The nation deplores the loss of the brave
officers and men who have gallantly fallen while vindicating and
defending their country's rights and honor.
It is a subject of pride and satisfaction that our volunteer citizen
soldiers, who so promptly responded to their country's call, with an
experience of the discipline of a camp of only a few weeks, have borne
their part in the hard-fought battle of Monterey with a constancy and
courage equal to that of veteran troops and worthy of the highest
admiration. The privations of long marches through the enemy's country
and through a wilderness have been borne without a murmur. By rapid
movements the Province of New Mexico, with Santa Fe, its capital, has
been captured without bloodshed. The Navy has cooperated with the Army
and rendered important services; if not so brilliant, it is because the
enemy had no force to meet them on their own element and because of the
defenses which nature has interposed in the difficulties of the
navigation on the Mexican coast. Our squadron in the Pacific, with the
cooperation of a gallant officer of the Army and a small force hastily
collected in that distant country, has acquired bloodless possession of
the Californias, and the American flag has been raised at every
important point in that Province.
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