sentences:  O'Sullivan biographer Robert D. Sampson disputes Hudson's claim for a variety of reasons.Cazneau was sent by President Polk on a secret peace mission to Mexico in 1845; she rode there on horseback.With the outbreak of the Mexican–American War, she went to the front, where she witnessed Winfield Scott's capture of the fortress of Vera Cruz in March 1847, the first female war correspondent in American history, using the name of "Cora Montgomery."