Dying before the War

In July 1845, Texas accepted annexation to the United States.  Coincident with this, General Zachary Taylor moved his Corps of Observation from Ft. Jessup - on the Texas-Louisianna border - to Corpus Christi, Texas on the Nueces River.  Though the Mexican government still didn't recognize Texas independence, it argued that the Nueces - not the Rio Grande - was the border for Tejas.  Taylor camped on the south side of the river, a clear statement that the US leaned toward Texas' claim that the Rio Grande was the border.

For the next nine months, the US Army of Occupation loitered in Corpus Christi.  Though there were certainly rumors that a Mexican Army would attack, such did not happen.  Even so, the army suffered a surprising number of casualties.  Of the 3,000 troops encamped, around 67 of them died while the army waited for the war to begin.  Most of them died from illness, a common killer for those in a new climate with unfamiliar hazards.  Quite a few died from chronic diarrhea, a few drown, one accidentally shot himself, and another was shot by a man named Springer.  One unfortunate officer, Lieutenant Henry Merrill, who had only just arrived at St. Joseph Island was killed when a ship's mast fell on him; Merrill had graduated West Point on July 1st and was killed less than 4 months later.  Nearly half of the soldiers that died were from Europe: fourteen Irishmen, seven Germans, three Englishmen, three Scots, a Prussian, a Pole, a Swiss, and a Canadian died a long way from home.  Oddly, the 2nd Dragoon Regiment suffered the most deaths: 18.  The 4th Infantry lost a dozen men and the 3rd lost 11.

Steamship Dayton

Corpus Christi Bay was quite shallow and could not accommodate the supply ships.  Thus, supplies were deposited on St. Joseph Island, one of the line of coastal islands on the Texas coast.  From there, riverboats would ferry the men and equipment across the bay - about 20 miles - to the camp.  One of those riverboats was the Dayton.

On September 12, 1845, the Dayton set out on the latest supply run.  Several officers and men from the army were aboard the ship.  2nd Lt. Ulysses S. Grant, who served as a quartermaster in the 4th Infantry, declined to join them.  Captain George Crossman, who was the Chief Quartermaster, was aboard.  The Dayton was somewhat more than halfway to its destination when the boiler exploded.  Bodies tumbled through the air.  Lt. Benjamin Berry and Lt. Thadeus Higgins - both from the 4th Infantry - were killed instantly.  As the boat sank, the other boiler exploded.  There were 8 dead and 17 injured.  Two of the injured died soon afterwards.  Captain Crossman survived with minor injuries.  Captain West, who commanded the Dayton, had been severely scalded and died shortly after the disaster.

In January 1846, Taylor was ordered to move the army to the Rio Grande.  The march began on March 8th.  Those who were too ill to march were left in Corpus Christi.  By the middle of April, 4 more had died.  Approximately 2% of Taylor's troops died while camped.  This was only a hint of what was to come.  In the Mexican-American War, disease killed vastly more soldiers than muskets, cannons, swords, and bayonets.

Presidential Rankings - The Dead Ones

Three presidents did not serve long enough in office to merit ranking.  However, just to make sure that every president is listed, here are the rest:

William Henry Harrison: The oldest man elected president until he was surpassed by Ronald Reagan, Harrison was the first Whig President.  He died after only a month in office - the first president to die in office - and was replaced by Vice President John Tyler.  Virtually all of Harrison's cabinet secretaries resigned within six months of his death, erasing what little imprint he had left on Tyler's Administration.  How do you rank someone who served 1 month?

Zachary Taylor: The second Whig President, Taylor lasted longer than Harrison.  He died during the debate over the Compromise of 1850, the most significant legislation of the time.  Had he survived to shape it (he had different ideas than his VP, Millard Filmore), ranking him would make sense.  His was the longest presidency of the three at 16 months.

James Garfield: A Civil War veteran and long-serving Congressman, Garfield was assassinated by a frustrated job seeker.  He lingered for two months before dying from his wound.  He had been president for 4 months when he was shot and 6 months when he died.

All three were generals.  William Henry Harrison led troops during the War of 1812, though his most famous battle was that of Tippecanoe in 1811.  Zachary Taylor was a leading general during the Mexican American War, winning such plaudits that he was pursued to run for president.  James Garfield was an officer in the Ohio Volunteers who rose to Major General during the Civil War.

Graboyes didn't offer any details on them as they were excluded from his rankings.

Three Time Loser: The Great Compromiser

Discouraged by the Tyler administration, Henry Clay nevertheless saw opportunity coming in 1844.  Though Tyler wanted to be re-elected, no party wanted him.  He had left the Democratic Party and betrayed the Whig Party.  It looked like Martin Van Buren would be the Democratic nominee in 1844 and Clay the Whig.  Clay liked his chances.  Despite the ongoing ruckus about annexing Texas, neither Van Buren nor Clay were in favor of that.  It would be a policy argument, the American System vs. Jacksonian Democracy.  Once again, events turned against Clay.

Though Van Buren received the majority of the votes for the nomination at the Democratic Convention, he could not secure the two-third required.  Nor could any of the other initial contenders.  Then, someone suggested James Knox Polk.  Polk, the first dark horse candidate, was selected on the 9th ballot.  Unlike Van Buren, Polk favored the annexation of Texas.  President Tyler, who was running an independent campaign that supported annexation, dropped out of the race in favor of Polk.  The election now became a referendum on the Texas question and the country voted for annexation.  Henry Clay was now a three-time loser for the presidency.  Even so, he was not yet done.

Clay had taken Mexico at its word that a war would commence if Texas was annexed.  Not only would it lead to war with Mexico, but it would exacerbate the slavery issue.  Despite being a slave owner, Clay viewed slavery as morally wrong and had argued for gradual emancipation.  This half-measure on his part was appreciated by neither the abolitionist of the North nor the slave owners of the South.  However, it did demonstrate why he was called the Great Compromiser.  Indeed, he had a long track record of shepherding compromises through Congress.

The Missouri Compromise (1820) allowed Missouri to join the Union as a slave state, but offset that by admitting Maine as a free state.  Further, it set a boundary between slave and free states.  It was kicking the can down the road but quelled the hot tempers of the moment.

The Nullification Crisis (1832) saw South Carolina claiming a right to ignore Federal Tariffs.  President Jackson proposed invading South Carolina if that should happen.  Jackson's vice president, John C. Calhoun, resigned during the growing divide; he was a South Carolinian and one of the strongest voices for nullification.  Clay, despite his long rivalry with Jackson, sided against the Nullifiers.  He did not like Jackson's solution of a Force Bill and military invasion.  Instead, he guided the passage of a reduction in the tariff, which mollified the Nullifiers.  The hostilities subsided and Clay was once again key in maintaining domestic tranquility.

The Compromise of 1850 resolved what to do with the vast territory acquired in the Mexican-American War.  Where President Taylor was in favor of adding California and New Mexico as free states, the South was strongly opposed to such a move.  Once again, Clay assembled legislation that offered something for everyone, but also a bitter cost.  California could be a free state but the fugitive slave laws would be strengthened.  Texas would lose much of its claimed territory in exchange for debt relief.  New Mexico would be a territory, not a state.  Taylor's untimely death and replacement by Millard Filmore saw the compromised signed into law.

In 1848, Clay had tried a final run for the presidency, but General Zachary Taylor won the Whig nomination.  Yes, as in 1840, Clay lost the nomination to a general who died in office.  He had sought the presidency in 1824, 1832, 1840, 1844, and 1848.  Though he never made it to the presidency, he is a hugely consequential American.  Clay died in 1852 and became the first person to lie in state in the Capitol rotunda.

Hunted Like a Wolf

In this brief book, Marvin Meltzer describes how the Seminoles came to live in Florida, their lifestyle, and how they soon became an obstacle to white expansion into the state.  The book mostly details the Second Seminole War, which started at the end of 1835 and didn't conclude until August 1842.  After a series of clashes between Seminole Indians and whites, the US government foisted treaties on the Seminoles.  The Seminoles were mostly helpless observers where these treaties were concerned.  One of the big issues with the Seminoles was that they had become a haven for runaway slaves.  That nearly half of Seminole warriors were escaped slaves or free blacks was a closely guarded secret.  The war might look too much like a slave revolt than just another Indian war.  By 1835, Florida was a powder keg.  President Jackson had already arranged for moving the various tribes from the east and into Oklahoma.  The Seminole proved the most intransigent and attacked US forces in December 1835.  Francis Dade and his column of around 100 soldiers were almost complete wiped out; only one survivor to tell the tale.  The Seminole War was on!

President Jackson dispatched General Winfield Scott to bring the Seminoles to heel.  His plan for converging columns didn't work well in the trackless swamps of Florida.  He was soon replaced by General Call, the territorial governor.  His efforts proved no more effective than Scott's.  General Thomas Jesup was given the command and admitted it was tougher than he expected.  He resorted to treachery, asking chiefs to come discuss peace only to then toss these very chiefs into prison.  Osceola, one of the most effective Seminole leaders, was captured this way and died a few months later in a military prison.  Zachary Taylor was the next to take command and he fought the largest engagement of the war, the Battle of Lake Okeechobee.  However, Taylor was just as unable to tame the Seminole as his predecessors.  Next, General Armistead took his turn, providing the same mediocre results.  Colonel William Jenkins Worth was given the command and made it a policy to always be pursing the Seminoles.  Where other generals had taken the summers off, Worth kept the men in the field.  Though he had some success and managed to nab the last of the notable leaders, there were still Seminoles hiding in the Everglades.  Worth suggested leaving them there, which is what several of his predecessors had also advised.  President Tyler, the 4th president to preside over the war, agreed.

Drawing heavily on John Mahon's account of the war, this is a shorter treatment.  The tone is very harsh toward the Americans, which may be entirely justified.  Clearly, the Americans displaced the Seminoles from lands they had long inhabited and offered comparatively little compensation and bad justification.  Of course, 19th century attitudes were very different from 20th century attitudes.  Every culture took advantage of the weaker cultures.  Such goes back millennia.

Just okay.  Even so, I recommend reading Mahon's History of the Second Seminole War instead.

Climax at Buena Vista

In this 1966 book, David Lavender tracks the paths taken by Zachary Taylor and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to the epic battle at Buena Vista.  He details how Taylor established Camp Jessup on the Texas border as far back as 1821 and how Santa Anna himself had crossed La Angostura (the Mexican name for the narrows where the battle was fought) as far back as 1813.  In the wake of the annexation of Texas, Mexico and the United States had a diplomatic break and no effort by the US to cajole Mexico into negotiations worked.  So it was that Zachary Taylor was dispatched to the Rio Grande.  Both sides grew weary of the stalemate.  President Paredes ordered his army to attack the Americans.  Before President Polk even knew a battle had happened, he was composing his war message for Congress.  The war had begun.

While Taylor fought his way toward Buena Vista via the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Monterrey, Santa Anna had to smuggle himself back into Mexico.  He had been exiled in 1844 but the war offered opportunities.  He convinced Polk to let him through the blockade and he would negotiate.  Ha!  Once back, he assembled the largest army he could and marched north to crush the Americans.  Of course, it is entirely possible that Santa Anna was sincere when he made promises to negotiate but the political situation in Mexico would not allow it.  He was a man to capitalize on the currents rather than fight them.

Taylor heard rumors of a grand army but repeatedly dismissed them.  It would be impossible to march an army through the desert from San Luis Potosi.  The Mexicans had captured dispatches exposing the planned landing at Veracruz and it was more logical for Santa Anna to oppose General Winfield Scott's landing.  Even as more credible news arrived of a grand army approaching, Taylor dismissed it as overblown.  Boy, was he in for a surprise.  By the time he was convinced, it was almost too late when 15,000 troops appeared in the distance; Taylor had fewer than 5,000 troops.  Taylor abandoned his forward camp and raced back beyond the narrow pass at Buena Vista to secure his supplies and rear.  He left General John Ellis Wool to layout the planned battleground.

As Santa Anna assembled his troops, he requested Taylor's surrender.  Taylor declined.  Most of Taylor's regular troops had been taken for the landing at Veracruz.  He was left with mostly volunteer regiments; Taylor had long distrusted volunteer soldiers, but now his career - his life! - depended on them.  Luckily for Taylor, the Mexican troops were exhausted.  They had marched through the desert and were sent to battle with hardly a rest and hungry.  Santa Anna urged them on by saying the Americans had food aplenty if only we break through their lines.  And break the lines did!  The America left retreated before a strong Mexican press.  Jefferson Davis and his Mississippi Rifles, among others, plugged the hole and sent the Mexican Lancers back to their side of the line.

The battle began on February 22 and was resumed on February 23.  It was a very near thing.  In fact, Taylor fully expected to resume the battle the following day, but Santa Anna withdrew.  His troops were starving and exhausted.  Where the Americans had almost 300 killed and 400 wounded, the Mexicans had 600 killed, over 1,000 wounded, and nearly 2,000 missing (probably deserted).

Lavender does an outstanding job of leading both principal generals to the field of battle and detailing their epic clash.  A Mexican victory would have changed the war.  No other Mexican general could have assembled so great an army.  Polk had allowed the most potent threat against his war aims into the country!  Santa Anna came so close to victory.

Taylor was not a great tactician but he was a boon to troop morale.  His homespun demeanor and absolute fearlessness as bullets and cannon balls whizzed about him transferred to his troops.  He was unflappable.  After his first couple of battles, he was willing to hand off further fighting to General Winfield Scott.  However, then there was talk of him as a presidential candidate.  At first, he brushed it aside as nothing but as time went on, he warmed to the idea.  After he had captured Monterrey, he was sold on the idea.  This also made him see political machinations in everything thereafter.  President Polk was trying to ruin him, General Scott was out to sabotage him, Secretary of War Marcy was bypassing him.  He needed one more battle to cement his candidacy, but not as big as the one he got.

The book is absolutely terrific.  It is well-researched and makes for a gripping narrative of Taylor's part in the war.  Highly recommended.

General William Jenkins Worth - The American Murat

In his PhD dissertation, Edward Seccomb Wallace researched the life of General William Jenkins Worth, hero of the Battle of Monterrey.  That battle was the high watermark of Worth's career.

The book details the Worth family and how the son of a whaler became a soldier rather than a sailor.  Joining the army during the War of 1812, Worth found himself serving with Winfield Scott.  The two would become fast friends for the next 30 years.  Worth was seriously wounded in the leg and had a limp for the remainder of his life.  He became the first Commandant of Cadets at West Point, a position he held while Robert E. Lee was a cadet.  The man who succeeded him, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, became a lifelong antagonist.  From West Point, Worth became the commanding officer of the newly formed 8th Infantry.  The 8th was posted along the Great Lakes to prevent a Canadian independence movement from using the US as a hideout and also to prevent Americans from supporting the rebels; a very peculiar situation.  He was later sent to Florida, where he became the leader who finally 'won' the Second Seminole War (1835-1842).  The annexation of Texas in 1845 saw Worth and the 8th Infantry posted in Corpus Christi and later marching to the Rio Grande.  Thinking that there would be no fighting and having been disrespected by the military (as he saw it), Worth resigned.  A month later, the war had commenced and his men had fought both Palo Alto and Resaca de La Palma without him.  Chagrined, Worth withdrew his resignation and hastened to the Rio Grande again.  Now he had to somehow restore his tarnished reputation.  He intended to achieve promotion or death.  His standout performance at Monterrey in September 1846 earned him the promotion he desired.  He served with Windfield Scott again during the march to Mexico City, but they were no longer friends.  After the war, he was posted in San Antonio, TX, where he died from cholera in 1849.

The most interesting part of the book is the political rivalry among the generals.  Though often mentioned in books on the Mexican-American War, it is generally told from Hitchcock's perspective.  As such, Worth is often seen as one part of a spiteful triumvirate of officers.  Here, that story is flipped on its head and Ethan Allen Hitchcock comes across as a devious manipulator.  Hitchcock had been Worth's subordinate at West Point.  Later, he was given the rank of major in Worth's 8th Infantry but did not report for duty.  No, he was on long term detached assignment, something fairly common at the time.  However, that left Worth without a major.  Later, when the 8th was in Florida, Hitchcock somehow wrangled repeated extended leaves from duty.  Worth developed a very low opinion of Hitchcock.  However, Hitchcock was a master of regulation and the lawyerly side of the military.  Both Worth and Hitchcock were on the Rio Grande in April 1846.  Worth, who had a brevet rank of brigadier general but a lineal rank of colonel, viewed himself as the obvious second in command to General Taylor.  However, Colonel David Twiggs had only the lineal rank of colonel but this pre-dated Worth's lineal rank.  Hitchcock argued on Twiggs side (behind the scenes, of course) despite the fact that he well knew that Worth was the far more competent commander.  Taylor dodged a decision on the matter by sending it to Washington.  Washington, lobbied by Hitchcock, favored Twiggs.  When word returned to the Rio Grande that Twiggs outranked him, an indignant Worth resigned.  A few days later, Hitchcock requested leave and also departed.  This was not the last clash between Worth and Hitchcock.  As Worth died in 1849 and Hitchcock lived until 1870, history mostly remembers Hitchcock's point of view.  Hitchcock was a prolific writer and diarist.  By contrast, there is only correspondence to tell Worth's side of things.

Unsurprisingly, my opinion of Worth was greatly improved by this book.  Though certainly possessed of an inflated ego - he wasn't called "Haughty Bill" for nothing - he was a competent and diligent leader who could be relied upon to get the job done.  Here is an outstanding biography of a now little known general.  Fort Worth, Texas was named in his honor.

A Perfect Gibraltar

After the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de La Palma, the US Army secured all the towns along the Rio Grande unopposed.  As Taylor's forces marched inland, more towns surrendered without a fight.  Many believed that the city of Monterrey would likewise surrender, giving the Americans the largest city in the north with little cost.  Such was not the case.  General Ampudia had resumed control of the Army of the North and intended to hold the city.  Defenses were erected, soldiers posted, and canons placed.  Upon arriving at the outskirts of the city, Taylor paused.  Where his usual strategy was to rush headlong into a battle, here he looked for a weak spot.  He sent General William Jenkins Worth with a division of men to the western side of the city.  While Taylor's troops attacked the east side as a diversion, Worth captured several forts and the all-important road to Saltillo.  Unfortunately for Taylor's troops, the diversion turned into a full force attack that suffered massive casualties from the well-designed Mexican defensive works.

The book details all the action over the 3-day engagement.  Sam Walker and Jack Hays leading Texas Rangers on the western side while Jefferson Davis led his Mississippi Rifles on the eastern side.  Ulysses Grant rode under fire from the lines and Braxton Bragg found his flying artillery was nearly useless in an urban fight.  After the battle was won, Dishman followed the notable veterans through the remainder of the war.  Many went on to join Scott's campaign to Mexico City.  General Worth, who felt his success at Monterrey would give him an elevated position in Scott's army, instead found himself sidelined.  His record during the Mexico City campaign was disappointing.

A readable, informative, and well-researched account of the Battle of Monterrey.  Recommended.

Media and Military Relations during the Mexican War

In this master's thesis, Major Metzel details the impact of the media on the military and vice versa.  He delves into several topics which made the Mexican War different from those before on account of the media.  The Mexican War was the first to see reporters traveling with the army and sending dispatches to their respective papers.  Most of the reporters were from various New Orleans papers, but reporters from the New York Sun also found their way to Mexico.  Not only did they report the news, but they also sometimes sought to influence it.  Moses Beach of the NY Sun tried to engineer a peace deal and later claimed responsibility for triggering a revolution in Mexico City.  When President Polk recalled his peace envoy, Nicholas Trist, James Freaner of the New Orleans Delta convinced him to stay, which Trist did.  The treaty that Trist thereafter negotiated was not what Polk wanted.  However, the continued bad press over the war had him accept it as good enough.  General Zachary Taylor was repeatedly lionized by media reports and was soon viewed as a contender for the presidency.  He had never had presidential aspirations but was nonetheless carried to the office in the 1848 elections.  By contrast, General Winfield Scott, who had already made a run at the presidency in 1840, was given mixed reviews by the media.  Despite being the better general, Scott was viewed as less heroic because fewer of his soldiers died in combat.  Scott had a long history with the press and was able to use it to his advantage by disseminating misinformation about his strategy.  By the end of the war, he used the media to transport news, because they were faster than the military/government mail service.

The Mexican War changed the press.  In order to get a scoop on the competition, the speed at which news was transmitted increased.  At the start of the war, it took 2 weeks for news to travel from the Rio Grande to Washington.  By the end of the war, it took 2 weeks for news to travel from Mexico City to Washington.  Several New York papers agreed to share expenses to get news from the war and created the Associated Press (AP) to accomplish this.  The AP is still in operation.

Written for those not familiar with the various personalities of the war, it sometimes drags with background information.  There is a lot of repetition with the intro - meat - outro format.  Nonetheless, this is an excellent paper and highly recommended.

Narrative of the Central Division

With the start of the Mexican-American War, the US needed more troops.  As was the practice at the time, volunteer regiments were recruited from the states.  These regiments would elect officers, which was not the best means of assembling battle-ready units.  One of the armies raised through this process was the Central Division, also known as the Army of Chihuahua.  Commanded by General John E Wool, the army reported to San Antonio, Texas.  Among the regular army units were units of the 4th Artillery (Captain Washington), 2nd Dragoons (Colonel Harney), 6th Infantry, and 30 pioneers (Captain Robert E. Lee).  The volunteers consisted of the Arkansas Cavalry (Colonel Yell) and four companies of Illinois volunteers.

The army departed San Antonio and made its way to the Rio Grande and thence to Monclova.  Here, they learned of General Taylor's capture of Monterrey and the armistice.  As such, the army wiled away the days in Monclova.  Moreover, the planned march to Chihuahua was nixed and the army was instead dispatched to Parras.  In mid-December, General Worth called upon Wool to reinforce him at Saltillo as Santa Anna was reportedly enroute with a grand army.  Of course, by the time the Central Division arrived, there was no sign of the Mexican Army.

Though it had no battles during months of marching and occupying, the Central Division had several false alarms, called stampedes by the men.  There were always rumors of Mexican forces, starting from the time they marched from San Antonio.  There was an expectation of fighting to cross the Rio Grande, a potential ambush on the road to Monclova, fears of attack while camped at Monclova (this one proposed that Santa Anna himself was spying in the camp while selling sugary treats to the soldiers!), rumors of entrenched forces on the march to Parras, encroaching armies while camped in Parras, etc.  This repeated pattern of stampedes led the army to discount the later rumor that Santa Anna was approaching with a grand army, which happened to be true.

With much of Taylor's army having been appropriated for General Scott's coming campaign to Mexico City, Santa Anna saw an opportunity.  He believed the mostly volunteer forces left to Taylor would be easy prey for his massive army.  It was a nail-biter of a battle, but the American's held Buena Vista and Santa Anna hurried south to meet Major General Scott's forces at Cerro Gordo.

The Army of Chihuahua, which failed to go to Chihuahua, was glad to have had a fight.  Not long after the battle, Colonel Doniphan and his troops arrived in Saltillo with an account of capturing Chihuahua.

The author, Jonathan Buhoup, was a member of the Arkansas Cavalry.  This is a much more detailed account than that of Harvey Neville, a member of the 2nd Illinois regiment, offering a view of the events on the march and some personalities of the officers and men.  Of particular note was the Cherokee who was a member of the Arkansas Cavalry.  His often humorous antics pepper the narrative.  By the end, I was more interested in the adventures of the nameless Cherokee than those of the Central Division.

Wool's March from San Antonio is usually little more than a footnote in most accounts of the Mexican-American War.  There were no battles and Wool maintained good relations with the local populace.  Wool's success as a commander led to an unremarkable march, at least as the big picture is concerned.  Buhoup provides lots of details that demonstrate this was a difficult and eventful march.  Though his prose is sometimes awkward and his frequent reference to 'our readers' should have been nixed by the editor, it is an entertaining and informative read.  Recommended.

The War with Mexico, Volume I

In 1919, Justin Smith published his Pulitzer Prize winning The War with Mexico.  Volume I covers the various causes of the war and then the various battles up to Buena Vista (February 22-23, 1847). A thoroughly researched book, Smith offers some well-supported arguments.  He opens by detailing event in Mexico from the war with Spain and the various efforts at self-government in the wake of independence. Of particular note, Mexico exiled many Gachupines, people from Spain.  This does not seem unusual in the wake of a war of independence from Spain but the Gachupines were the entreprenuer and educated class.  Ejecting them left the economy crippled.  Soon, other foreigners (e.g., British, French, American, etc.) moved in to mine the resources of Mexico.  The Mexican government sailed from one disaster to the next, often suffering the latest revolution that brought a new 'president' to power.  The judiciary ruled in favor of whomever offered the greater bribes.  This situation did not sit well with foreign powers who saw citizen's stripped of their property or imprisoned on trumped up charges.  In 1838, France invaded to settle financial disputes; this was the Pastry War where Santa Anna lost his leg in battle.  Like the other countries, the United States had suffered similar troubles with Mexico, but there was the counterbalancing issue of Texas.

One of the most interesting things that Smith details is the Texas border.  In the Adams-Onis Treaty (1819), Spain surrendered Florida and claims to Oregon in order to secure its claim to Texas.  In the wake of the Louisiana Purchase (1803), the US held that the Rio Grande was the border while Spain argued that the Calcasieu River was the border.  Thanks to the treaty, the border became the Sabine.  Therefore, the treaty recognized the Province of Tejas as extending from the Sabine to the Rio Grande.  When Texas became independent, this definition was the default.  However, Mexico argued both that the Nueces was the border of Tejas and that Tejas was still a province of Mexico.  Nine years of independence tended to nix the later argument and US prior claims to Tejas disputed the former.  As Mexico clearly could not govern the region, the US wanted to settle outstanding claims.  The US would pay any claims that American citizens had against Mexico and also pay for the land.  Mexico declined.

Polk had set out to determine both the northern border with Canada and the southern border with Mexico in his term.  With England, he entered into brinksmanship to get the border set at the 49th parallel.  A deal was struck.  He used virtually the same tactic with Mexico and there was war.  Where England looked at the issue on the basis of economic interest, Mexico had viewed it with national pride.  Had Mexico worked with the same thought process as England, there would have been no war.  Though Santa Anna had boasted that he would march on Washington if there was war, this was nonsense.  He had been unable to subdue Texas.  However, Mexico was compared to Spain during the Napoleonic Era.  The US would be unable to win in much the same way that France found Spain to be a quagmire.  Mexico could afford continual defeats and still not lose the war.  Eventually, a new president would be elected in the United States, anti-war sentiment would grow, and the border would be settled where Mexico wanted it.

The book concludes with the battle which Santa Anna pinned his hopes upon: Buena Vista.  He had assembled an army vastly larger than Taylor's.  He very nearly succeeded.  The battle was a draw.  Luckily for Taylor, a draw credits the defender.  Santa Anna made haste to face Winfield Scott's invasion, telling a tale of victory as he rode far ahead of his retreating army.  He had American banners and canon as symbols of his success.

Outstanding book with footnotes galore.  Highly recommended.

Anecdotes and Letters of Zachary Taylor

The book opens with a brief biography of Zachary Taylor, from his birth in 1784 to his nomination for the presidency in 1848.  It offers a thumbnail sketch of his involvement in the War of 1812, his time on the frontier, his success during the Seminole War in Florida, and finally his four victories (Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterrey, and Buena Vista) in the Mexican War.  As it was published prior to the 1848 election, he was not yet president though he was the Whig nominee.

The book then becomes a series of vignettes that detail events in the Mexican-American War.  Most of them detail incidents that occurred in the northern theater where Taylor was in command.  However, many of them cover events that happened during General Winfield Scott's campaign from Vera Cruz to Mexico City.

The book then concludes with a series of letters from Taylor to his various supporters throughout the country in the run-up to the 1848 election.  Early letters proclaim his willingness to stand for election but humbly submitting that others must be better suited to the task.  In later letters, he offers his opinions on issues of the day and shows a reversal in his desire that Henry Clay should be the Whig candidate.

Though filled with interesting events from the war, the book has no narrative.  In his two previous books, vignettes would appear at the end of the chronological narrative, adding interesting events that were coincident with the narrative.  Here the vignettes are a hodgepodge, not offered chronologically or even organized by region.  One might detail something that happened on the Rio Grande in 1846 while the next mentions something about the Battle of Cerro Gordo in 1847.  Also peculiar, the book is authored by Tom Owens, the Bee Hunter.  The Bee Hunter was a humorous tale written by Thomas Bangs Thorpe about a man, Tom Owens, who was at the top of his game in the sport of hunting bees.  This seems a strange book in which to credit it to his fictional hero.

This is the weakest of Thorpe's books covering the Mexican-American War.  Occasionally entertaining and frequently interesting, it lacks anything to make one turn to the next page.  As with his other books, this is long out of copyright and can be downloaded.  Not for everyone.

My Newest Book

 

Here is the brief biography I wrote for my college term paper at Iowa Western Community College in 1993.  I've also included reviews of books, movies, and such that cover the Antebellum Era.  It is only available via Kindle at this point; not long enough to make a paperback.

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.

Recollections of Mexico and Buena Vista

In January 1847, Lt. Henry Washington Benham arrived at the mouth of the Rio Grande.  The Mexican War had been ongoing for 8 months, the most recent battle being Monterrey (September 1846).  Benham found Major General Scott appropriating much of General Taylor's army, which he planned to use for his invasion by way of Vera Cruz.  Most of the troops left to Taylor were volunteers with limited training.  Benham was to join Taylor's weakened army and even weaken it further; he was to deliver orders to send yet another regular army artillery battery to Scott.

Benham joined a wagon train bound for Monterrey and found the teamsters to be a villainous bunch who created a lot of hard feelings among the locals.  Upon reaching Monterrey, Benham joined with Captain Thomas Sherman, an artillery officer, and departed for Saltillo.  The pair arrived at General Zachary Taylor's encampment in Agua Nueva in the first week of February.  Even then, there were rumors of a massive army on the way.  On the evening of February 20th, the approaching army was confirmed.  Taylor's base at Agua Nueva was indefensible and a hasty retreat was made to the pass at Buena Vista.

As a member of the engineers of fortifications, Benham soon found himself crisscrossing the planned battlefield.  He served as a courier and scout.  He provides an account of the battle that paints a picture of competing blunders.

First, Santa Anna dispatched his cavalry to the field, assigning them to his rightwing.  However, the US Army had barely begun to take positions.  Had the Mexican cavalry pressed down the road, it would have been an immediate victory.  In fact, Taylor was not even on the battlefield yet, having withdrawn to Saltillo the previous evening.

Second, O'Brien's battery was giving the Mexican army a drubbing and had cleared an area forward of its current position.  O'Brien set to move his guns forward.  However, the volunteer regiment that served as protection for the battery, mistook the connecting of guns with horse carts as a sign of retreat.  Soon, the volunteer regiment was in flight and the Mexican army pressed into the gap.  Only the advance of the Mississippi Rifles under Jefferson Davis, Captain Sherman's artillery, and May's Dragoon squadron averted disaster.

Third, nearly a thousand Mexican cavalry got lost in the smoke of battle and found themselves hemmed in and in serious threat.  At this moment, two Mexican officers proposed a parley.  This was a ruse that bought a brief one-sided ceasefire that allowed the Mexican cavalry to escape back to the Mexican lines.

Fourth, it appeared that the Mexican army was withdrawing.  Therefore, three volunteer regiments - constituting 1500 men - advanced.  The battlefield was a series of arroyos, thus requiring the advancing troops to descend into the arroyo before climbing to the opposite ridge.  Too late they discovered that the Mexicans had vanished into an arroyo and were now descending on them from the high ground or pressing them into the open where Mexican Lancers commenced to slaughter.  This time, O'Brien's battery was captured.  Of note, his guns were recovered some months later during Scott's campaign to Mexico City.

In his brief retelling of the battle, he has criticism of both Taylor - whom he lays the blame for the charge into the arroyo - and Wool - whom he states had ordered a suicidal cavalry charge but remanded it before it was begun.  He further accuses Taylor of nearly inducing a panic by ordering Washington's battery to be ready to retreat.

During the Civil War, Benham proved to be an unreliable subordinate, who repeatedly disobeyed orders.  With that in mind, how accurate is his retelling of Buena Vista.  He wrote his recollections in 1871, noting that it was the 24th anniversary of the battle.  It is also of note that he was top of his West Point class in 1837.  Did this color his views thereafter, that he was better than others?  Generally, his writing is clear and informative.  However, he has a habit of name-dropping (he seldom fails to mention all the officers at Buena Vista who went on to be generals in the Civil War) and reporting gossip (the blundering orders of Taylor and Wool).

A short and interesting read for any student of the Mexican-American War.

Our Army on the Rio Grande

In the Summer of 1846, Thomas Bangs Thorpe sailed from New Orleans to the Rio Grande to explore the setting of the recent battles that opened the Mexican-American War (1846-48).  The book opens in March with the US Army - commanded by General Zachary Taylor - marching south from Corpus Christi and setting up a camp opposite Matamoros on the Rio Grande.  Tensions grow as the Americans build Fort Texas and finally conflict erupts in late April.  Fearing for his supply lines, Taylor marched the majority of his army to Port Isabel while Major Brown commanded the remaining forces at Fort Texas.  On the 3rd of May, the Siege of Fort Texas began.  Taylor could hear the cannons firing and made plans to lift the siege.  On May 8th, his army of less than 3,000 men encountered a Mexican army more than twice as large.  Luckily for General Taylor, Major Samuel Ringgold and his flying artillery were on hand.  Ringgold was a proponent of horse-drawn cannons that could be rapidly redeployed as the situation required.  The ability to relocate artillery quickly to counter enemy charges was decisive in fending off the much larger Mexican army.  Though his tactics won the battle, Ringgold was mortally wounded.  The following day, Taylor pursued the retreating Mexican army to Resaca de la Palma, where the Mexicans had taken a strong position to defend the road to Fort Texas.  Here it was a daring charge of the US Dragoons that broke the Mexican defenses.  Taylor arrived at Fort Texas to learn that Major Brown had died that morning from wounds suffered during the siege.  The fort was renamed Fort Brown.  The US Army crossed the Rio Grande and occupied Matamoros on the 18th of May.

At this point, it becomes clear that Thorpe was on the ground and describes the city of Matamoros first-hand.  He details flora, fauna, cuisine, mode of dress, architecture, government, and more besides.  It is a first-class travelogue that includes a meeting with General Taylor on the banks of the Rio Grande.  In addition to being an author, Thorpe was also an artist and includes numerous sketches of the region.

Here is a really terrific book covering the early days of the war.  Amazing level of detail that includes snippets of Mexican newspapers, dispatches from both Taylor back to Washington and General Arista to Mexico City.  The language used reveals the character of each general.  Long since out of copyright, the book is available for download.

Highly recommended.

Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest

Born in 1784 and the son of a Revolutionary War officer, Zachary Taylor grew up in Kentucky.  Louisville was a backwater when he was a child but boomtown as he reached adulthood.  In the wake of the 1807 attack by the British on an American frigate (Chesapeake-Leopard Affair), President Jefferson called for an increase in the military.  Thus began Zachary Taylor's army career.  Based in the far west during the War of 1812, he saw little action.  Soon, he was commanding forts along the Mississippi to protect settlers from the various Indian tribes.  He slowly gained rank and was Colonel of the 1st Infantry Regiment during the Black Hawk War (1832).  He came to national attention by 'winning' the Battle of Lake Okeechobee (1837) in the Seminole War (1835-1842).  It was a technical win as his forces took the battlefield, but the cost was 26 killed and 112 wounded.  The Seminole forces lost 11 killed and 14 wounded.  He did not care for Florida and was glad to be sent back to the western forts.  In 1845, Texas was annexed, and General Taylor was sent to Corpus Christi to command the Army of Occupation.  In March of 1846, he led his forces to the Rio Grande and built Fort Texas.  In late April, Mexican cavalry attacked US Dragoons on the northside of the Rio Grande.  On May 8th, 2,300 American soldiers met 3,700 Mexican soldiers at Palo Alto.  The American officer corps, composed of West Point graduates, proved their worth.  The following day saw the last battle in Texas at Resaca de la Palma, another victory for Taylor.  If Okeechobee made him known to the nation, these two battles made him a hero.  In September, he captured the city of Monterey and there was talk of running him for president in 1848.  No one knew if he was a Democrat or a Whig, so both parties courted him.  When it was clear that he leaned more Whig, President Polk - a Democrat - sought to sideline him and sent General Winfield Scott to take over.  Despite having the majority of his veterans reallocated to General Scott, Taylor won the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847 and cemented his national fame.   Though he wanted to be a non-partisan president, he accepted the Whig nomination.  He was elected by a plurality (47.3%) of the vote, the Democrats having split between former President Van Buren (10.1%) and Lewis Cass (42.5%). During the contentious debates about admitting new states - especially California - from among the territory captured in the recent war, Taylor sided with the North.  Despite growing up as a Southerner and being a slave owner, he sided against the South during his presidency.  He was an American first and a Southerner second.  His political naivete was just fading away and he was starting to assert himself in the political games of Washington when he died of cholera in July 1850.  The Whigs had only won the presidency twice.  First with William Henry Harrison and then with Zachary Taylor.  Harrison died 1 month into office, Taylor lasted 16 months.

K Jack Bauer has written an interesting and informative biography.  It paints a picture of an incurious but persistent man.  Taylor was diligent in building a fortune during his lifetime.  He was one to hold a grudge.  He was beloved by his troops who gave him the name of Old Rough and Ready.  Indeed, Taylor was more likely to be mistaken as a farmer than a general, as he typically wore plain clothes and a straw hat.  After reading this, I had a lower opinion of his abilities as a general but a higher opinion of him as a president.

Recommended.

The Last White House Slaves

Zachary Taylor was the 12th president and the last slave owner to be elected.  Born in Virginia in 1784 and raised in Kentucky, Taylor joined the military in 1808.  One feature of the US Army in the era was that officers could apply for additional pay to hire a servant; this was to give officers the appearance of gentlemen with valets, cooks, etc.  Slave owning officers could keep the pay for themselves.  Yeah, that's not going to be abused.  Taylor first applied for the additional pay in 1817 when he was a major posted in Green Bay, Illinois Territory (yes, Illinois, not Wisconsin).  Of course, in 1817, slavery was illegal in the territories.  Nonetheless, despite spending decades stationed at forts in the western territories, Taylor took his slaves with him.   When Taylor moved from Baton Rouge, LA, to Washington DC, he brought at least one - and probably several - slaves with him.  His chief slave, Charles Porter, whom he inherited from his father, died at the White House in July 1849.  The presence of other slaves is unclear but highly likely.  

The book is most concerned with the life of Jane, who is first documented as Taylor's slave in 1820. Jane - a mulatto slave - was listed on his reimbursement form while he was posted in Louisiana.  She was last listed on his reimbursement form in 1849.  Depending on rank, officers had a limit to how many "servants" they could claim for reimbursement; for reasons of propriety, female slaves were often omitted.  When Jane is listed, she is usually the last name on the form.  It was an open secret that female slaves were often concubines for their male owners.  Considering that, it is of note that Jane had two children, a son named William and a daughter named Caroline.  Each of them - also listed as mulattos, appear on Taylor's or his son-in-law's reimbursement forms.  In 1862, Lincoln proposed reimbursing slave owners rather than outright emancipation.  The plan was instituted in Washington DC.  Among those for whom freedom was purchased by the government were Jane and her daughter, Caroline; Taylor's daughter was still living in DC and had inherited the two in 1852.  Jane's son, William, had relocated to Canada in advance of Taylor's inauguration as president.  Bachman posits that William looked so much like Old Zach that it would be highly embarrassing to have him around.  In the final chapter, Bachman details the account of Bill Taylor (1944-2013) who stated that his ancestor, William Taylor, had been Zachary Taylor's son and slave.

The book is short but provides insight into the antebellum military in general and the Taylor family in particular.  Recommended.