The Mexican-American War Begins On April 25, 1846, Mexican cavalry attacked a group of U.S. Soldiers in the disputed zone under the command of General Zachary Taylor, killing about a dozen. The Mexican-American War — the name those north of the border tacked on the nearly two-year affair (1846-48) — doesn't have the righteousness that is attached to America's War of Independence, or the moral imperatives that sparked the Civil War. The plague of lynchings of Mexican-Americans in the American West has long been excluded from history books. For the Journal of Social History, historians William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb analyzed hundreds of such extrajudicial killings that occurred between 1848 and 1928. Nevertheless, the Mexican-American War had far-reaching consequences for both the United States, Mexico, and the Indigenous peoples whose land both nations claimed. First among these was the cession of about one third of Mexico’s territory to the United States, a landmass of over 338,000,000 acres.
Historiography of the Mexican War
Textbook coverage of the Mexican War (1846-48) is sparse; the selection I chose is less than a page and a half long. This is perhaps fitting, since the war was won decisively by the United States and in context of other conflicts throughout history, it was extremely short. But due to these characteristics, the war is glossed over with phrases like “The war was a rout.” and “The United States Army won a grand victory.” Bordering on almost criminal negligence, there is no discussion of any of the issues causing the war; the selection begins with “When war broke out against Mexico in May 1846…” War does not simply “break out” like a musical number in a Bollywood film, there is an intricate chain of events and conflicts that cause war to be fought and declared. The textbook has no discussion of the U.S. and Mexican arguments over the southern border of Texas, no discussion of President Polk deploying of Zachary Taylor and 3,500 men there in 1845 to take the disputed land over by force.
The catalyst for the Mexican-American War was the U.S. Annexation of Texas on 29 December 1845. When Mexico responded by ending diplomatic relations with the U.S. Government, President James K.
There is a short discussion of U.S. opposition to the war. Many are said to have questioned Polk’s methods as “misleading and unconstitutional”, but there is no further discussion of what these methods were and why people questioned their legitimacy. Also, the congratulatory and victorious tone utilized in the selection seems to dismiss any suggestion that Polk was doing something wrong. The rest of the war is neatly wrapped up in a short paragraph about the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, where the U.S. received Texas, New Mexico and California, while the Mexican government was paid $15 million dollars. The textbook points out this is the same sum issued to France for the Louisiana territory, a not so subtle attempt to legitimize the sum and also to shame the Mexican government for not being satisfied by the compensation.
In contrast to the U.S. History textbook, much of the scholarship on the Mexican-American war focuses on the experience of the soldiers from both sides of the conflict. One of the defining features of this war was mass military volunteerism. Numbering only 8,000 soldiers in 1846, soon 60,000 volunteers would join the ranks of the U.S. Army. Some may have believed the war was justified, but the majority joined up on the promise of glory, monetary gain, and potential ascension of the social ladder. Edward Wallace’s article “Deserters in the Mexican War” discusses numerous recorded instances of volunteers deserting the U.S. Army, and the brutal punishment exacted on them when captured by their former superiors.
When these volunteers were placed under the harsh conditions of war, many deserted their regiments, with some joining up to fight alongside the enemy army. The Mexicans also took advantage of the great difference of opinion on the war in the States, writing a proclamation, in English, appealing to “all good Catholics” to abandon the U.S. cause as it was really a masonic plot against the church. Deserters were promised good treatment and an all-expenses-paid trip to Mexico City (Wallace, 375).
Wallace provides detailed accounts of hangings, whippings, brandings, and other horrible punishments levied to the unfortunate deserters. Both the Mexican clergy and the English minister asked General Winfield Scott to show mercy, but he would not be moved. In a particularly bloody day, September 10, 1847, sixteen men were hanged and seven were lashed and branded. Soon after, another thirty-six men were sentenced to the gallows. In great contrast to the textbook excerpt, which props the “60,000 volunteers” on a pedestal (and perhaps the moral high ground), Wallace’s article shows the volunteer effort was not as enthusiastic as it had been portrayed. Writing in 1935, Wallace says the history of the Mexican War “has been rather neglected of late years,” (374) but my own investigations into both monographs and journal articles on the subject has been fruitful with content about soldiers experiences and other alternative views of this oft-forgotten conflict.
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CITATIONS
Textbook:
“The Mexican-American War.” U.S. History Online Textbook. Accessed January 23, 2015. http://www.ushistory.org/us/29.asp.
Journal Article:
Wallace, Edward S. “Deserters in the Mexican War.” The Hispanic American Historical Review 15, no. 3 (1935): 374-83. Accessed January 28, 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2506347.
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Monograph for Book Review:
Foos, Paul. A Short, Offhand, Killing Affair: Soldiers and Social Conflict
During the Mexican-American War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Printable Version
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It was a controversial war that bitterly divided American public opinion. And it was the war that gave young officers named Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Thomas ('Stonewall') Jackson, William Tecumseh Sherman, and George McClellan their first experience in a major conflict.
The underlying cause of the Mexican War was the movement of American pioneers into lands claimed by Mexico. The immediate reason for the conflict was the annexation of Texas in 1845. After the defeat at San Jacinto in 1836, Mexico made two abortive attempts in 1842 to reconquer Texas. Even after these defeats, Mexico refused to recognize Texan independence and warned the United States that the annexation of Texas would be tantamount to a declaration of war.
In early 1845, when Congress voted to annex Texas, Mexico expelled the American ambassador and cut diplomatic relations. But it did not declare war.
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President Polk told his commanders to prepare for the possibility of war. He ordered American naval vessels to position themselves outside Mexican ports. And he dispatched American forces in the Southwest to Corpus Christi, Texas.
Peaceful settlement of the two countries' differences still seemed possible. In the fall of 1845, the President offered $5 million if Mexico agreed to recognize the Rio Grande River as the southwestern boundary of Texas. Earlier, the Spanish government had defined the Texas boundary as the Nueces River, 130 miles north and east of the Rio Grande. No Americans lived between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, although many Hispanics lived in the region.
The United States also offered up to $5 million for the province of New Mexico--which included Nevada and Utah and parts of four other states--and up to $25 million for California. Polk was anxious to acquire California because in mid-October 1845, he had been led to believe that Mexico had agreed to cede California to Britain as payment for debts. Polk also dispatched a young Marine Corps lieutenant, Archibald H. Gillespie, to California, apparently to foment revolt against Mexican authority.
The Mexican government, already incensed over the annexation of Texas, refused to accept an American envoy. The failure of the negotiations led Polk to order Brigadier General Zachary Taylor to march 3,000 troops southwest from Corpus Christi, Texas, to 'defend the Rio Grande' River. Late in March of 1846, Taylor and his men set up camp along the Rio Grande, directly across from the Mexican city of Matamoros, on a stretch of land claimed by both Mexico and the United States.
On April 25, 1846, a Mexican cavalry force crossed the Rio Grande and clashed with a small American squadron, forcing the Americans to surrender after the loss of several lives. On May 11, after he received word of the border clash, Polk asked Congress to acknowledge that a state of war already existed 'by the act of Mexico herself...notwithstanding all our efforts to avoid it.' 'Mexico,' the President announced, 'has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil.' Congress responded with a declaration of war.
The Mexican War was extremely controversial. Its supporters blamed Mexico for the hostilities because it had severed relations with the United States, threatened war, refused to receive an American emissary or to pay the damage claims of American citizens. In addition, Mexico had 'invaded our territory and shed American blood on American soil.' Opponents denounced the war as an immoral land grab by an expansionistic power against a weak neighbor that had been independent barely two decades.
The war's critics claimed that Polk deliberately provoked Mexico into war by ordering American troops into disputed territory. A Delaware Senator declared that ordering Taylor to the Rio Grande was 'as much an act of aggression on our part as is a man's pointing a pistol at another's breast.' Critics also argued that the war was an expansionist power play dictated by an aggressive Southern slave owners intent on acquiring more slave states.
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