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6. A few days later,
Taylor received intelligence that a large force of Mexicans was
threatening Point Isabel. He immediately marched to strengthen
that place, leaving a small garrison, under Major Brown, to guard
the fort on the Rio Grande. After making Point Isabel secure, he
set out on his return, and, May 8, with little more than two
thousand men, encountered about three times as many Mexicans at
Palo Alto,1 under General Arista. An action
ensued, which lasted from noon till night, when the Americans
remained in possession of the field. In the morning Taylor found
the enemy, strongly reënforced, at Resaca de la
Palma,2 but after a severe contest, the Mexicans
were routed, and fled beyond the Rio Grande.
7. Among the mortally wounded at
Palo Alto was Major Ringgold,3 whose efficient
battery contributed largely to gain the day. At Resaca de la
Palma, Captain May, at the head of a body of dragoons, was ordered
to charge upon a Mexican battery, which, directed by General La
Vega, was doing great execution. In the face of a murderous fire,
the brave men followed their heroic leader, drove away or cut to
pieces the cannoneers, and took La Vega prisoner at his guns. The
Mexican loss, in the two engagements, is estimated at fifteen
hundred; that of the Americans was about one hundred and seventy.
The next day Taylor returned to Fort Brown, which had
sustained, for three days, an almost uninterrupted cannonade,
though with but small loss, except that Major Brown was killed by
the bursting of a shell.4
8. On the 18th, General Taylor crossed
the Rio Grande, and took possession of Matamoras, where he
waited for reënforcements.5 During the summer,
several Mexican towns near the Rio Grande yielded to the Americans
without resistance.
9. Intelligence of the capture of Captain
Thornton's party6 produced great excitement
throughout the United States, notwithstanding great difference
of opinion prevailed as to the justice and expediency of the war.
In a few weeks, more than two hundred thousand men had volunteered
to rescue the little army under General Taylor, which was supposed
to
1 Tall Timber. 2 Ravine of palms.
3 "Leave me alone," said the heroic major, to the officers who crowded around him as he fell, mortally wounded; "you are wanted at the front."
4 The fort was named in honor of this gallant officer, who lost his life in its defence.
5 See p. 211, ¶ 2. 6 See p. 208, ¶ 5.
QUESTIONS. -- 6. Where did Taylor march, and for what purpose? Give an account of the battle of Palo Alto. Of the battle at Resaca de la Palma. 7. What is said of Major Ringgold and his battery? Of Captain May and his dragoons? What was the lose of each army? What of Fort Brown in the mean time? 8. What did Taylor next do? What happened during the summer? 9. What effect did news of the capture of Captain Thornton's party produce in the United States?
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be in great danger. Congress declared
that "war existed by the act of Mexico," made appropriations for
carrying it on, and authorized the president to accept the
services of fifty thousand volunteers, one half of whom were to be
sent to the field, the other half to be kept as a reserve.
Mexico, considering the occupation of the territory between
the Nueces and the Rio Grande as an invasion of her soil, declared
war in May.
II. PLAN OF
OPERATIONS. -- OPERATIONS OF
THE ARMY UNDER
TAYLOR. -- 1. The government at
Washington, by the advice of General Scott,1 determined
on a comprehensive plan of operations. One squadron of the
navy was ordered to join the fleet already in the Pacific,
in an attack upon the Mexican ports of California; another to
operate in the Gulf of Mexico. An Army of the West
assembled at Fort Leavenworth, under General Stephen W. Kearny, to
invade New Mexico, and proceeding westward, to coöperate with
the Pacific fleet. General Wool1 collected at San
Antonio another force, which constituted the Army of the
Centre, and was to invade Mexico from that quarter. Heavy
reënforcements were sent to the army under General
Taylor,2 known as the Army of Occupation.
2. The latter part of August, General
Taylor was prepared to advance, and marched against
Monterey. This city, strong in its natural defences, strong
in its fortifications, and garrisoned by ten thousand men, under
General Ampudia, yielded to General Taylor's army, numbering but
little more than six thousand men, September 24, after a siege of
four days, and a series of assaults.
General Taylor was assisted by Generals
Worth, Quitman, Butler, and other able officers. The engineers,
under Major Mansfield,3 enabled the besiegers to
overcome the almost impassable mountains and ravines which
environed the city. When the soldiers had forced their way into
the city, they avoided the barricaded streets, by passing upon the
house-tops, or digging their way through massive stone walls, from
house to house.4
3. About the time of the fall of
Monterey, General Wool moved with a force of three thousand
men, from San Antonio,
1 See p. 174, ¶ 5. 2 See p. 210, ¶ 8. 3 See p. 273, ¶ 45.
4 By the terms of surrender, Ampudia was permitted to withdraw his troops from Monterey with the honors of war, and at the same time an armistice was agreed upon, which, by order of the American government, was terminated in seven weeks.
QUESTIONS. -- What was done by Congress? What by Mexico? II. 1. What plan of operations we. determined on by the government at Washington? 2. What can you tell of the capture of Monterey? What further to said of this capture? 3 Give an account of General Wool's operations.
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intending to penetrate the province of
Chihuahua. After a laborious march of six weeks, be reached
Monclova. There having received orders to abandon the proposed
expedition, be turned southward, and, December 5, encamped at
Parras, within supporting distance of General Taylor, to whose
command the Army of the Centre was now joined.
4. Taylor next sent forward a
portion of his army, under Worth, to Saltillo, and leaving
General
Butler with a garrison at Monterey, himself marched southward,
designing to extend a line of defence to Tampico, which
city had been captured by the American fleet. Early in January,
1847, he entered Victoria, already occupied by an advance
division, under General Quitman. About this time, a large part of
Taylor's best troops, with many of his most experienced officers,
were withdrawn to aid General Scott,1 who had been
ordered to enter Mexico by way of Vera Cruz.2
5. Soon intelligence reached Taylor that
Santa Anna,3 who had again been placed at the head of
affairs in Mexico, taking advantage of the reduction of the
American forces in the north, was marching with a large army upon
Saltillo. The American general immediately gathered, at Agua
Nueva,4 all the disposable troops in his command, in
number less than five thousand, and these chiefly undisciplined
volunteers. February 21, Santa Anna approached, with an army
nearly five times as large, and Taylor retired to a narrow pass,
called, by the Mexicans, La, Angostura,5 near the
plantation of Buena Vista.6 This pass was
protected on one side by rugged mountains, and on the other by
deep ravines. Santa Anna followed, and on the afternoon of the
22d,7 a battle began by some skirmishing of the light
troops. Early the next day the battle opened anew, and raged with
great fury till night, when the Mexicans made a precipitate
retreat.
The loss of the Americans, in
killed, wounded, and missing, was about seven hundred and fifty;
that of the Mexicans is believed to have been more than two
thousand. Never before had an American army contended against such
odds. The battle was a series of encounters, from
each
1 See p. 214, § IV. 2 True Cross. 3 See p. 205, ¶ 9. 4 New Water.
5 The Narrow Pass. 6 Fine View. 7 Washington's birthday.
QUESTIONS. -- 4. Give an account of the operations of the army under Taylor. Why were many of Taylor's best troops withdrawn? 6. What intelligence soon reached Taylor? What did he do in consequence? Give an account of the battle of Buena Vista. -- What further is said of this battle?
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of which the Mexicans would fall back out of danger, and
re-form for another attack; the Americans being unable to pursue,
from the smallness of their number and want of
cavalry.1
6. The victory at Buena
Vista broke the Mexican power in the north, and closed the
brilliant military career of General Taylor, who, a few months
afterwards, leaving the command to General Wool, returned to the
United States, where his grateful countrymen received him with
every mark of respect, and soon bestowed upon him the highest
honors in their gift.2
III. CONQUEST
OF NEW MEXICO
AND CALIFORNIA. --
1. While Taylor was delayed at Matamoras, in the summer of
1846,3 General Kearny,4 with 
eighteen
hundred men, set out on his expedition against New Mexico.
After a march of a thousand miles through the wilderness, he
entered Santa Fé the capital, in August, and took
possession of the whole province without opposition. Having
established a government, he left the principal part of his force,
under Colonel Doniphan, and himself, with a squad of cavalry,
pushed on across the continent to California.
2. Agreeably to the orders of
General Kearny, Doniphan, having subdued the Navajo Indians, who
were plundering the New Mexicans, left a guard at Santa Fé,
and with less than a thousand men', directed his course towards
Chihuahua. On his march he gained two victories over
greatly superior forces, the first at Bracito, December 25,
and the second at the Sacramento,
February 28, 1847, which placed at his mercy the province and rich
city of Chihuahua.
He then proceeded to Saltillo, and
as the term of service for which his men were enlisted had
expired, he took them to New Orleans and discharged them -- a
force enlisted, disciplined, marched more than three thousand
miles, chiefly through a hostile and unknown country, and
discharged, in less than a year.
1 To General Wool belongs much or the credit of this victory. He selected the position, arranged the plan of battle, and during part of the time was in chief command. On more than one occasion, Colonel Jefferson Davis, with his unflinching Mississippians, and Captains Thomas W. Sherman, Braxton Bragg, and George H. Thomas, with their batteries, held the enemy back from victory. Among the other brave officers who won distinction under Taylor, and have since become famous in the military history of the country, were Lieutenants Irvin McDowell, William B. Franklin, Robert S. Garnett, Joseph Hooker, George G. Meade, John C. Pemberton, John Pope, and John F. Reynolds.
2 See p. 218, ¶ 4. 3 See p. 210, ¶ 8. 4 See p. 211, ¶ 1.
QUESTIONS. -- 6. Result of the victory at Buena Vista? What is said of General Taylor? 1. Give an account of Kearny's expedition against New Mexico. Under whom did he leave the principal part of his force after reaching Santa Fe? What did he do with the remainder? 2. Give an account of Colonel Doniphan's operations.
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3. Kearny had advanced
but a few days on his march to the Pacific, when be learned from
a
messenger that the conquest of California had been
accomplished by Captain John C. Frémont,1 of the
army, and Commodores Sloat and Stockton, of the navy.
The
winter before the breaking out of the war, Frémont,
then a captain in the corps of topographical engineers, was in
California with about sixty men on an expedition to discover a new
route to Oregon. Having been informed that the Mexican commandant
on the Pacific intended to attack his party, and to expel the
American settlers, he made common cause with the latter, and,
after a few conflicts, though news of the war had not reached him,
put an end to Mexican authority in Northern California. Early in
July, Commodore Sloat, then commander of the Pacific
fleet,2 having received intelligence that war had
broken out between Mexico and the United States, took possession
of Monterey, on the Pacific. A little later, Stockton
superseded Sloat in command, took San Diego, and, in conjunction
with Frémont, Los Angeles. By the end of August, the whole
of Upper California was in the possession of the Americans.
4. Such was the condition
of affairs when General Kearny, after having experienced great
hardships, and having narrowly escaped being cut off by superior
numbers, reached the Pacific
slope in season to take part in the battle of San Gabriel,
January 8, 1847, which established the authority of the United
States in California.
IV. OPERATIONS OF
THE ARMY UNDER
SCOTT. -- PEACE. --
1. Meanwhile General Scott3 had collected
an army of twelve thousand men, with the design of penetrating
Mexico to its capital. He landed his army near Vera Cruz,
March 9, 1847, and soon had completely invested the city. After a
furious
1 See p. 224, ¶ 6, and p. 271, ¶ 39. 2 See p. 211, ¶ 1. 3 See p. 246, ¶ 13.
QUESTIONS. -- 3. What did Kearny learn soon after he started for the Pacific? -- What particulars can you give of the conquest of California? 4. What further can you say of General Kearny?? IV. 1. Give an account of the investment and capture of Vera Cruz.
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bombardment of four days, in which the fleet,
commanded by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, also joined, Vera Cruz,
and the strong castle of San Juan de Ulloa, with all the armaments
and munitions of war, surrendered, March 29.
After the fall of Vera Cruz, the
fleet took several Mexican ports on the Gulf, which were
thrown open to commerce, duties on imports being imposed for the
benefit of the American government. This "was, in effect, the
seizure of the public revenues of Mexico," the object being "to
compel the enemy to contribute, as far as practicable, towards the
expenses of the war."
2. About a week after the capture of Vera
Cruz, General Scott began his march for the city of Mexico. At the
mountain pass of Cerro Gordo1 he met Santa Anna,
who, since his defeat at Buena Vista, had collected another army,
with which he was guarding the pass. The Americans carried by
assault every position of the enemy, April 18.
The American force was less than nine
thousand, the Mexican over twelve thousand. The loss of the former
was little more than four hundred in killed and wounded; that of
the latter, over a thousand, besides three thousand prisoners,
among whom were five generals.2 Santa Anna escaped on a
mule, but left behind him his equipage, private papers,
and
1 Great Hill.
2 Among the prisoners was General La Vega, who had been captured at Resaca de la Palms.
QUESTIONS. -- What is said of the fleet? Of duties on imports? 2. Give an account of the battle of Cerro Gordo. -- What was the number of the forces in this battle? Results of the battle?
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© 1999, 2000, 2001 for NEGenWeb Project by Ted & Carole Miller