At Cerro Gordo the First Artillery were employed as infantry.  Their colours were amongst the first to be planted on the enemy’s breastworks.  But in none of the reports does Jackson’s name occur.* (* According to the Regimental Records his company (K) was not engaged in the battle, but only in the pursuit.) The battle, however, brought him good luck.  Captain Magruder, an officer of his own regiment, who was to win distinction on wider fields, had captured a Mexican field battery, which Scott presented to him as a reward for his gallantry.  Indian wars had done but little towards teaching American soldiers the true use of artillery.  Against a rapidly moving enemy, who systematically forebore exposing himself in mass, and in a country where no roads existed, only the fire-arm was effective.  But already, at Palo Alto and Resaca, against the serried lines and thronging cavalry of the Mexicans, light field-guns had done extraordinary execution.  The heavy artillery, hitherto the more favoured service, saw itself eclipsed.  The First Regiment, however, had already been prominent on the fighting line.  It had won reputation with the bayonet at Cerro Gordo, and before Mexico was reached there were other battles to be fought, and other positions to be stormed.  A youth with a predilection for hard knocks might have been content with the chances offered to the foot-soldier.  But Jackson’s partiality for his own arm was as marked as was Napoleon’s, and the decisive effect of a well-placed battery appealed to his instincts with greater force than the wild rush of a charge of infantry.  Skilful manoeuvring was more to his taste than the mere bludgeon work of fighting at close quarters.

Two subalterns were required for the new battery.  The position meant much hard work, and possibly much discomfort.  Magruder was restless and hot-tempered, and the young officers of artillery showed no eagerness to go through the campaign as his subordinates.  Not so Jackson.  He foresaw that service with a light battery, under a bold and energetic leader, was likely to present peculiar opportunities; and with his thorough devotion to duty, his habits of industry, and his strong sense of self-reliance, he had little fear of disappointing the expectations of the most exacting superior.  “I wanted to see active service,” he said in after years, “to be near the enemy in the fight; and when I heard that John Magruder had got his battery I bent all my energies to be with him, for I knew if any fighting was to be done, Magruder would be “on hand."” His soldierly ambition won its due reward.  The favours of fortune fall to the men who woo more often than to those who wait.  The barrack-room proverb which declares that ill-luck follows the volunteer must assuredly have germinated in a commonplace brain.  It is characteristic of men who have cut their way to fame that they have never allowed the opportunity to escape them.  The successful man pushes to the front and seeks his chance; those of a temper less ardent wait till duty calls and the call may never come.  Once before, when, despite his manifold disadvantages, he secured his nomination to West Point, Jackson had shown how readily he recognised an opening; now, when his comrades held back, he eagerly stepped forward, to prove anew the truth of the vigorous adage, “Providence helps those who help themselves.”