| Popis: |
Relative lack of concern for appearance is not a recent thing among the Americans. A Mexican official observed,following the capture of Mexico City in 1847, that American troops looked "more like brigands than soldiers." This seeming indifference to image is personified by General Taylor, "Old Rough and Ready," who at the Battle of Palo Alto, "sat loosely on his horse one half-bare leg slung over his powmel, writing unconcernedly as the bullets flew," while the enemy commander, "tall, red-headed Mariano Arista in his resplendent uniform excitedly harangued his men." Taylor won that fight, of course, as well as the next major encounter at Buena Vista, by tactics which Wellington was to describe later as brilliant. |
