America at War: Concise Histories of U.S. Military Conflicts From Lexingtonto Afghanistan

by Terence T. Finn

  At Plattsburgh Sir George Prevost ruined his reputation. Thomas Macdonough earned a spot in American history.

  As the fighting took place on Lake Champlain, peace negotiations were under way in Belgium. Late in 1813, the British foreign secretary had proposed that each side appoint commissioners to draft an agreement to end the conflict. Almost immediately, President Madison accepted the offer. He knew the war had not gone particularly well and that most Americans would welcome an end to hostilities. For their part, the British were weary of war and of the taxes required to sustain it. In addition, they were irked by the continued success of American privateers not blockaded by the Royal Navy.

  So commissioners were appointed and met in Ghent. Considerable time passed before serious negotiations occurred, but on Christmas Eve 1814 a treaty was signed. The government in London accepted it soon thereafter. The United States Senate ratified the treaty on February 16, 1815.

  The treaty called for all conquered lands (there were some, but not many) to be returned. It directed that military action with and against Native Americans be stopped. And it said that the boundary between New Brunswick and Maine would be settled by subsequent agreement. Significantly, the Treaty of Ghent made no mention of impressment.

  At a time when communication across the Atlantic Ocean took weeks not seconds, news that the war was over did not reach participants for some time, during which several engagements took place at sea and one major battle occurred on land. On February 10, 1815, the Constitution captured two Royal Navy frigates, thereby sealing her reputation as one of the world’s greatest fighting ships. A month before, Major General Sir Edward Pakenham, Wellington’s brother-in-law, made an ill-advised frontal assault against the defenders of New Orleans led by Andrew Jackson. The attack failed, and the British suffered twenty-four hundred casualties, among them Sir Edward who was killed. Undaunted, the British army then proceeded by sea to the coast of Alabama, where it captured the fort guarding Mobile. An attack on the city was called off when word of the treaty arrived.

  The final battle of the war took place on June 30, 1815. In the faraway Sunda Strait (a body of water that connects the islands of Sumatra and Java) the American sloop Peacock captured the British East India Company’s armed brig Nautilus. Peacock’s captain was told the war had ended, but he did not believe it. He opened fire and killed seven men. After taking possession of the vessel, he was given proof of the treaty and returned the prize to the British. With that, the fighting came to an end.

  Which side won the War of 1812?

  The British think they did. They point out that their most important objective, which was to retain control of Canada, was achieved. American armies invading Canada were almost always defeated. The Royal Navy’s blockade, by and large, was successful. The American capital was occupied. The British were never forced to concede on the subject of impressment.

  Americans also believe they won the war. They point to the great victories on Lake Erie and Lake Champlain. They celebrate the actions of the Constitution and the other American naval vessels. They remember the defense of Baltimore and Andrew Jackson’s victory at New Orleans. They note that in a war against the world’s most powerful nation, no American territory was given up. And they note also that after the war Britain no longer seized American seamen.

  Each side’s position has merit. But the evidence suggests that the British have a stronger claim. Strategically, their primary aim in the war was met. Despite American efforts Canada remained a British possession. Moreover, that the Treaty of Ghent was silent on the subject of impressment indicates that the British kept the American grievance from being redressed. True, the United States won several battles on land and lake, yet the best way to determine who won the War of 1812 is to see whose war aims were achieved, and doing that, it appears the British won.

  That does not mean the Americans received no benefits. Indeed, they received several. Two heroes of the war became president of the United States. An army emerged that knew how to fight. Lyrics for a national anthem were written. National identity was strengthened. Perhaps, more important, the War of 1812 created an American naval tradition that would serve the nation well. From Oliver Hazard Perry and Thomas Macdonough, from the Constitution and the Essex, there was built a heritage that would help make the United States Navy a force to be reckoned with.

  3

  MEXICO

  1846–1848

  The leaders of Mexico did not take kindly to the independence of Texas, made possible by Sam Houston’s victory over Santa Anna at San Jacinto in April 1836. Nor were they thrilled when, a few years later, talk of annexation with the United States began in earnest. Texas, Mexicans believed, was part of the great republic that stretched from the southern border of Oregon to present-day Guatemala. That Texas would merge with Mexico’s northern neighbor was unacceptable. Indeed, when the issue of annexation gained political momentum in Washington, Mexico considered itself at war with the United States.

  War, however, was not inevitable. With the precedent set by the purchase of Louisiana, the United States several times had offered to buy Texas. These offers had been rebuffed, as had a special envoy, John Slidell, appointed by the American president, James K. Polk, to negotiate a peaceful resolution of the differences between Mexico and the United States.

  Polk had been elected in 1844, the first dark horse candidate to win the White House. He was a partisan Democrat, a protégé of Andrew Jackson who honored his pledge to serve but one term. Most historians rate Polk’s presidency a success. He achieved a number of his goals, none more important than fulfilling his campaign pledge to bring Texas into the Union.

  This accomplishment resulted in war with Mexico, a conflict his political opponents labeled “Polk’s War.” That he forcefully exercised his constitutional authority as commander in chief is indisputable. Polk was a focused chief executive, not reluctant to direct the nation’s military. When the United States Army and its sister service, the navy, completed their mission, the nation they served was considerably larger. Via Polk and the war with Mexico the United States acquired the territory that now comprises the states of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. Thus the war was no mere footnote in American history.

  As wars do, this three-year conflict caused much blood to flow. The Americans suffered well over twelve thousand deaths, the Mexicans far more. Of U.S. losses only some fifteen hundred were on the battlefield. The rest were the result of disease. In this regard the record of the 3rd U.S. Artillery Regiment is illustrative. The regiment had 224 men killed in the war. Yet only 41 were killed in battle. The others perished from various illnesses. Influenza, smallpox, dysentery, measles, yellow fever—even sunstroke—afflicted the soldiers in Mexico, often fatally.

  The first Americans to die in the war were killed by Mexican soldiers who had crossed the Rio Grande into Texas. There, they ambushed an American patrol. Sixteen U.S. troops were killed or wounded. The Americans were part of a much larger force commanded by Brigadier General Zachary Taylor that had been ordered into Texas upon annexation. Its mission was to guard the new American lands and, should there be hostile action on the part of Mexico, to undertake offensive actions. With an army of nearly four thousand men Taylor had the means to do so.

  He also had the inclination to fight. Taylor was a veteran commander, not given to pomp and protocol. His soldiers affectionately referred to him as “Old Rough and Ready.” He began his expedition into Mexico in the spring of 1846. When he finished, Taylor would be a national hero who soon would become president of the United States.

  In late April, Taylor informed the authorities in Washington that hostilities had commenced. War fever in the United States was high, and President Polk had little difficulty in securing from Congress a declaration of war. He then called for fifty thousand volunteer soldiers who, in time, would expand the ranks of the army. Polk also order
ed the navy to blockade Mexican ports. The United States was bent on teaching Mexico a lesson, and at least early on, most Americans were fully supportive of Polk and the war. Only a few Whigs, the country’s other political party, were against it.

  Zachary Taylor, a Whig, was not one of them. He took his army inland and on May 8, 1846, confronted Mexican forces on flat land a few miles north of the Rio Grande, at a place called Palo Alto. At three o’clock in the afternoon, Mexican artillery opened fire, soon followed by cavalry charges. These were repulsed. Taylor’s men were army regulars, disciplined and skilled. Eventually, the gunfire ignited the grasses, and a large fire ensued, killing many of those wounded unable to move.

  The next morning, the Mexican commander General Mariano Arista withdrew his troops a few miles south, to Resaca de la Palma. There, he held a strong defensive position. Taylor called a counsel of war, at which most of his officers urged waiting for reinforcements. As John S. D. Eisenhower wrote in his book on the Mexican War, that was not Taylor’s style. He ordered an attack that, after much hand-to-hand fighting, resulted in victory for the Americans.

  In these two engagements Zachary Taylor reported 34 Americans killed and 113 wounded. Many more Mexicans were dead. Indeed, U.S. troops buried 200 of their foe. Among the surviving U.S. soldiers was a young lieutenant by the name of Ulysses S. Grant.

  After his victories at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, Taylor was promoted to the rank of major general, at the time the highest rank in the U.S. Army. Perhaps more significantly, his army received additional soldiers. However, these mostly were untested volunteers whose tour of duty was limited. Moreover, the increase in numbers was not matched by a corresponding increase in supplies. So his force, burdened by sickness and by the need to garrison those towns through which it had passed, was far from robust. Still, when he proceeded west toward Monterrey, Taylor had about six thousand men.

  Monterrey (not to be confused with the California town Monterey) was the principal city of northeastern Mexico. With a population of approximately ten thousand inhabitants, it was the capital of the state of Nuevo León. Taylor’s army reached the city on September 19, 1846. The Mexicans were there in strength, led by General Pedro de Ampudia, who, like Arista, was an experienced commander. Though outnumbered, Taylor chose to attack. He divided his forces (a tactic not always advisable) and came at Ampudia from opposite ends of the town. The battle lasted three days. Toward the end, the Americans were advancing not through the streets, but literally through the walls of the houses lining the streets. This was the first time the U.S. Army had to fight house to house. On September 24, with the Americans in possession of the city, Ampudia sought terms of surrender. Taylor appointed several of his officers to conduct the negotiations. One of them, a Colonel Jefferson Davis, had commanded the Mississippi Rifles, a regiment that had fought particularly well. Terms were agreed to, and the guns, both American and Mexican, went silent. Polk thought the terms too lenient and was angry with Taylor, but nonetheless, Zachary Taylor had won another battle.

  Since gaining independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico had had its share of charismatic leaders, none more colorful than Antonio López de Santa Anna. To the Americans he was the cruel victor of the Alamo who received his just reward at San Jacinto. To his fellow Mexicans he was, intermittently, el Presidente, army commander, patriot, and rogue. In 1845 Santa Anna had been exiled to Havana, his career supposedly over. But with Mexico in political turmoil, he returned the next year courtesy of the U.S. Navy, which, under specific instructions from Polk, allowed him to slip through the blockade. The American president hoped that with a new leader in Mexico, he might be able to negotiate an end to hostilities.

  Polk was to be disappointed. With his customary zeal, Santa Anna raised an army. Then, on January 27, 1847, with much fanfare, he and his troops headed north. Their goal was to defeat Zachary Taylor in battle and rid their beloved country of the Yankee invaders. With twenty thousand men under arms—the largest force Mexico would assemble during the war—this goal was well within reach. The two armies met three miles south of the town of Saltillo, in a narrow mountain valley near the hacienda Buena Vista.

  Taylor’s force, much reduced in effectiveness after Monterrey and, as always, hampered by large numbers of sick and dying, numbered 4,759 men, many of whom had not yet seen battle. At first wishing to attack, Taylor was swayed by one of his senior subordinates, Brigadier John E. Wool, to position his troops defensively at a spot within the valley known as La Angostura (The Narrows). It was a sound move.

  Santa Anna arrived in the valley with fifteen thousand men, having lost a quarter of his army from desertion and disease in the march north. Still, he outnumbered Taylor three to one. And his troops were not lacking courage.

  On the morning of February 22, 1847, Santa Anna sent a note to Taylor calling on the American to surrender. Old Rough and Ready declined to do so. The next day the Mexicans attacked in force.

  The attack was spearheaded by both infantry and the famed Mexican lancers supported by artillery. Taylor’s regiments fought hard, stood fast, then on the left flank gave way. General Wool thought the battle lost. Not so Zachary Taylor, who realigned his troops and told Jefferson Davis to shore up the crumbling American line. Davis did so. The U.S. infantry held and, importantly, American artillery began decimating the advancing Mexicans. But Santa Anna did not give up. Again and again, he had his troops attack. The Illinois and Kentucky regiments were in the thick of it. Once again Taylor’s cannons found their target and the Mexicans withdrew. On both sides casualties were high. Taylor had 456 wounded and 267 killed. Among the latter was Henry Clay Jr., whose father had opposed the war in the presidential campaign of 1844.

  The next morning Taylor and his men waited for Santa Anna to renew the battle. They waited in vain. The Mexican commander and his men had departed. Beaten, Santa Anna had taken his now much depleted army south. There he would raise more troops and defend his country and its capital from a new threat: General Winfield Scott and the nearly twelve thousand Americans who had landed at Vera Cruz.

  Scott was the American army’s most senior general. An extremely able field commander, he was in addition a fine military administrator and meticulous planner. He also was politically ambitious, a Whig and therefore no favorite of Polk. In fact, the president cared little for either Taylor or Scott, concluding that both were unfit for high command.

  Polk had hoped that Taylor’s expedition into northeastern Mexico would be sufficient to bring the Mexicans to the bargaining table. When that proved not to be the case, he realized that only if the Americans occupied the Mexican capital would the Mexican government sue for peace. Indeed, any attempt early in the war to negotiate with the United States was seen as treason by Mexico’s military and political elites.

  So James Polk asked Winfield Scott for a plan to seize Mexico City, which the general duly produced. Once the plan was agreed to, the only question was who would be in charge. Reluctantly, Polk appointed Scott. In truth, he was the logical choice. No other American officer was his equal in stature or skill.

  But Winfield Scott was not the only army officer Polk placed in command of an important expedition. On the day the United States declared war on Mexico the president, through Secretary of War William Marcy, directed Colonel Stephen W. Kearny to march west from Kansas to Santa Fe and take control of the lands comprising New Mexico. Once that was accomplished, he was to continue on to California. There, he was to help secure the Pacific territories for the United States.

  With 1600 men Kearny departed Fort Leavenworth in June 1846. He had with him also 460 horses, 3,700 mules, 15,000 cattle and oxen, and 16 pieces of artillery. His force was hailed the “Army of the West,” and as it trekked through the desert, threats arose from hostile Indians, Mexican patrols, rattlesnakes, and dehydration. But, in mid-August, the colonel and most of his troops arrived in Santa Fe.

  Kearny lost no time in establishing an
American presence. He claimed the lands for the United States, promised U.S. citizenship to the inhabitants, drafted a constitution for the territory, proclaimed religious freedom, appointed civilian officials, and, along with his soldiers, tasted new foods that were then and now staples of the Southwest. Kearny’s energy seemed inexhaustible. Upon determining that all was in order, he moved on. With a much reduced force Kearny entered what is now the state of California on November 25. He had accomplished much, and Polk, in August, had rewarded him with promotion to brigadier general.

  Unfortunately, back in New Mexico, the situation deteriorated. The soldiers left behind were behaving badly. Civilians still loyal to Mexico were plotting revenge. And, with a breakdown of law and order, common criminals felt unrestrained. The result was an outbreak of violence, at times brutal. Eventually, American troops pacified the territory, but not before well over two hundred people were dead.

  When Kearny reached California, the towns and countryside were far from peaceful. Acting on orders from Polk transmitted via Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, the American navy had occupied towns along the coast. But in addition to sailors and marines, U.S. Army soldiers had been deployed to California. Some of these were under the command of Lieutenant John C. Fremont, one of those figures in American history who appear larger than life.

  Among the inhabitants of California, loyalties were mixed. Some folks wanted the territory to remain part of Mexico. Others favored a semiautonomous region within the southern republic. A few thought California should be an independent nation. Some just wanted to be left alone. A large number thought the future lay with the United States. After a fair amount of bloodshed, political intrigue, and squabbles between Kearny, Fremont, and the senior naval commander, Robert F. Stockton, that brought credit to none of them, the issue was decided. California would join the Union, which it did in 1850, becoming the thirty-first state.