicles of Narnia).  It is alway a pleasant and mischievous way to wander from the path of reality, while maintaining ones virtues and values.   It is the article of 2 June 2017....a Friday.

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Trumphooey

In the face of yet another onslaught from the never-Trump, ever-snorting boars (actually, bores) in the media, echoed by world so-called leaders from Europe and elsewhere, and by the brainwashed Democrats who can still commandeer a platform for a statement, it is time to pour another dose of cold reality onto the overheated political front.

Briefly: behind the Gadarene rush to condemn President Trump's announcement that he will no longer abide by the provisions of the Paris Agreement signed by President Obama is nothing more than political posturing. The campaign is designed only to spread rampant disinformation in an effort to undermine Trump's public support.

At the same time, the remarkable breadth and effrontery of this campaign is highly revealing of the motives of those behind it. There is no science (understood properly, as a prediction of what will happen when a process is repeated) to back their claims. Instead, there is a consensus of the like-minded and like-motivated, around the moniker of "climate change" (after all, who in his right mind could disagree that the climate changes over time?), that is propped up by highly flexible (and debatable) computer models.

And now that President Trump has had the gall to question the validity of their unsupported (and unsupportable) consensus, the elites and their media are in an uproar: an uproar based on fear of exposure, and not on facts (because there aren't any facts -- only elaborately constructed, and continually revised, computer models). I shall not boost their Web traffic by linking in this post to all the stories they have generated. You may, as Claude Rains would say, round up the usual suspects by going to Huffington Post, MSNBC, CNN or the New York Times, and take it from there.

In short, Obama signed the Paris Agreement as a hollow gesture to his Potemkin legacy, and now Trump has decided he won't play along with the charade.  

You will never read the whole truth in the mainstream media. So those of you who find your way to this obscure outpost on the worldwide Web may thank the luck (or chance) that brought you, because here you will find nothing but the unvarnished truth, as always -- no matter how unpalatable it may be. Qui potest capere capiat.

Let me begin with some unvarnished facts.

First, the so-called "Paris Agreement (or Accord)" of 2015 is called that, because it is not a full-fledged international treaty. It is more akin to a "gentlemen's agreement" between those who signed it as to the levels of greenhouse gases they will individually (as leaders) strive to meet on behalf of their respective countries. (I say "strive", because the Agreement contains no consequences for signatories who fail to reach their own set goals -- see below.)

Second, because it is not a treaty, it is not legally binding on any country whose leader signed it. Instead, it contemplates only a series of implementation measures to be adopted by the signers at future sessions, subject to formal ratification and adoption by the respective governmental bodies of their individual countries.

Third, in the United States, our Constitution gives legal effect only to a treaty that has been signed by the President and ratified by a two-thirds majority of the Senate. (See Article II, Section 2 for the language.) All else is ephemeral: what one President signs, a later President may revoke.

President Obama signed the accord, but he never submitted it to the Senate for ratification. So it has no legal force on the United States, and never has had. It was only his personal commitment to the other signers to lower CO2 gas emissions, and that commitment ended when he left office. Trump was in no way legally bound to continue to honor it -- and now he has announced he will not.

Thus the vocal opposition to Trump's announcement is not based in law, or on any other justifiable ground. The measure of it is simply the degree to which the globalists are outraged that any public figure should attempt at this date to thwart their agenda. (After all, they managed to persuade the heads of 197 countries to climb on board initially, and now those heads have secured official ratification in 147 instances.)

In other words, their bobbing balloons having been punctured, the "climate change" enthusiasts are now emitting a gaseous pollution of their own into the atmosphere. The collective phenomenon is so unique to our experience that I have had to invent a new word for it: "Trumphooey".

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     We have more publications coming out during this week on other topics concerning Mexican and Texian historical points that are seldom mentioned or covered.

El Gringo Viejo

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As Briefly as Possible.....Climate Change....Really? Or - Let us turn our fates over to our betters.....

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     If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.   If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.    Now that we have enacted the Income Tax, be assured that the tax will never exceed 1% of your income.

     Enumerating all the programmes established by "Progressives" that were sold for rabbits and turned out to be cats would take at least enough pages to destroy the Black Forest.   The worst of all of the projects for perfection of the human race, however, is the concept of trying to intercept the destruction of Planet Earth from being self-immolated by means of global warming.....or cooling.....or climate change.....or (what's next?).

     The preliminary to all of this was the Jane Fonda - starring movie "China Syndrome" which instructed the mindless of that time that all nuclear reactors were going to melt down and make doughnut holes of the Planet.   And, as the bard points out, without taste or class, more people have died in the back seat of Teddy Kennedy's Oldsmobile than from any dysfunction of an American, Mexican, or Canadian nuclear reactor.

     Very quickly, I recount when the university professor from some place called Berkeley told the Louisiana State University College of Geography, Geology, and Earth Sciences to be ready for their visit on such and such date....sometime in the lattermost 1970s.  My brother would be made head of that College, after taking his Ph.D from LSU in 1969.

     Sure enough, the appointed day arrived, and the Berkeley professors came in, looking totally the part of a gang of bank robbers, and began ordering the peons around so as to better accommodate their lecture.  Desks and chairs were moved, a projection screen extended (there was already one installed on the map-wall), and other adaptations.   The scraggy-looking professors lectured the 40 or so professors, instructors, and staff for about 2 and a half hours, advising them that the new "....line of attack against the established interests" is going to be the colour green, and the "Green Revolution".   They made it plain that protecting the planet, at all and any cost, would be the "New Viet Nam War", and that we were obliged to begin the indoctrination of our classes in the new "secular religion" of saving the planet.

     We shall forego the many details of this encounter.  It was not ended well, because back then even the liberal professors in the South had brains......and souls.  It was ended by people like my brother asking about the credentials of the "Doctors"....and it turned out that they were, actually Ph. D. level professors at Berkeley and other nearby institutions of higher learning in California.   They were also dedicated and self-identifying marxists, doing something similar to what we see the Mormon boys doing with their nice (but not-too-nice) bicycles and sedate religious information pamphlets and their quiet civility.   Except these professors from California were not "nice".  They were foul-mouthed, demanding, and even expected the LSU people to take up a collection for them and also take them out to supper at a place of their (the California professors') choice.

     We have had to change our freon from this to that type, and change out the antiperspirant spray propellant, stop eating whale meat, stop using styrofoam anything, and exactly 247 different life-style amending actions before we would be allowed to look at a picture of Jane Fonda with her North Vietnamese soldier's uniform and her personal anti-aircraft pod.

     We are tired of this demagoguery.  Free Enterprise and capitalism make things clean.  Christian stewardship of Creation cleans things up....Christians do bad things, but generally their old ethic was "cleanliness is next to Godliness".....In Mexico, where people practice Catholicism or some form of reasonable Protestantism, things are clean....but where there are people unbound by any ethic or proverbial prescription for life....it is a mess, where the motto is "Your land and the public areas are my land-fill."

     And yes there are businesses that take advantage of "....when nobody is looking" almost anywhere.   But the fact is the American messes are our messes, the Mexican messes are their messes, the Canadian messes are their messes.   And....in each of the three cases, each of the three entities cited have made significant to exemplary improvements to environmental conditions and pollution abatement.

Ixtaccihuatl (L) and Popocatepetl (R)

     Not long ago, in Mexico City, a girl and her husband were complaining about the smog, and several of us geezers ....(we were in the 7th floor restaurant / bar of the Majestic Hotel on the main plaza (Zocalo) of Mexico City) .....also taking in the impressive, classical images.   Seven or eight old geezers...American and Mexican....snorted and laughed a bit at the young girl's observation.  There was a pause, almost uncomfortable, until your humble servant spoke up to say, in Spanish, "Please forgive us, but we remember when the smog was so bad we could not see the distance of one block here at mid-day".

     Her man, I think they were on honeymoon, said, "You are not joking?"  To which I and all the old geezers sitting about, nodded with the the assurance of age and truth, "That is the way it was from 1969 through 2002," I assured them.  In those times, it was a rare when one could see the moon, stars, during the night or blue sky during the day.   But active LOCAL MEASURES finally rendered results.  And now, one can see from the Majestic's 7th floor facility, the famous peaks of Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl....snow covered....glistening with almost patriotic zeal.  No international pact.  Just the clumsy, somewhat corrupt, substantially sincere, private and public effort to clean up and make things "nicer".

     These countries who jump onto this bogus wealth transfer system should be a bit ashamed of themselves.   They are insulting their own good works, as if they think that it might be easier just to let a blue-helmetted UN army come in and start running their countries and telling them what kind of toilet paper the people will use and what kind of beef they will be allowed to drink.

     Before long, should the Blue-helmets have their way, the entire world will look like Cuba and Venezuela...and frankly.....much of Russia.   The Hillarys and the "better" people will still have their little redoubts behind several hundred acres of forest, where their neighborhoods are protected from the hoi polloi by heavily armed gorillas and six layers of electronic sensors.   They can pollute, because they will have those who are willing to carry the chamber pots.

El Gringo Viejo
ps:   to the greenies, if you do not know the difference between an upward adiabatic rate and an isobar, then just....shut up....and go away.......

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Progress Report on the Lime Plantation of Our Neighbour

These are very, very recent pictures sent up by our neighbour from the Hacienda de La Vega.   

     In the above picture, one can see a "baby" lime tree after its first significant heavy rains since its having been planted.   The reason our neighbour sent up this particular picture is to show how quickly it responded to the rains.  The darkest green is the "old growth" that was present at the planting.   The lighter green is what has been put on since the rains of four days ago....totalling some 4.5 to 6 inches over a two day period....and the quick response of this and the other new trees has been very encouraging, to say the least.

     The reason for isolating on this one, individual sapling is to show its growth response and the exposed rubberised hoses that run throughout the planted area.  It is a matter of literally thousands of feet of drip-irrigation infrastructure....perhaps 40,000 feet or more.   Although the area fairly dependably receives 50 and up to 100 inches of rain per year, there are a couple of lengthy episodes during the annual cycle that can be pretty darned dry.   If those dry periods are especially hot and windy, and coincide with an early fruiting or flower-set with too much impact, it can reduce the harvest from 30 to even 50 per cent.

    The Johnson grass and other unwanted vegetation is another continuing and continuous fight.   It will require the almost constant weeding by hoe and machete by two to four men who know what they are doing.    The runways will have to be disc - plowed at least once per month in order to keep the access open to that time when the first harvest will take place.   We are hoping that 16 months now, will be the magic time.

     The trees as the viewer sees them are now twice the size as they were at planting.  If all remains anywhere near normal, they will be approximately 10 times the size seen here at this moment when they produce their first harvest.  They will never be the height or head of a Valencia orange or Red Grapefruit tree, but they will produce two or three crops per year, instead of just the one like their bigger first-cousins.

     Finally, this lime business has had considerable impact in the Santa Engracia area, where older  groves of orange and grapefruit have been removed and replaced with these particular limes.   Two or three of the major orchards are old enough to have produce marketable harvests and we are seeing buyers "scouting" the new fields such as the Hacienda de La Vega.   The major destinations for these limes are going to be areas with top-end saloons and night spots, gourmet restaurants, and resort areas.  New York, Miami, Las Vegas, LAX, the Austin-Houston-DFW triangle and similar places are known to have produce importers programming the importation of these specialty limes, as well as Mexico's huge demand centres such as Mexico, D.F., Guadalajara, Monterrey Metro, and the beach resorts.   There are already efforts to move product to France, Italy, Spain, and Great Britain, as well as Japan and Singapore.  

     So that is where we are.  If there are any questions I shall try to answer them.  If I know not, then it will be no problem to communicate with our neighbour Rafael to find out anything anyone might want to know.

El Gringo Viejo

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Why it might not be so much "biological determinism". but just a plain combination of instinct and friendship.

Returning to the Batallon de San Patrico - with an edit from the first posting for the purpose of continuity

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A Request from Within the Family - The San Patricio Battalion in the Mexican War.....with the final installment....the rest of the story

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PART  I

          Writing, talking, and thinking about the events of San Jacinto and the Alamo occupy much time for many Texans.   And, as one continues with the exploration of events in Texas, from long before the aforementioned events up to and including the present times, it is clear that Texas and its position between two complex nations will forever be a geographical and cultural zone of interest.

     Various people have asked for my thoughts and notions about the issue of the San Patricio Battalion, a military unit that drew fame and notoriety during the Mexican American War of 1846 -  1848.  Most recently, my consuegro (the father-in-law of my daughter) has asked what might be  my analysis of the military group that drew recognition, admiration, ire, bad press, and bitterness from the various sides in that War.

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Definition:

     The Battalion of Saint Patrick or La Batallon de San Patricio....it is the same thing.   There was not one that was American and the other Mexican.   Sometimes that explanation is given.

     The Battalion was composed of a "Motley Crew".   Gentlemen adventurers, ruffians, Irish Nationalists, bandits, impromptu conscripts, prisoners, Irish Republicans always ready for a fight for Irish dignity,  and others from Spain, England, France, Italy, the United States, Scotland, and various points in-between.   Just before the War with Mexico broke out, the conscription of soldiers began in ernest, and the same system of "recruitment" would be practiced by the Union side during the War Between the States fifteen years later.

     Jails provided some of the recruits.  Others came off newly arriving ships from Liverpool, England and Londonderry, Eire, "volunteers" who were lingering in the saloons along the wharves a little too long, and regular "Micks" already involved in the American experience were recruited or impressed into the service....but not the Navy....it was for the Army.
     Some historians believe that there was some "foreshadowing" involved in the fact that this began in 1845.  It was thought by some students of the War with Mexico that the fix was already in.  Texas would agree to subjugation to the American Union, in exchange for protection by the Americans against the ever present menace of a more powerful Mexico.   This writer does not buy into this assessment beyond about 1 or 2 per cent.

     Speculation and the standing back and, intellectually saying,"....and on the other hand it could have been..." in my not-so-humble opinion is not a worthwhile investment of the time allotted to this life.   The Americans knew that the Texans had been terribly lucky in their defence of their "Republic", taking advantage of a ridiculous breach of military order by a commander, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna,  who had at great loss to his own countrymen had almost destroyed the Texas military and means to resist.  All of that success was wasted by positioning his Army, essentially, with its throat exposed and its back up against a deep swamp. 

     The second incursion by the Mexican General Adrian Woll in the early autumn of 1842, six years after San Jacinto, proved that the Texans could bluster, and they could fight, but that they could not withstand a serious military en force.   The old saying "dulce bellum inexpertis" (war is sweet to the inexperienced) was very much in play.

     In any regard, the Americans were not going to dash dandily into the theatre of War with the Mexicans.   They would declare a War, and they would use a complicated, four front attack approach, and they would bring overwhelming numbers against the more well-fortified Mexican forces.  Size matters, and in a real war, numbers matter, so stuffing uniforms with warm bodies was of utmost necessity.   Therefore, there was heavy "recruiting" among the Irish.
      This does not detract from the number of Americanised people of Irish ancestry, and those Irish-Americans who actually freely joined the military effort in those days.   As best one can calculate, it seems as if the numbers of those two  categories was about equal, meaning there were a lot of Irish who were drawn to the romance, the excitement, the expression of Americanism, and the emotional rush of "going to War for a noble cause".

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Arrival in Texas:

Lancers and Infantry of the Mexican
Army of the period

      Most of the infantry, artillery, and cavalry that was deployed in the Northern Theatre was delivered to La Bahia de Corpus Christi (to-day known as Nueces Bay), where the Nueces River empties into the Gulf of Mexico.  From there the army under General Taylor, organised and finished drilling and mastering their weapons, and proceeded south after negotiations broke down between Mexican and American diplomats.  It was all posturing, because in this writer's estimation, both sides really wanted to teach the other side a real lesson.
     This does not mean that the War was totally approved by either side, but both sides were generally and in their majority, in favour of War.  Loading up the ranks with "deplorables" like the Irish (American Military) and dusky Indians from Civil Defense / National Guard units (Mexican Military) was a solution in order to placate the effete and comfortable middle and upper classes in both countries.   However, it must be pointed out that many of the soldiers, especially in the professional ranks, on both sides, from fine and / or established families, saw the War as an opportunity to gain fame as an heroic personality and as a patriot to his flag and nation.

     The soldiers at Corpus Christi generally welcomed the chance to be on the move and not hang around in a smelly, hot, humid, and sand-flea consumed place.   The Mexicans, with the arrival of General Mariano Arista arriving in Matamoros (the extreme northeastern-most corner of Mexico) with well-trained troops, artillery, and the dreaded cavalry-lancers felt  they could carry the day. 

     There were a series of engagements and battles.   The Mexican forces, patrolling the north side of the Rio Bravo (Grande) encountered an American scouting cavalry column that apparently thought they were in a comic opera or something, because they were in no way prepared for combat.  The Mexicans engaged and with both numbers and skill in their favour, they essentially destroyed the reconnaissance column, leaving 17 dead.  The Mexican force had four or five wounded.
     A couple of days later the American Congress declared war on Mexico, because "....American blood had been shed on American soil."  General (Old Rough and Ready) Taylor initiated hostilities with the main body of the Mexican forces.  The bulk of the Mexican Army, and all of their artillery was on the south side of the Rio Grande, but a sizable group was on the north side.   The first major engagement was a victory of the field for the Americans,  and Taylor's forces could celebrate success at the first major engagement, the Battle of Palo Alto on the 8th of March, 1846.   The next day, Taylor followed up with another rebuke of Mexican forces, this time at the Resaca de las Palmas, (resaca being a word meaning abandoned river bend channel).

Above:  Ireland Forever,  Below: the image of
 Saint Patrick with his bishop's staff, expelling
 the serpents.  This was the banner
 and battle standard of the 
San Patricio Battalion. 

     The War was on.  Arista regrouped and began a steady withdrawal, essentially following the Rio Bravo (Grande) to the due west.  His commander, General Pedro de Ampudia had already determined that he would draw the Americans into the badlands for 200 miles, and keep them away from the centre of the country.

   Sparsely populated, full of snakes, thorns, and normally dry (except during floods), the stretch of land ahead was none too hospitable. 

Each army kept contact, one with the other.  Butthere was another problem for the Americans.

     As they pushed forward, they knew that more Mexican troops with better supplies would be forming.  Whether Linares (to the southwest and the route Ampudia and Arista were sure Taylor would take, or more to the due west towards Monterrey and then Saltillo (much worse for the Americans), each day would increase the advantage for the home team.  And one of the big reasons was going to occur after a week's march towards the setting sun.

The luck of the Irish:
     It was during this cat and mouse process as both armies moved to the west that supposedly a Roman Catholic priest moved among the American troops, surreptitiously....at night....and began to plant the seeds of defection from the American army among principally the Irish soldiers.  This occurred at a significant community, essentially the centre of a large ranch named Hacienda de San Pedro y San Pablo, now known as General Bravo.   Between there and another community, an actual city by the name of San Felipe de China, this priest possibly working with other clerics tried to convince as many of the Irish soldiers to either desert the American army and go home, or desert and join the Mexican army.
     There was some success, because of a deserter by the name of John Riley, who had left the American army and crossed into Mexico just before the Declaration of War.  He had preceded the Army and perhaps even colluded with the "unknown priest" who moved among the Irish soldiers during the advance into Mexico.   So even while the American army was entertaining the locals with their songs and marching and trying to do "goodwill outreach" among the native population, fewer and fewer troops were reporting at Reveille in the morning and most of the missing  were  Irish conscripts.
     This was not good news to Gen. Zachary Taylor, because about a fifth of the entire army had been left behind at Camargo, a community on the Rio Grande and the Rio San Juan, and more or less mid-way to Monterrey from Matamoros.  Those troops had come down with severe dysentery, quite probably a "stomach flu" and could not travel due to their illness and subsequent weakness.   True enough, reinforcements were coming in, but Taylor and his officers were facing superior numbers, increasingly better trained enemy soldiers, greater distance from supply sources, and the problem of Irish deserters actually going over to the enemy as well.

Commemorative Plaque with the
 names of those members of
the Batallon de San Patricio who
were hanged for treason by the
American command. 
Some 150 were killed in action,
 and another 200 received other
 punishments, including the
 dreaded "D" brand as well as
hanging as traitors.
  The Batallon de San Patricio
 total numbers is estimated to
have been around 700.   That
leaves about 400 who most
 probably remained in Mexico
 and made families or pursued
other interests such as going
to the gold rush in California.

     By the time the American forces had made the mistake of going towards Monterrey instead of Linares (actually both choices had many disadvantages), there were 200 "foreigners", ninety per cent of whom were Irish who had defected to the enemy.   They had been formed into a two-company infantry unit, named the Batallon de San Patricio, although their forte' was artillery.   Due to that fact, the Mexican command found artillery for them and it was used with extreme effectiveness at the Battle of the Bishop's Palace on the west side of Monterrey, and during the defence of the Ciudadela Fortress and Quartermaster Headquarters more in the centre of Monterrey.
     It was during those confrontations that each side learned the full mettle of the other.  Each side lost 600 dead during four days of constant combat and manoeuvers.  The Mexicans appreciated their foreign allies, and the Americans hated the dirty deserters.   It would be that way until the end of the war.

     The Batallon de San Patricio served up to and including the final, pointless battle at Churubusco outside of Puebla, serving under Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, ending on 20 August 1847.....several days after the formal cessation of hostilities.   It was calculated that the Americans had lost 12,800 dead in the conflict, many of them from illness while the Mexican losses were thought to have been nearly 20,000, perhaps half being in combat.   It has been presented by some as a "theatrical war" with lots of highly festooned and decorated soldiers and officers, much shooting and noise, but little combat.  Such, lamentably, was not the case.   There were two or three occasions that the Mexicans could have won the war, and they failed to take advantage of each opportunity.
     For instance, when Gen. Winfield (Old Fuss 'n Feathers) Scott was nearing Puebla, the last big city before Mexico City, the Mexican Congress was arguing about points of procedural order between the  Congreso de Diputados and the Senado about things that had nothing to do with the defence of the Republic.

There will more about all of this in the next couple of days.
El Gringo Viejo

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PART II

This is El Gringo Viejo at the Cavalry
 Headquarters at Fort Brown, Brownsville,
Texas.  This building, though somewhat
up-dated, renovated, restored, and fixed-up
is essentially the same building where his
Father served in the 1st Cavalry Division,
12 Regiment (mounted), Headquarters
Squadron, during the late 1920s through
the early 1930s.   

     There are many, many details of greater and lesser importance concerning the War with Mexico.   For instance, returning to the initiation of hostilities, we pointed out that the American forces were a bit dismissive of the Mexican ability to fight.   The pointless exposure of  a 90 trooper cavalry reconnaissance squadron in the face of a combined force of cavalry, artillery, and infantry of 850 men under the command of General Arista was foolhardy.    So, in fact, the Mexican forces won the first significant encounter of the War.

      What the Americans prefer to remember  is the subsequent Battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de las Palmas.  And, it is a reasonable thing, because they were not mere "significant skirmishes" but full scale engagements.   But for a few days, Gen. Taylor recognised a severe defect in his arrangement for battle.  He had left much of his supply line from Brazos de Santiago Pass (entrance to anchorage at Punta Isabela) to "Fort Texas" (the first battlement put into place with dirt walls and heavy defence with the presence of 500 infantry and an artillery contingent.

 It  here that the first fully commissioned officer of the  forces was killed in action, being hit in the upper leg, full-on by a howitzer shot.   Though he survived his very serious wound for six days, up to the 9th of May, he did succumb on that day.  His holding against a superior force for that length of time, while Gen. Taylor rearranged his supply defences, turned out to be the key to the turning of the tide.

     The overall Mexican General, Pedro de Ampudia, decided to concentrate his forces in reserve to his first subordinate, Arista.  It was, by the book, the correct deployment, and once breaking down the Fort Texas blockage, the Mexicans could have pinned the entire American force into annihilation or surrender, putting their backs to the Gulf of Mexico.  It was the right thing to do, but it produced the wrong result.

     Gen. Taylor settled his line, rejoined Major Brown, possibly with only 48 to 72 hours to spare.  The ensuing battles told the tale.   The Mexicans had prepared an offensive, and had people milling around for animal feed and gunpowder in order to begin an offensive advance "to-morrow", when the Americans arrived "yesterday" to do the same "to-day". 

     It is from that event at Fort Texas that was drawn the name of the military installation, and formally named and known as "Fort Brown".   The facility later became a centre for all kinds of goings-on in the City of Brownsville, Texas  (established and incorporated in 1850 & 1853).

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    Now, in that past is prelude, let us return a bit to the Texas Republican Period.   Before the Texas Revolucion against Lopez de Santa Anna and the Mexican Centralists, the Spanish and then the Mexican authority decided to populate the distant areas of their country with colonists who would work the area, and more importantly, catch Kickapoo, Comanche, and Apache arrows "up - north" instead of down in the more populated central and eastern areas of the nation.

     Various "colonias" were empowered to the control and essentially grant ownership of various "empresarios", who would agree to introduce significant numbers of immigrants through grants of land (after such and such number of years of improvement), and following other laws, such as learning the Spanish language and coverting to  the Roman Catholic denomination of Christianity.

     There was the Austin Colony, the DeWitt Colony, and numerous others,  including one named "Colonia de San Patricio", founded by John (Juan) McMullen, and John (Juan) McGoin, both Irish-born Irishmen.  Its founders promised to deliver....you guessed it... Irish and English colonists, already of the Roman Catholic faith.  It was a fairly large land grant, and 89 or more such families made their way to occupy land that ranged from good to excellent for farming and livestock.

       The story is long and complex, and here we only need to know that during the conflicts that resulted the independence of Texas, this particular colony, was centered where present-day Sinton (near Corpus Christ) presides as County Seat of San Patricio County.

     As Mexican Centralist forces, advancing after essentially destroying Zacatecas, Zacatecas and the best militia in Mexico, was coming north to make "mostraciones y reconiciones" (demonstrations and reconnaissance).   The Governor of Coahuila y Texas had fled to Texas, with a number of his own militia, and they would join the Texians.  They passed through McMullen's grant and were well received by the locals.

    But around that time, at a make-shift fort called Lipantitlan (a Nahuatl adaption of a word meaning Land of the Lipan Apache), not far from a population cluster in the McMullen - McGoin grant, A Mexican Captain came up and called for volunteers to join the Mexican Centralist forces to drive out a bunch of Texian troublemakers from the "fort".    These times being in November of 1835.

     Some estimates of the San Patricianos  who joined and fought were as low as 28 while others (irate Texians) said that almost 100 joined forces with the Centralists.  To make a long story short, a story heavily injected with the "fog of war", the Texians at Fort Lipantitlan beat a fast path to the north, and with some considerable losses.   The "Battle of Fort Lipatitlan" is little known, but not entirely forgotten by those of us whose talent is for knowing about things that have absolutely no interest to anyone, nor any use to the body of knowledge of the human race.

     There were some who have postulated that John Riley, who was born in Ireland and who became the titular head  (never full commander) of the Batallon  de San Patricio as the Mexican - American War ground on, was from the McMullen - McGoin Colony,   It is my opinion that this is lore, and is spun by faery dust and leprechauns.  It is true, however, that there were a few, to perhaps quite a few, "Irlandeses" who sided with the Mexican Centralist forces a little more than 10 years before the War with Mexico, who were Texians supporting the Lopez de Santa Anna and the Centralists.

___________________

     One big assistance as this War continued with abysmal losses on both sides, was that the generals could look at the mess, and declare, "We won!"   Both sides did it, but our old friend Lopez de Santa Anna did it best.   At the Battle of Buenavista, south of Saltillo, he managed to stop Taylor, but did not commit his reserves during the night to confront Taylor.  He began a forced retreat (covering 40 to 50 miles per day.....incomprehensible but true) down to confront the Americans as they left Vera Cruz on their way to Mexico.

     The number of Mexican casualties at Buena Vista?  Perhaps 1,300 dead, 2,500 wounded, and several hundred....just gone.   Gen. Taylor had lost almost 600 dead, and 1,000 wounded, but worse, over 1,500 had just deserted.  Those were official American Army estimates.  It was a sobering battle for both Armies.

     Then at Cerro Gordo, fighting through the tropical jungles, the high mountain passes, the always cold at night highlands, at Peniensco, the Churubusco, and finally at the fall of the City of Mexico....the Batallon de San Patricio was still intact, with many losses during the months of almost constant preparation for and implementation of combat measures.
    Even at the end, when a hopelessly exhausted regiment of Mexican veteran patriots had run out of ammunition, many dead, almost all wounded, either Riley or one of his immediate subordinates dashed over to knock the impromptu white flag from the hands of a wounded sergeant (some say three times).
  

     It is thought that the Americans and other San Patricianos did not want to be captured by the Americans, because many would be hanged like dogs, after short military trials.  That is what they thought, and for many, there was truth to the issue.

     This event at the Fall of the City of Mexico on the 14th of September, 1845, only two days before Independence Day there, the American officer in charge of those final moments, regarding the one destroyed regiment of patriotic defenders, and studying the most famous element of the enemy they had been facing for such a long and bitter time....the San Paticio Batallon....took pity.  He drew out his own white flag, and surrendered in their name.  The Batallon de San Patricio had to admit and accept the offer because the only other alternative was group suicide.....the Masada Alternative.

___________________

     A cessation of hostilities and commitment to a negotiated peace was initiated during the next days....very quickly.   The Mexican military in the central core of the nation, and in the northeast, as well as the tropical east, complied with the armistice. To the south, little was known about the War, and it had escaped almost all the violence.

     Religious figures of importance came to request lenience for the San Patrico Battalion personnel.  Gen. Winfield Scott said that his lenience was for the honourable Mexican soldiers, not for American traitors.  He declared that he was irretrievably committed to providing the maximum punishment to all who deserted and joined foreign forces against American forces after the Declaration of War in the United States.
    That would exempt John Riley, because he had left a few days before that Declaration was made.  The plaque included in Part I of this treatise has the names of those who were hanged, in fairly short order, after the fall of Mexico City.

     The remainder were given 20 lashes for enlisted, 40 lashes for non-commissioned officers, and 50 for commissioned officers.   All were branded with a "D" on the cheek,  save for John Riley who received his 50 lashes (some say his lash-count was botched, and he received 59), his "D" and another " D" because the first one was put on upside-down, and then prison detention.

     One unfortunate San Patriciano had had to have his legs amputated due to his wounds, but they took him from the hospital doing a basket carry to the gallows and hanged him anyway.   This was also revolting to Mexican urban and religious sensibilities, but.....

     More or less finally,  and this is in no wise anything like a thorough and complete study, the War ended in Mexico City and in Mexico generally, but it was not over.  Several battles were joined on the Baja Peninsula and along the Mexican Pacific Coast.  Lopez de Santa Anna remained just east of Mexico City for several weeks, engaging American military presence and huffing and puffing about how he was the provisional Presidente de Mexico.  He and his very reduced ranks finally threw in the towel about a month after the general cessation of hostilities.   Before the mid-point of 1848, all was quiet on all fronts, but 99 per cent of the hostilities ended with the occupation of the City of Mexico.

     It was said that John Riley died of his wounds and mistreatment by the Americans, compounded by the fact that he was thrown in jail by Mexico City police breaking up a barroom brawl...and languished in jail, finally winding up dead in 1850 at the age of 45. This was pretty much accepted as fact, but later research has reasonably established that John Riley left jail, paid a small fine, took his fame to Canada where he had lived before his arrival in America back in the early 1840s.   It is thought he might have died in British Colombia in 1880.     It is fairly well known that many foreign venturers in Mexico would state "I am Riley.... John Riley...'' in order to impress the folks, especially the ladies during those times.

     Once in Canada, he became somewhat hermitic and supposedly spoke little about his service in Mexico.  It was thought, however, that appreciative wealthy people in Mexico had given Riley an significant, discreet, endowment for his service.

     El Gringo Viejo does not know what happened to the John Riley in question.   I have not seen him, nor have I seen anyone credible who saw him, although I did see Jesse James and Elvis Presley at a bowling  alley near here the other day.   But Major John Riley, hero of the Batallon de San Patricio, Hero of Mexico was not with them. The Canadian story has a strong twang of credibility, however.

 Thanks for your time and attention.  We retire....
El Gringo Viejo

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