The American Military

by Brad D. Lookingbill

  The Mexican batteries shelled the American dispositions, while Scott toured his forward lines. Spotting his men exposed to fire, he bellowed: “Down – Down, men!” One of them crouched behind a parapet and shouted back: “But General, you are exposed.” He answered with a dramatic flair: “Oh, generals nowadays can be made out of anybody, but men cannot be had.”

  With only light artillery for the initial siege, Scott requested assistance from Conner's successor, Commodore Matthew C. Perry. The Navy provided six big guns – three 32-pounders and three 8-inch Paixhans – for emplacement ashore behind the dunes. From March 24 to March 26, the heavier cannons bombarded the Mexican defenses. After the U.S. batteries ceased firing, General J. J. Landero agreed to surrender. Americans suffered only 80 casualties overall. To restrain soldiers and civilians at Veracruz, Scott imposed martial law with General Order 20.

  With a base for operations secured, Scott wasted no time savoring his victory. He expressed concern about an outbreak of yellow fever, which locals referred to as el vómito. In order to escape the deadly hot season of the coast, he marched his troops westward to the highlands. He selected the National Road, which the Spanish conquistadores used as a route into the interior centuries earlier. Although Worth expected to assume the “position of honor,” Scott placed another division under General David E. Twigg on the vanguard.

  Twigg advanced toward Jalapa, a city nearly 75 miles from Veracruz. His column included 2,600 infantry as well as several units of dragoons and artillery, but they moved slowly toward the city. His scouts reported the dispositions of Mexican soldiers along a mountain called Cerro Gordo, which some referred to as El Telégrafo. With close to 12,000 troops and 32 cannons covering the National Road, Santa Anna vowed to block the Americans at the key pass.

  The Americans encamped by Plan del Rio, where Scott brought up reinforcements to raise his numbers to 8,500. Among his most trusted officers, Captain Robert E. Lee scouted the thick woods to locate the best path to reach the enemy's rear. He directed the engineers to clear a trail past Cerro Gordo without detection. On April 17, Twigg's infantry clashed with Mexican troops at a hill named La Atalaya. The blue-clad soldiers hauled a 24-pounder to the elevated position and began blasting the Mexican fortresses on the hilltops the next morning. Unable to protect his flanks, Santa Anna ordered his men to fight hand-to-hand. Twigg sent his division on a furious assault, while General Gideon Pillow commanded a brigade that hit the Mexican batteries on the left. The Battle of Cerro Gordo resulted in 417 American casualties, including 64 dead. Before falling back, the Mexican army lost more than 1,000 men. Santa Anna left behind his spare wooden leg, which a volunteer regiment from Illinois claimed as a prize.

  While Santa Anna attempted to rebuild his decimated army, Scott marched his victorious one to Jalapa. However, the one-year term of enlistment for seven of his volunteer regiments neared expiration. Most departed for home that May, which reduced U.S. forces to 5,820 effectives. Because Mexican guerrillas along the National Road thwarted supply lines, the depleted units faced the prospect of living off the land. Scott soon advanced to Puebla, the second-largest city in Mexico, but the national capital remained 170 miles away.

  For three months, Scott's army simmered in Puebla. Upon receiving news of Trist's appointment, the U.S. commander fumed that the Polk administration intended “to degrade me.” He sent a hasty letter to the War Department begging “to be recalled from this army,” though Marcy ignored the request at the time. In spite of his mortification, Scott devised a system for gathering supplies and intelligence while reinforcements matriculated into Puebla. That August, General Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire arrived with 2,400 soldiers for the final push to Mexico City. Scott's army became “a self-sustaining machine” of 14,000, which he reorganized into four divisions commanded by Worth, Twigg, Pillow, and Quitman. While training at Puebla, they prepared to confront more than 36,000 Mexicans under Santa Anna.

  At the same time, Trist made contact with Santa Anna through a British agent in Mexico City. The Generalissimo demanded a bribe of $10,000 to begin negotiations and at least a million dollars upon the ratification of a treaty. Drawing upon available funds for his army, Scott procured an advance for Trist to make a payment as requested. However, Santa Anna pocketed the bribe while claiming that the Mexican Congress prevented him from treating with the Americans.

  Beginning on August 7, the Americans departed from Puebla to enter the Valley of Mexico. Before them stretched the ancient realm of the Aztecs, which included a prehistoric lake bed surrounded by snow-capped volcanoes. With each division separated by a half-day's march, they met no opposition along the National Road. Standing on a ridge at the base of Popocatépetl, Scott saw “the gorgeous seat of the Montezumas” beyond the marshes and canals. Causeways sprawled from Mexico City like the spokes on a wheel, which seemed to invite him to attack. Santa Anna prepared to defend the national capital at El Peñon, but Scott moved around Lake Chalco to the Acapulco Road at San Agustín and advanced from the south. While harassing Twigg's division at Ayotla, the Mexicans established a new defensive line behind the Churubusco River.

  To the southwest of Churubusco, General Gabriel Valencia extended his lines between the towns of Padierna and Contreras. Scott sent Pillow, Twigg, and Worth on a narrow muddy road that skirted a large lava bed called the Pedregal. They came under fire from Valencia, but several brigades pressed ahead on the morning of August 20. In the Battle of Contreras, Americans lost 60 killed and wounded in action. They routed Valencia's troops in only 17 minutes, slaughtering hundreds and capturing 813 prisoners.

  Mexican troops commanded by Santa Anna kept their composure on the bridge at Churubusco, which stood 500 yards from the thick-walled San Mateo Convent. Among the most defiant soldiers at the river, the San Patrico Battalion included hundreds of Irish Catholic deserters from American regiments. That afternoon, they fired cannons and muskets at the advancing lines of their former comrades. U.S. forces prevailed in the Battle of Churubusco, because the bluecoats carried the works with a spectacular bayonet assault. Scott lost 1,053 casualties that day, while the dragoons galloped forward to the gates of Mexico City. Afterward, many of the San Patricos faced court martials and eventual execution. As the Americans gained momentum with each victory, Santa Anna lost a third of his army at Churubusco.

  Withdrawing to the capital, Santa Anna decided to explore a truce with Scott. Eager to avoid more bloodshed, the latter penned an effusive note to the former decrying this “unnatural war between the two great republics of the continent.” Accordingly, both sides agreed to halt military actions and to permit Trist to meet with a peace delegation. Nevertheless, Santa Anna rebuilt his defenses in violation of the truce. After dismissing an American ultimatum, the Mexican dictator vowed to “repel force by force” that September.

  On September 8, the Battle of Molino del Rey erupted. American intelligence reported that the old mill on the outskirts of Mexico City served as a foundry for the casting of cannons. Scott sent Worth's division to destroy the munitions, but Mexican resistance stiffened along a hill. After taking the stone buildings, U.S. soldiers overran the crumbling walls of the Casa Mata. However, Worth found no evidence of a working foundry. During two hours of bloody fighting, Scott's army lost 116 dead and 671 wounded.

  Scott's army marched along the western causeways toward Mexico City. The rank and file gazed upon the Castle of Chapultepec, which served as the home of the Mexican military academy – the Colegio Militar. It loomed atop a hill nearly 200 feet above the marshlands, while Mexican troops lined the walls.

  On the morning of September 13, Scott organized a feint by Quitman at the San Antonio causeway while sending Pillow's division directly against the hill. Their lines converged on the military objective with remarkable coordination. A heavy barrage by 24-pounders pummeled enemy dispositions at sunrise. Scaling parties that included 40 marines waded through the cypress marshes to enter the courtyard gardens. Nicknamed the “forlorn hope,” t
hey climbed ladders to storm the castle. Lieutenant George E. Pickett of Virginia grabbed the Stars and Stripes from a wounded comrade, Lieutenant James Longstreet, and carried it to the top. The Americans slew the Mexicans unmercifully, though six cadets remembered as Los Niños Héroes plunged to their deaths rather than surrender their national flag. By 9:30 a.m., Chapultepec had fallen to U.S. forces.

  After suffering nearly 800 casualties in the Battle of Chapultepec, U.S. forces penetrated Mexico City. They seized the gates of Belén and San Cosmé by nightfall. Santa Anna's troops dispersed in haste, which prompted him to curse that even if “we were to plant our batteries in Hell, the damned Yankees would take them from us.” The next day, Scott paraded his columns through the Grand Plaza in triumph. Marines hoisted the U.S. flag over “The Halls of Montezuma,” that is, the National Palace.

  Occupation

  “They literally die like dogs,” observed Captain George B. McClellan, who lamented the agony of his comrades from Veracruz to Mexico City. While the U.S. lost 1,733 killed in action during the war, another 4,152 suffered wounds. The American death toll eventually reached a staggering 13,780, of which 11,550 perished from diseases. In other words, only one out of eight deaths for the American military derived from enemy blows.

  Despite an unbroken string of victories during 1847, the American military lacked the logistical capabilities to effectively occupy the entire country. After 17 months of hard fighting, the troops appeared exhausted by maladies ranging from yellow fever to dysentery. One unit even dubbed themselves the “1st Diarrhea Rangers.” Some referred to their chronic ailments as “Montezuma's revenge.” Improper hygiene and poor healthcare diminished combat readiness, although for the first time military doctors began using anesthetics to treat patients. Owing to the parsimony of Washington D.C., Scott's army remained on foreign soil for several months without adequate food, clothing, and medicine.

  On the day that he entered the Palace of the Montezumas, Scott urged U.S. soldiers to remain “sober, orderly, and merciful.” One of his major challenges involved the acts of insubordination by those under his command, which led to court martials for Worth and Pillow. While establishing martial law and quelling mob violence, he appointed Quitman as the military governor of the capital. In an old Spanish palace near the Grand Plaza, the Americans gathered to form a fraternity named the Aztec Club. Even the most belligerent adopted elements of Mexican culture, such as chewing-gum, cigarettes, and mustaches. In spite of carousing and scandals in certain quarters, the occupation of Mexico City proceeded with relative calm.

  That November, the archbishop of Mexico, Juan Manuel, asked the U.S. commander to free Mexicans detained as prisoners. Before vacating power, Santa Anna ordered the release of convicts from the jails to encourage mob violence in the streets. In the absence of a legitimate civilian administration, Scott directed the marines to round up criminals. Furthermore, he collaborated with the clergy to protect the property of the Catholic Church. They established a parole process, whereby detainees swore an oath “before God our Lord and on this Holy Cross” not to take up arms. Within weeks, they worked out the release of the Mexicans in American hands.

  For months, Mexican soldiers under Santa Anna continued to roam the countryside. Briefly, he organized an unsuccessful siege of the American garrison at Puebla. Guerrillas thwarted supply and communication lines to Mexico City, but they also looted towns and villages. Marching from Veracruz, General Joseph Lane led 2,500 Americans against the resistance at Huamantla near the National Road. With his support across Mexico collapsing, Santa Anna departed for Jamaica later that year.

  Scott's army peaked at 15,000 effectives in Mexico, but for the most part they huddled inside the capital. Marcy authorized Scott to retaliate against the guerrillas with “the utmost allowable severity” while placing the burden of defense “to the utmost extent” upon the Mexican population. With the cost of the war approaching $100 million, he assessed a levy against Mexico for $3,046,498 as an “indemnity.”

  Polk requested increased military funding from Congress that December, which seemed to buoy the hopes of the “All Mexico” movement. O'Sullivan, the editor who coined the phrase Manifest Destiny, trumpeted in the press: “More, More, More!” Within the administration, most cabinet members expressed an interest in expanding the war effort. In fact, Mexican leaders in the Yucatan appealed to the U.S. for assistance in suppressing an indigenous uprising across the peninsula. However, congressional opposition stymied an appropriations bill that raised 10 new regiments and additional volunteers for deployment to Mexico.

  Disregarding the president's request for him to leave Mexico, Trist decided to resume peace talks at the urging of Scott and the British legation. After the Mexicans organized a new government, he attempted to deal with the commissioners. The main point of contention involved the borderline between the two nations. In early 1848, their negotiations culminated at the village of Guadalupe Hidalgo outside the capital.

  Signed on February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo set the final terms. Accordingly, Mexico recognized the Rio Grande as the boundary with Texas. Moreover, it ceded all the lands that became the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada as well as portions of Wyoming and Colorado. In return, the U.S. agreed to pay Mexico $15 million and to assume responsibility for the unpaid claims by Americans against the Mexican government. With the stroke of a pen, the war in Mexico officially ended.

  A deputation of prominent citizens of Mexico approached Scott with an offer that he found difficult to refuse. After his recall by the War Department that February, the U.S. commander contemplated resigning his commission and accepting an appointment as the dictator of Mexico for four to six years. Likewise, he mused that the discharged veterans of his army might remain at his side if paid well by the elites. As the Mexican people learned “to govern themselves,” his transitional regime could manage the ports, arsenals, forts, and mines. He rejected the tempting offer, though, and soon returned to Washington D.C.

  In Washington D.C., Polk hesitated but submitted the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to the Senate. “The extensive and valuable territories ceded by Mexico,” declared the president, constituted an “indemnity for the past” as well as a “guaranty of security for the future.” Following Senate ratification of the treaty on March 10, the Mexican government officially concurred two months later. That summer, American troops marched out of Mexico City toward the Gulf Coast. On August 1, 1848, the last U.S. soldiers in Mexico boarded transports at Veracruz for the journey home.

  Legacies of Conquest

  California's military governor, Colonel R. B. Mason, invited a recent graduate of West Point, Lieutenant William T. Sherman, into his office in Monterey. He gestured to a pair of dull yellow rocks, which rested atop a pile of papers on his desk. Lifting one of the curious objects, Sherman asked: “Is it gold?” The two officers headed for the diggings around Sutter's Fort and reported their findings to Washington D.C. They announced that “there is more gold in the country drained by the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers than will pay the cost of the present war with Mexico a hundred times over.”

  Thus began the gold rush of 1849. Upon hearing the incredible news, soldiers deserted their posts and raced into northern California. Likewise, sailors with “gold fever” abandoned their ships. Thousands of Americans journeyed westward to strike it rich, while miners from China, Hawaii, Peru, Chile, and Mexico flocked to the Pacific Coast. Prospectors along the rivers found $30,000 to $50,000 worth of gold each day. The Mexican cession not only extended the boundaries of the U.S. but also inflated the ambitions of the newcomers.

  While Americans appraised the Mexican cession, a few military leaders turned their attention to electoral politics. Nominated by the Whigs, Taylor won the presidential election of 1848 on a platform of “Peace, Prosperity, and Union.” Because he died of acute gastroenteritis two years later, the Whigs tapped Scott as their next nominee.

  Figure 6.3 Nat
haniel Currier, An Available Candidate, 1848. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

  Scott lost the contest in 1852 to a former officer under his command, Pierce. Though dubbed “Young Hickory of the Granite Hills” by the Democrats, Pierce's rivals noted his excessive drinking and unremarkable military record. They mocked him with the derisive line: “The Hero of Many a Well Fought Bottle.” Partisan platforms focused upon domestic concerns, because neither Taylor nor Pierce confronted external threats to national security.

  In the absence of external threats, Americans looked for opportunities to promote the Monroe Doctrine. Even if the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty of 1850 disavowed military efforts to occupy the Isthmus of Panama, the U.S. appeared more aggressive within the western hemisphere. The American ambassador to Spain, Pierre Soulé, gained British and French approval of the Ostend Manifesto, which called upon the U.S. to contemplate seizing the island of Cuba. Quitman, the first president of the Aztec Club, recruited several thousand volunteers for a filibustering expedition, but he eventually aborted plans to “excite revolutionary movements” on the Spanish-held island. The Pierce administration recognized the illegitimate regime of William Walker, an American soldier of fortune who briefly took control of Baja California and Nicaragua. Given the impressive display of military prowess against Mexico, the U.S. touted the prospects of dominion from the Caribbean Sea to South America.

  U.S. dominion on the Pacific Coast depended upon the construction of a transcontinental system of railroads, which prompted the War Department to authorize a new round of topographical surveys. Pierce instructed James Gadsden, the new minister to Mexico, to negotiate a treaty that secured enough territory south of the Gila River for a transit route from Texas to California. He found that Santa Anna, who had resumed power in Mexico City, needed money to stabilize his restored regime. While abrogating the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the Gadsden Purchase Treaty in 1854 acquired 45,535 square miles of Mexican desert in exchange for a payment of $10 million.