Our Army at Monterey

Following his account of Our Army on the Rio Grande, Thomas Bangs Thorpe wrote the further exploits of the Army of Occupation as it marched inland and captured the Mexican city of Monterrey.  In the wake of his victories at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, Taylor's army greatly expanded as volunteer brigades arrived.  His forces moved upriver to secure Reynosa, Camargo, and Mier.  He then marched toward Monterrey, capturing towns enroute, notably Ceralvo.  On September 19, 1846, his vanguard arrived on the outskirts of Monterrey and discovered that the city was prepared for a siege.  Taylor obliged them.

General William Worth took a division of troops and looped west to capture the road to Saltillo and cutoff any support.  Additionally, he was ordered to capture the fortifications on the side of the city, notably the Bishop's Palace.  Meanwhile, General Twiggs' division was ordered to take the fortifications on the east of the city.  While Twiggs' forces were mauled by the interlocking batteries of multiple forts on the east, Worth secured his objectives with comparative ease.  For three days, the battle raged as the Americans pressed toward the main plaza from both directions.  General Ampudia, who had taken command after General Arista's back-to-back losses at the Rio Grande, saw that the city was lost.  On September 24th, he requested parley and, once there was a ceasefire, used Taylor's reluctance to resume combat to secure additional concessions.  Rather than surrender his army, he managed to march it out of the city with arms.

Though informative and containing first-hand accounts of all the American commanders of the action, it is far less engaging than the previous book.  It is a dry recitation of the action, almost completely one-sided as there is little from the Mexican forces.  There is a lot of repetition.  Thorpe offered a chapter on the negotiations for the surrender - which included the terms - and then the details of the surrender show up again later as a document.  This goes for officer deaths too.  During his account of the battle, he will mention how this officer was killed.  Later, in the obituary section, he details that officer's life and how he died.  Later, in the accounts of the various commanding officer, that death is again detailed.  Enough already.

As he had already provided a look at culture, architecture, fashion, cuisine, etc. in his previous book, he barely touches on these here.  Likewise, his travelogue account of Matamoros is not duplicated for Monterrey.  This is much more of a campaign account, lacking the breadth of the previous book.  Worthwhile to the student, but dreary otherwise.  Like Our Army of the Rio Grande, this book is long out of copyright and available for download here.