Santa Anna defeated the American rebels at the celebrated siege of the Alamo in early 1836. On 21 April 1836 General Sam Houston with some 1,000 Texans under his command annihilated the 1,400-man army of Santa Anna. The Battle of San Jacinto lasted 18 minutes, and won Texas its independence from Mexico. When Texas declared its independence, it claimed as its territory an additional 150 miles of land, to the Rio Grande River. For almost a decade, Texas remained an independent republic.
At first, the American government strove to preserve peace with the goal to purchase New Mexico and California. The Jackson and Van Buren administrations feared both diplomatic trouble and the political consequences of admission of a new slave state; they therefore did not press the issue. The frontrunners in the 1844 presidential nominations, Democrat Martin Van Buren and Whig Henry Clay, announced they were against immediate annexation of Texas. In response, Southern democrats managed to block Van Buren's nomination, allowing dark horse James K. Polk to come to the forefront. He campaigned for the acquisition of both Texas and Oregon. Clay, seeing the popularity of Polk's stand, began hedging on the question of annexation, thus causing a defection of anti-slavery Whigs from the party, a defection which probably cost him the election.
After Texas gained its independence from Mexico, its voters overwhelmingly supported annexation into the United States. Although Mexico broke relations with the United States over the issue of Texas statehood, the most contentious issue was the new state's border: Texas claimed the Rio Grande River; Mexico argued that the border stood far to the north along the Nueces River. Meanwhile, settlers were flooding into the territories of New Mexico and California at a time when many Americans claimed that the United States had a "manifest destiny" to expand westward to the Pacific Ocean.
In early 1845 Congress employed its power to admit new states, and annexed Texas by a majority vote. The annexation of Texas brought into the Union all or parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. The admission of Texas into the Union helped to speed the disintegration of the national political parties. Many Van Buren Democrats, convinced that southerners had trampled over their rights, left the party for the Free-Soil or Republican parties. Political ideologies and political parties were thus becoming sectional, making the Civil War almost unavoidable. The United States also adopted Texas's position and claimed the Rio Grande as the border, helping to provoke war with Mexico.
The "Army of Observation" commanded bv General Zachary Taylor was deployed to Corpus Christi, at the mouth of the Nueces River, to protect newly annexed Texas in the summer of 1845. The force consisted of 5 regiments of infantry, 1 regiment of dragoons, and 16 companies of artillery.
Mexico broke diplomatic relations with the United States and refused to recognize either the Texas annexation or the Rio Grande border. President James Polk sent a special envoy, John L. Slidell, to propose cancellation of Mexico's debt to United States citizens who had incurred damages during the Mexican Revolution, provided Mexico would formally recognize the Rio Grande boundary. Slidell was also authorized to offer the Mexican government up to $30 million for California and New Mexico. At that time, New Mexico embraced much of what is now the southwestern United States, not just the present state of New Mexico.
Between Slidell's arrival on December 6, 1845, and his departure in March 1846, the regime of President Jose Herrara was overthrown and a fervently nationalistic government under General Mariano Paredes seized power. Neither leader would speak to Slidell. When Paredes publicly reaffirmed Mexico's claim to all of Texas, Slidell left in a temper, convinced that Mexico should be "chastised."
The agent for chastisement was already in place. In mid-January 1846, more than 3,500 troops commanded bv General Taylor moved south under President Polk's order from Corpus Christi to a location on the north bank of the Rio Grande. Advancing on March 8 to Point Isabel, the US troops found that the settlement had been burned by fleeing Mexicans. By March 28, the troops were near the mouth of the Rio Grande across from the Mexican town of Matamoros. The Rio Grande formed part of the border between the United States and Mexico.
Polk claimed the move was a defensive measure, and expansionists and Democratic newspapers in the United States applauded his action. Whig newspapers said that the movement was an invasion of Mexico rather than a defense of Texas. General Taylor sent one of his officers across the river to meet with Mexican officials. The Mexicans protested the movement of the American troops to the Rio Grande. They said the area was Mexican territory. The movement of American troops there, they said, was an act of war. For almost a month, the Americans and the Mexicans kept their positions. While newspapers in Mexico called for war, General Pedro de Ampudia warned, "If you insist in remaining upon the soil of the department of Tamaulipas, it will clearly result that arms, and arms alone, must decide the question."
General Ampudia's prediction came true on 25 April 1846, when General Taylor received word that a large Mexican force had crossed the border a few kilometers up the river. A small force of American soldiers went to investigate. The Mexican cavalry attacked the mounted American patrol, killing five, wounding eleven, and capturing forty-seven. General Taylor quickly sent a message to President Polk in Washington. It said war had begun.
President Polk sent his war message to Congress on May 11 asserting, "Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon America's soil." He asked congress to give him everything he needed to win the war and bring peace to the area. On May 13, Congress declared war, with a vote of 40-2 in the Senate and 174-14 in the House. President Polk signed the war bill. Later, Polk wrote: "we had not gone to war for conquest. But it was clear that in making peace we would, if possible, get California and other parts of Mexico."
A few members of congress did not want to declare war against Mexico. They believed the United States was responsible for the situation along the Rio Grande. Ohio Senator Tom Corwin accused Polk of involving the United States in a war of aggression. Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina abstained from voting, correctly foreseeing that the war would aggravate sectional strife. A freshman Whig Congressman from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, questioned whether the "spot" where blood had been shed was really US soil. Other citizens shared their legislators' concern, particularly those in the Northeast who saw the war as a ploy to extend slavery. The most celebrated was Henry David Thoreau, who refused to pay his $1 Massachusetts poll tax because he believed the war an immoral advancement of slavery.
Many Americans opposed what they called "Mister Polk's War." Whig Party members and abolitionists in the North believed that slave-owners and Southerners in Polk's administration had planned the war. They believed the South wanted to win Mexican territory for the purpose of spreading and strengthening slavery. President Polk was troubled by this opposition. But he did not think the war would last long. He thought the US could quickly force Mexico to sell him the territory he wanted.
Polk secretly sent a representative to former Mexican dictator Santa Ana, who was living in exile in Cuba. Polk's representative said the United States wanted to buy California and some other Mexican territory. Santa Ana said he would agree to the sale, if the united states would help him return to power. President Polk ordered the US Navy to let Santa Ana return to Mexico. American ships that blocked the port of Vera Cruz permitted the Mexican dictator to land there. Once Santa Ana returned, he failed to honor his promises to Polk. He refused to end the war and sell California. Instead, Santa Ana organized an army to fight the United States. Contents:
I.Backround
II.Mexican Forces
III.American Forces
IV.Mexican Losses
V.American Losses
VI.Conclusion
VII.Important Battles
VIII.Pictures
I.Backround
II.Mexican Forces
| Country | Troops | Mexico | 32,000 |
|---|
In Mexico's rigid class system, many of the officers were wealthy, landed Creoles, Mexicans of Spanish ancestry, while the regular troops were landless peasants, either Mestizos, a mix of Spanish and Indian ancestry, or Indians. This situation made for poor morale and a dislike and distrust of their officers by many Mexican soldiers.
The average Mexican infantryman carried an old flintlock musket, most of which were manufactured in Great Britain and sold as surplus to Mexico. Tending to use too much powder, many Mexican soldiers fired from the hip, rather than raising the rifle up to their shoulder where the kick could be especially painful. The result was that their shots would often go over the heads of the Americans.
III.American Forces |
| Country | Regular Troops | Volunteer Troops | Total Troops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Army | 42,587 | 73,532 | 116,119 |
| Navy | 12,319 | -- | 12,319 |
The United States forces had a huge advantage in artillery over the Mexicans, and this was revealed from the first battles. The weapons used by soldiers in the Mexican War were generally muzzle-loading rifles or muskets, with the latter predominating since they were quicker and easier to load, although their range and accuracy left something to be desired. Dragoons and Texas Rangers usually carried five or six-shot Colt revolvers, introduced into warfare for the first time during the Mexican War. The Texas volunteers were especially notorious for arming themselves to the teeth with an assortment of pistols, knives and revolvers tucked into boots, belts and shirts.
IV.Mexican Losses |
| Country | Battle Deaths | Total Deaths | Mexico | 4,000-5,000 | 30,000 |
|---|
The Mexican Army suffered more casualties than the US Army and a large part of it is unknown. Civilians too suffered and their death toll is also unknown. There were many reports of US forces executing, raping, and pillaging civilians in Mexico and they were not true. There were some isolated incidents but they were done by volunteer groups mainly from Texas who were happy to take revenge on their former rulers.
V.American Losses |
| Country | Battle Deaths | Disease Deaths | Total Deaths | Wounded | USA | 1,733 | 11,550 | 13,283 | 4,152 |
|---|
The majority of Americans who served in the War with Mexico were young, in their late teens and early twenties. Many of them had never been away from home before. They enlisted, in most cases, for glory and adventure. What they got, more often than not, was a bitter dose of reality: heat, dust, boredom, insects, disease and all too frequently, death, more often caused by illness than by enemy bullets.
VI.Conclusion |
Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago, which was signed on 02 February 1848. The United States purchased New Mexico and California for $15 million, and paid more $3 million in damage claims that Mexico owed American citizens. In addition to Mexican recognition of the US annexation of Texas, it also recognized the Rio Grande river as the southern border of Texas.
The terms of the treaty were those set by president Polk. Yet he was not satisfied with just California and New Mexico -- he wanted even more territory. But he realized he probably would have to fight for it. And he did not think Congress would agree to extend the war. So Polk sent the peace treaty to the senate. It was approved. The Mexican congress also approved it. The war was officially over by May 1848.
The Mexican War saw the first major use of steamboats in war [though the Army made limited use of steamboats in the Second Seminole War in Florida from 1835 to 1842]. Steamboats were used to transport men and supplies down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans for subsequent overseas movement. Steamboats also were used to establish a line of communication for Taylor's army along the Rio Grande when, after Resaca de la Palma, Taylor moved his army up the river in the first stage of an offensive against Monterrey.
The war proved to be a training ground for American officers who would later fight on both sides in the Civil War. Grant, Lee, Meade, Bragg, Davis, McClellan, and many others gained experience and learned lessons at Buena Vista and Cerro Gordo that later served them well at Antietam and Gettysburg. It was also a politically divisive war in which antislavery Whigs criticized the Democratic administration of James K. Polk for expansionism.
With the conclusion of the Mexican War, the United States gained a vast new territory of 1.36 million square kilometers encompassing the present-day states of Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah and parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. But it was also a poisoned acquisition because it revived the most explosive question in American politics of the time: would the new territories be slave or free?
The United States now faced the problem of what to do with the new lands. President Polk wanted to form territorial governments in California and New Mexico. He asked Congress for immediate permission to do that. But the question of slavery delayed quick congressional action. Should the new territories be opened or closed to slavery? Southerners argued that they had the right to take slaves into the new territories. Northerners disagreed. They opposed any further spread of slavery.
The real question was this: did congress have the power to control or bar slavery in the territories? Until texas became a state, almost all national leaders seemed to accept the idea that congress did have this power. For fifty years, congress had passed resolutions and laws controlling slavery in united states territories. Northerners believed congress received the power from the constitution. Southern slave owners disagreed. They believed the power to control slavery remained with the states.
VII.Important Battles
Key Battles:
Palo Alto
Monterrey
San Pasqual
Buena Vista
Veracruz
Chapultepec
Puebla
Palo Alto
(May 9, 1946)
The immediate cause of the war between the United States and Mexico was a dispute over the 150 mile wide strip of land between the Neuces River and the Rio Grande. When both sides sent troops into the disputed area, hostilities erupted. On May 3 a Mexican force under Gen. Mariano Arista laid siege to American held Fort Texas, under the command of Maj. Jacob Brown, on the left bank of the Rio Grande near present day Brownsville. Gen. Zachary Taylor, American commander in the Southwest, set out from Point Isabel on May 7 with 2,300 men to relieve the fort. At Palo Alto, ten miles to the northeast, his route was blocked by some 6,000 Mexican troops commanded by Arista. The first pitched battle of the war opened at 2:00 PM on May 8. The superior firepower of American rifles and artillery broke up a Mexican cavalry attack and firmly held off all enemy attempts to utilize their advantage in manpower. After five hours Arista fell back, having suffered 300-400 casualties. American losses were 9 killed and 45 wounded.
Monterrey
(Sep. 20-25, 1846)
Gen. Zachary Taylor's American army halted at Matamoros after
Palo Alto |
The immediate cause of the war between the United States and Mexico was a dispute over the 150 mile wide strip of land between the Neuces River and the Rio Grande. When both sides sent troops into the disputed area, hostilities erupted. On May 3 a Mexican force under Gen. Mariano Arista laid siege to American held Fort Texas, under the command of Maj. Jacob Brown, on the left bank of the Rio Grande near present day Brownsville. Gen. Zachary Taylor, American commander in the Southwest, set out from Point Isabel on May 7 with 2,300 men to relieve the fort. At Palo Alto, ten miles to the northeast, his route was blocked by some 6,000 Mexican troops commanded by Arista. The first pitched battle of the war opened at 2:00 PM on May 8. The superior firepower of American rifles and artillery broke up a Mexican cavalry attack and firmly held off all enemy attempts to utilize their advantage in manpower. After five hours Arista fell back, having suffered 300-400 casualties. American losses were 9 killed and 45 wounded.
Monterrey |
Gen. Zachary Taylor's American army halted at Matamoros after