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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1846 MEXICAN WAR 1848 During the decade following the Texas Revolution, relations between the United States and Mexico grew increasingly antagonistic. In part this antagonism resulted from the widespread aitude Americans called “Manifest Destiny”—the notion that the United States eventually was going to expand to cover much of North America. Some Democrats and their presidential candidate, James K. Polk, condoned “Manifest Destiny” during the election of 1844, though some members of the Whig party also favored expansion. On the other hand, Mexicans opposed conceding any part of their nation to the United States either by sale or military conquest. Furthermore, many Mexicans refused to recognize Texas independence and wished to reunite the province with Mexico. Before Polk took oce, U.S. President John Tyler arranged to annex Texas to the United States, and contended that the state’s boundary was the Rio Grande. When annexation occurred in December 1845 Mexican politicians objected: it amounted to aggression because Mexico still claimed all of Texas. erefore, it did not maer which river had marked the province’s boundary before the Texas Revolution. ese aitudes appeared irreconcilable and the prospect of war loomed. Polk aggravated the situation following his inauguration in March of 1845. He extended an oer of $35 million to purchase California, another of Mexico’s northern provinces. Insulted by Polk’s oer, nationalistic Mexican de Santa Anna. Rather than negotiate to end the war, as Polk wished, Santa Anna instead galvanized Mexican popular opinion, draed an army, and renewed the ght against the United States. Polk decided to launch another invasion of Mexico designed to capture the capital, Mexico City. To lead this risky expedition, the president picked Gen. Wineld Sco, and reassigned many of Taylor’s troops to Sco. A stickler for detail, Scodrilled his units, designed landing boats and, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, planned an amphibious assault to capture Vera Cruz, on the Gulf of Mexico, as his base of operations. While While Scochecked his details, Santa Anna leMexico City to carry out his own bold plan. e Mexican general deed the odds by marching his army northward across the desert in wintertime to aack Taylor’s army (reduced in size aer it reinforced Sco). In February 1847 the resulting hard-fought two-day Bale of Buena Vista (near Saltillo) in northern Mexico was a narrow U.S. victory. Santa Anna retreated and turned his aention to Sco’s invasion. In March Sco’s army landed on the beaches south of Vera Cruz and laid siege to the fortied city. It fell in twenty days. In April Sco’s soldiers—regulars, volunteers, and a few Marines—began marching toward Mexico City along the National Road. Establishing roadblocks and formidable defensive positions, Santa Anna’s army fought at every opportunity. Santa Anna calculated that some combination of bale losses, arition due to disease, lack of supplies, and guerrilla aacks would stop the Americans. Despite losing hundreds of men to diseases and being distracted by Mexican guerrillas, Sco’s army broke through every Mexican barrier and pushed the campaign onward. Reaching the gates of Mexico City in mid-August 1847 leading 10,000 Americans, Scoevaluated Santa Anna’s well-designed defenses. Facing nearly 25,000 Mexican troops, Scorecognized that the best forts guarded the capital’s eastern and northern approaches and that the terrain south of the city was considered impassable. Scoseized the element of surprise and ordered his army to aack from the south. Later he shied to aack the city’s western defenses, producing several signicant bales in August and September, notably the gallant Mexican defense at Chapultepec, site of Mexico’s military academy. To win control of the “Halls of Montezuma” Sco's army suered more than 3,000 casualties killed, wounded, and felled by disease. On 14 September the victorious Americans paraded across the plaza in the center of Mexico City. e American army occupied the capital for ve months while diplomats negotiated a treaty to end the war. According to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ratied in March 1848 by the U.S. Senate, Mexico lost nearly one half of its land area. e treaty awarded the United States a huge region, eventually divided into the states of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Utah. In partial compensation, the United States paid Mexico $15 million as well as paid $3 million in claims of American citizens against the Mexican government. As U.S. leaders had asserted before the war, Texas was annexed to the United States and the southern boundary between Texas and Mexico was the Rio Grande. Many residents of the annexed region t into a new category of U.S. citizens—Mexican Americans. Other results followed the war. U.S. generals entered politics. e Whig party nominated Zachary Taylor and he won the presidential election of 1848. In 1852 the Whigs nominated Wineld Sco, but he lost to a Democrat, Franklin Pierce, a former volunteer general. In 1849 gold was discovered in California, and thousands of people rushed into the territory. e United States now reached to the Pacic Ocean but Americans intensied their debates about slavery entering the western territories. ese debates contributed to the sectional crisis of 1860, secession, and the Civil War. politicians rejected selling California. When the United States annexed Texas it was logical for Americans to station U.S. Army units in the new state. Mexicans contended that those American soldiers were trespassing on Mexican soil. American soldiers encountered Mexican Army units operating north of the Rio Grande. A skirmish resulted on 25 April 1846, producing sixteen U.S. casualties. Both nations declared war against each other in the spring of 1846. President Polk was an assertive Commander in Chief. Designing an oensive strategy, he utilized U.S. Army regular troops already in uniform and thousands of citizen-soldiers who volunteered to serve for one year. Before the volunteers enlisted, 2,000 regulars under Gen. Zachary Taylor fought and won two bales in May 1846, Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, to gain control of Texas. During two days of combat, Taylor’s army suered about 200 killed and wounded, and a Mexican army of about 3,000 soldiers tallied about 600 casualties. e Mexicans retreated below the Rio Grande. Taylor followed them and occupied Matamoros, Mexico, in May and Camargo in July. Pressing deeper into Mexico, Taylor’s army fought a bale at Monterrey in late September and captured the city. Meanwhile, Polk ordered colonels Stephen Kearny and Alexander Doniphan to lead expeditions of about 2,000 soldiers (mostly volunteers plus a few hundred regulars) to capture the Mexican province of New Mexico in August. Kearny marched on to California, where the U.S. Navy assisted American soldiers to gain control of the province. e small Mexican garrison and Mexican volunteers provided an energetic but short-lived defense, which ended in January 1847. By January 1847 it seemed to Polk that the war had been won, but Mexico refused to negotiate or surrender. Taking a controversial step, in September 1846 Polk had assisted the return to Mexico of a former president, Antonio Lopez CAMPAIGNS There were 10 campaigns in the Mexican War. e streamers are green with a white center stripe. e color green is one of the colors associated with ancient Mexico and the colors green and white appear in the Mexican tri-color ag. e white center stripe also represents the United States ag. 􀃕 PALO ALTO 1846 􀃕 RESACA DE LA PALMA 1846 􀃕 MONTERREY 1846 􀃕􀀃BUENA VISTA 1847 􀃕􀀃VECRUZ 1847 􀃕􀀃CERRO GORDO 1847 􀃕􀀃CONTRES 1847 􀃕􀀃CHURUBUSCO 1847 􀃕􀀃MOLINA DEL Y 1847 􀃕􀀃CHAPULTEPEC 1847 BELLIGERENTS 􀃕􀀃United States 􀃕 Mexico Californios VERSUS Indians St. Patrick’s Baalion STATISTICS 􀃕􀀃Total U.S. Service Members 78,718 􀃕􀀃Bale Deaths 1,733 􀃕􀀃Other Deaths in Service 11,550 􀃕􀀃Non-mortal Woundings 4,152 "I give it as my xed opinion, that but for our graduated cadets, the war between the United States and Mexico, might, and probably would have, lasted some four or ve years within its rst half, more defeats than victories falling to our share; whereas, in less than two campaigns, we conquered a great country and a peace, without the loss of single bale or skirmish." Gen. Wineld Sco, spoken aer the Mexican War and required to be commied to memory by every cadet at the United States Military Academy. General Zachary Taylor at the Bale of Buena Vista; engraving om a painting by W.H. Powell. 􀃕 1846􀃕MEXICAN WAR 􀃕1848 United States 28-star ag. 􀃕 President James K. Polk 1845 -1849 􀃕 Joseph G. Dawson III, PhD, Texas A&M University General Wineld Scoby Alonzo Chappell, c. 1850. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. United States soldiers of the Mexican War. General Zachary Taylor by Joseph H. Bush, 1849. USS Cumberland, 1,726 ton sailing igate with 54 guns. Lithograph by N. Currier, 1843. Map of Texas and Mexico during the Mexican War. 1847. 􀃕 􀃕© 2010 e Memorial for all Veterans of the Brazos Valley, Inc. Le-Write Ink 􀃕 Wilson & SwiBowie Knife