adjective [usually ADJECTIVE noun] If you describe someone or something as compassionate, you mean that they feel or show pity, sympathy, and understanding for people who are suffering. My father was a deeply compassionate man. American English: compassionate
Matamoros is a city in Tamaulipas in Mexico. Matamoros is situated on the United States-Mexico border across the Rio Grande River from the city of Brownsville, near where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of Mexico. It is one of several major land crossings between the United States and Mexico.
Frustrated by the Mexican refusal to negotiate, Polk, on January 13, 1846, directed Gen. Zachary Taylor's army at Corpus Christi to advance to the Rio Grande. The Mexican government viewed that as an act of war. On April 25 the Mexican troops at Matamoros crossed the river and ambushed an American patrol.