Polk's Administration and the Mexican War, 1845-49.
PRESIDENT Polk was a native of North Carolina. In boyhood he removed with his father to Tennessee, and in 1839 rose to the position of governor of that State. At the head of his cabinet he placed James Buchanan of Pennsylvania.
Causes of Mexican War.
2. A war with Mexico was at hand. On the 4th of July, 1845, the Texan legislature ratified the act of annexation. The Mexican minister at Washington immediately left the country. The authorities of Texas sent an urgent request to the President to dispatch an army for their protection. Accordingly, General Zachary Taylor was ordered to march thither from Louisiana. Texas claimed the Rio Grande as her western limit, while Mexico was determined to have the Nueces as the separating line. The government of the United States resolved to support the claim of Texas. General Taylor was sent to the mouth of the Nueces, and in January, 1846, he moved forward to the mouth of the Rio Grande, and built Fort Brown.
James K. Polk.
Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma.
3. On the 26th of April a company of American dragoons was attacked by the Mexicans, east of the Rio Grande, and was obliged to surrender. This was the first bloodshed of the war. General Taylor hastened to Point Isabel and strengthened the defenses. This done, he set out with a provision-train and an army of two thousand men to return to Fort Brown. Meanwhile, the Mexicans had crossed the Rio Grande and taken a position at Palo Alto. On the 8th of May the Americans came in sight and joined battle. After a severe engagement the Mexicans were driven from the field.
4. On the following day General Taylor resumed his march, and came upon the Mexicans again at a place called Resaca de la Palma. Here the enemy fought better than on the previous day. The American lines were severely galled until Captain May's dragoons charged through a storm of grape-shot, rode over the Mexican batteries, and captured La Vega, the commanding general. The Mexicans, abandoning their guns, fled in a general rout.
War Declared.
5. When the news from the Rio Grande was borne through the Union, the war spirit was everywhere aroused. On the 11th of May, 1846, Congress made a declaration of war. The President was authorized to accept fifty thousand volunteers, and ten million dollars was placed at his disposal. Nearly three hundred thousand men rushed forward to enter the ranks.
6. The American forces were organized in three divisions: the Army of the West, under General Kearny, to cross the Rocky Mountains against the northern Mexican provinces; the Army of the Center, under General Scott as commander-in-chief, to march from the Gulf coast into the heart of the enemy's country; the Army of Occupation, under General Taylor, to hold the districts on the Rio Grande.
Monterey.
7. Ten days after the battle of Resaca de la Palma General Taylor captured Matamoras, and in August laid siege to Monterey. On the 21st of September the Americans carried the heights in the rear of the town. The Bishop's Palace was taken by storm on the following day. On the 23d the city was successfully assaulted in front. The American storming parties charged into the town; hoisted the victorious flag of the Union; turned upon the buildings where the Mexicans were concealed; charged up dark stairways to the flat roofs of the houses; and drove the enemy to a surrender.
John Charles Fremont.
8. General Santa Anna was now called home from Havana to take the presidency of Mexico. A Mexican army of twenty thousand men was sent into the field. General Taylor again moved forward, and on the 15th of November captured the town of Saltillo. Victoria, a city in the province of Tamaulipas, was taken by General Patterson.
9. In June of 1846 the Army of the West, led by General Kearny, set out from Fort Leavenworth for the conquest of New Mexico and California. After a wearisome march he reached Santa Fé, and on the 18th of August captured the city. With four hundred dragoons Kearny continued his march toward the Pacific coast to find that California had already been subdued.
Conquest of California.
10. For four years Colonel John C. Fremont had been exploring the country west of the Rocky Mountains. In California he received dispatches informing him of the war with Mexico, and began to urge the people of California to declare their independence. A campaign was begun to overthrow the Mexican authority. Meanwhile, Commodore Sloat had captured the town of Monterey, on the coast. A few days afterward Commodore Stockton took San Diego. Before the end of summer the whole of California was subdued. On the 8th of January, 1847, the Mexicans were decisively defeated in the battle of San Gabriel, by which the authority of the United States was completely established.
Buena Vista.
11. General Scott now arrived in Mexico and ordered the Army of Occupation to join him on the Gulf for the conquest of the capital. This left Taylor and Wool in a critical condition at Monterey; for Santa Anna was advancing against them with twenty thousand men. General Taylor was able to concentrate at Saltillo an effective force of but four thousand eight hundred. At the head of this small army he chose a battlefield at Buena Vista. On the 23d of February the battle began. Against tremendous odds the field was fairly won by the Americans. The Mexicans, having lost nearly two thousand men, made a precipitate retreat.
Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo.
12. On the 9th of March, 1847, General Scott, with twelve thousand men, landed to the south of Vera Cruz, and invested the city. On the morning of the 22d a cannonade was begun. On the waterside, Vera Cruz was defended by the castle of San Juan d'Ulloa. For four days the bombardment continued without cessation. An assault was already planned, when the authorities of the city proposed capitulation. On the 27th the American flag was raised over Vera Cruz.
13. The route to the capital was now open. On the 12th of the month General Twiggs came upon Santa Anna, with fifteen thousand men, on the heights of Cerro Gordo. On the 18th, the American army advanced to the assault; and before noonday every position of the Mexicans had been successfully stormed. Nearly three thousand prisoners were taken, together with forty-three pieces of bronze artillery.
Operations in Mexico.
14. On the next day the victorious army entered Jalapa. The strong castle of Perote was taken without resistance. Turning southward, General Scott next entered the ancient city of Puebla, no opposition being encountered. Scott here waited for reinforcements from Vera Cruz. On the 7th of August General Scott began his march upon the capital. The army swept through the passes of the Cordilleras to look down on the Valley of Mexico.
The City of Mexico.
15. The city of Mexico could be approached only by causeways leading across marshes and the beds of bygone lakes. At the ends of these causeways were massive gates strongly defended. To the left were Contreras, San Antonio, and Molino del Rey. Directly in front were the powerful defences of Churubusco and Chapultepec.
16. On the 20th of August Generals Pillow and Twiggs stormed the Mexican position at Contreras. A few hours afterwards General Worth carried San Antonio. General Pillow led a column against one of the heights of Churubusco; and after a terrible assault the position was carried. General Twiggs stormed another height of Churubusco. Still another victory was achieved by Generals Shields and Pierce, who defeated Santa Anna's reserves.
Scott's Army Entering the City of Mexico.
17. On the morning after the battles the Mexican authorities came out to negotiate. General Scott rejected their proposals. On the 8th of September General Worth stormed the western defences of Chapultepec, and on the 13th that citadel itself was carried by storm.
18. On the following morning forth came a deputation from the city to beg for mercy; but General Scott, tired of trifling, turned them away with contempt. "Forward!" was the order that rang along the lines at sunrise. The war-worn regiments swept into the famous city, and at seven o'clock the flag of the Union floated over the halls of the Montezumas.
19. On leaving his capital, Santa Anna turned about to attack the hospitals at Puebla. Here eighteen hundred sick men had been left in charge of Colonel Childs. A gallant resistance was made by the garrison, until General Lane, on his march to the capital, fell upon the besiegers and scattered them. It was the closing stroke of the war.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
20. The military power of Mexico was completely broken. In the winter of 1847-48, American ambassadors met the Mexican Congress at Guadalupe Hidalgo, and on the 2d of February a treaty was concluded. By the terms of settlement the boundary-line between Mexico and the United States was established on the Rio Grande from its mouth to the southern limit of New Mexico; thence westward along the southern, and northward along the western boundary of that territory to the Gila; thence down that river to the Colorado; thence westward to the Pacific. New Mexico and Upper California were relinquished to the United States. Mexico guaranteed the free navigation of the Gulf of California and the river Colorado. The United States agreed to surrender all places in Mexico, to pay that country fifteen million dollars, and to assume all debts due from Mexico to American citizens.
California and Wisconsin Admitted.
21. A few days after the signing of the treaty, a laborer, employed by Captain Sutter on the American fork of Sacramento River, in California, discovered some pieces of gold in the sand. The news went flying to the ends of the world. Men thousands of miles away were crazed with excitement. From all quarters adventurers came flocking. Before the end of 1850, San Francisco had grown to be a city of fifteen thousand inhabitants. In September of that year, California was admitted into the Union; and by the close of 1852, the State had a population of more than a quarter of a million.
22. In 1848 Wisconsin was admitted into the Union. The new commonwealth came with a population of two hundred and fifty thousand. Another presidential election was already at hand. General Lewis Cass, of Michigan, was nominated by the Democrats, and General Zachary Taylor by the Whigs. As the candidate of the new Free Soil party, ex-President Martin Van Buren was put forward. The memory of his recent victories in Mexico made General Taylor the favorite with the people, and he was elected by a large majority. As Vice-president, Millard Fillmore, of New York, was chosen.