President Polk (the history of whose administration, by L. B. Chase, affords us some of these particulars) was, after much debate, authorised to call into the field volunteers, “to serve for a year or during the war.” Double the number asked-for soon offered themselves, and General Taylor found himself at the head of a force comparatively undisciplined but eager to advance, and equal to almost any amount of endurance in the prosecution of the enterprise on hand. The temper of the new levies was soon tried. The fight at Monterey was a repetition, on a larger scale, of the scenes and successes near Fort Brown. The Americans attacked and put to flight an enemy four times as numerous as the attacking force. The Mexicans seemed to think their invaders invincible; victory for the American flag was the result of each encounter, and before long General Taylor had a greater extent of country in his possession than the whole force under his command could well grasp with security. At this juncture General Scott, who for some time before this war began, had been Commander-in-Chief of the American Army, finding that great renown was being won by his junior officer, wrote from New York to General Taylor to state his intention of taking command in Mexico, and leading forward an additional force in advance of the positions conquered and held by Taylor. General Scott decided upon attacking Vera Cruz, and Taylor, being ordered to act on the defensive, complained bitterly when he found that Scott was to withdraw from his command all the regular troops he had, with the exception of one thousand men, leaving him to defend his position chiefly with volunteers, and these in deficient force. The military law of obedience to orders, however, left no choice, and though stating his belief in the weakness of his army he declined to fall back, urging the bad effect such a step must have on the minds of his new levies. He enjoyed the prestige of successive victories, and by supporting that alone could he hope to maintain his small force against an enemy so largely outnumbering him.