HOW MEXICANS FIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 288, 8 May 1914, Page 6

HOW MEXICANS FIGHT.

DRINK AND DISORGANISATION. NO FAITH, HOPE, OR CHARITY. A VETERAN OF 1845. ''We licked these ■ Mexicans before, ami tliey haven't forgotten it. What's more, they know America can lick tliem every time." So says Mr. William A. Maharg, who fought his way as a cavalry volunteer

through Mexico with the American army under General Scott in 1845, who, hale and hearty at 88 years, and with memory scarcely impaired,, is spending the last days of an adventurous life in quiet retirement in his home in CollingVood.

"It is a long, long time since we chased them from Vera Cruz to Mexico City," he added. "But they will not have altered much, and from what I know of them there will be no real war this time. Mexico will come under the Stars and Stripes before long, and that without much lighting. "Maybe I've forgotten many things I saw and heard in '45, for I was only a lad of eighteen or nineteen when I took ship at St. Louis and sailed for Vera Cruz. I was sft. Gin., and probably that was why thev took me as a volunteer. They were great days. We landed on the beach at Vera Cruz, with the Mexicans peppering away at us from the town, but they made very little defence there —most of the army was out of the district. There is a big mountain pass behind the city on the road to Mexico City, aiul tliey were waiting there. They had breastworks thrown up across .the pass,. and were going to give us something to go on with. "But we did not go that way. For two days we camped on the beach, wondering what Scott was going to do. Then we were taken out at night and marched up a track that led over the hills and round the back of the pass. So we came on them from behind. They were taken by surprise. It. shows what sort of organisation Mexicans are capable of. Their General, Santa Anna, was asleep' in his tent They fought hard, though, and how I lived through it I cannot tell. Time and again we rode up that pass and up to the breastworks, bu( we could not get across. They were pouring shot into us as fast as they could load and fire, and we lost many good men. But at last they broke and ran. Their spirit could not withstand a trained American army. We gave no quarter a nil got none. It was do or die in tln.se trenches—indeed,, that was the way right through the war. We took no iH'isnncrs except a few officers. ,We d;ua't like prisoners, and they hated jhem. So it was no quarter right thr>

"Well. iUUr the fight on the pass behind Vera I'-.ii*. wo followed tiicm up along tin-. Mexican road, fighting all the war. Kvi-ry little way along the road they had erected breastworks, and they would make a stand for a while, but they know it was no good. They never foir'ht with faith or hope—and they knew not charity. Most of their soldiers were paeens or slaves who had been prested into the service. , "I thought it a Inppy-go-'ueky sort of a war and w.--s rivj'iy disappointed, for we were nhv:;,s :t:-iruhinfr and lighting, never resting for mure, than ■ a day in one place—except at l'alo Alto. That was a fight! It took us two davs to win, and there was pretty stiff fighting. That was where we got the Irishmen. When our troops came over we had a lot of Irishmen with us. and early in the war some of them deserted, joining the Mexicans. Colonel Kcilly was at their head, and he, with about 100 others formed a brigade. They were in the fort, and three times that day the i Mexicans put up the white flag and Keilly hauled it down. All those Irishmen were captured and hanged the same day except Colonel I'eilly. They had a fair trial, hut they were proved deserters. Reilly claimed that he had i left before a .-hot was fired, and they gave him the benefit of the doubt. They imprisoned him with a yoke round his ntck and a ball chain. Tie joined the Mexican army after the war. and they gave him a commission, but I did hear that he came to 110 good. The Mexicans got tired of him, and years ago I met a man in 'Frisco wlio told me that he had seen lieillv in Vera' Cruz very drunk and right down in the gutter. I never heard of poor old lleilly again.

"We took Mexico City without much trouble, and I think tile better class of residents were glad to see us. Of course, it is years since I saw Mexico, but I am sure that the good class of people in Mexico to-day would receive the Americans with open arms. They must be sick, of the way government j, as been carried on there for the last 50 years. It has been one s;t of thieves in it and another set of thieves out ever since I can remember. They shoot all their best men in Mexico City, and they ha'd just had a bloody revolution before •we got there. We were about eight months waiting for the indemnity to be arranged, anil we lost a lot of men in that time through treachery and murder. The Mexicans would stab our soldiers every time they got a safe chance. Th.'y are the most treacherous people yon could meet, and I have grave ifears for the safety of those Americans in Mexico City to-day. They will be killed for sure." "Mow are the Mexicans as lighters?" "The best of them are brave enough, and will fight like tigers when they have to. But they always had that feeling that \ve were going to lick them. And they never lasted long anywhere. It will be the same this time. The Americans will never go to Mexico City, like we did, because there will be no need to. I see that (leneral ('arranza has been asked to join with Huerta against tbe invaders, but I don't think there is much likelihood of him doing that. He ; knows the Mexican character. They would shoot him as soon as the war was. over. I went over to the Rio •firande afterwards, where Tavior had. been lighting, and the men told me that he had drubbed the Mexicans properly then'. They stood up to him for a while, but then the Texans joined Taylor. and Texans hate Mexicans like, snakes. It was really over the Texans that we fought the war and gained them their libertv. If it had not been for America the Texans would have been annihilated. For a long time after the war there was guerilla warfare. The Mexicans formed themselves into bands and roamed all over the country. Tiiev robbed friend and foe alike.. We had some great expeditions after these bands and in one of them f nearly lost mv life, a whole troop of us who had been cut oft' from the main party going headlong into a ditch.

"While w? worn in Mexico City wo got a' good insight into the character of tho Mexican soldier. He is always di'inking and fighting, and ho knows little of discipline or organisation. AVhat suits liini is ftu'erilh warfare, and it usfed to be a paying that a Mexican shot with his eyes shut. Ho can never he trusted for one moment, and he has not got a mind of his own. Tile lr.un of the hour is a god while he lusts, and then out he goes, and there is someone else. Nearly all the nnny, when we fought it, was of the lowest cla-ss of Mexicans. The people at the -capital never took interest in the scrimmage really. All tliev wanted was to he left aloie."'- •