Presented by: Pat Purcell

February 9, 1998

I know there's always one question any place I go from out of

Philadelphia and that's about Old Baldy. No, I am not Old Baldy.

Old Baldy was the favorite Civil War General George Gordon Meade.

Among our treasures and the great favorite of all the children who

come to our museum in Philadelphia is the mounted head of Old

Baldy.

I am going to talk to you tonight about the Mexican War. The

anniversary 1996-1997 passed almost unnoticed. In fact, last week

on February 2nd was the 150th anniversary of the signing of the

treaty which ended the war with Mexico.

The causes first of all were money. Mexico had become

independent from Spain in 1821 and incurred tremendous debts

through the revolution, through emergence, and to government. So,

they were being pressured by Great Britain, France, United States

for payment of all these debts. France had seized the city of Vera

Cruz about 1835 in the so-called Pastry War. Santa Anna made his

name at that time, he lost a leg and became one of the heros of

Mexico.

Great Britain had also put a great deal of pressure on Mexico

and the United States had gone to arbitration. Arbitration had

awarded the money to the United States and Mexico made a couple of

payments but then failed to make any further payments.

However, the big argument in those days was over the

providences of Mexico. The government prior to that time

especially in the Spanish times more or less ignored the outlining

providences of Mexico. So when he had a new centralized

government, they started applying new rules, new laws that

disturbed many of the people in the outgoing providences. In New

Mexico, for example, they cracked down on the lucrative trade by

the Santa Fe Trail leading from Independence, Missouri down to

Santa Fe and out to Chihuahua, Mexico.

In California there had been triple of American settlers there

who became very prosperous and there was a threat to dispossess all

of these settlers and not to allow anymore in. In Texas, the

Spanish government had encouraged settlement. It was sparsely

settled about 1800 or so. So a lot of southerners moved into Texas

and brought their slaves along with them.

In the early 1830's the new rules were promulgated. Mexico

had abolished slavery, they were threatening to abolish slavery

among these former southern owners there in Texas. In addition,

they had stopped all new immigration to the state and again

threatened to throw out some of these settlers. This was not a

revolt just by American fighting there was a lot of these hispanic

settlers were also very dissatisfied with what the Mexican

government was doing.

Texas declared its independence and, of course, we all know

the Alamo. In March 1836 General Santa Anna brought the army up

and he seized the mission there in the city of San Antonio. After

several days of fighting the fortress fell and according to Texas

legend every man in the place died fighting. According to Mexican

archives a number of the men surrendered but they were executed on

Santa Anna's border.

Nearby, they don't say very much about it for some reason,

there was a mission Goliad where 350 Texans surrendered to the

Mexican Army. They were taken out in the field about a mile away

and were executed. They are buried in a common grave there.

So, you can imagine the reaction in the United States at that

time because many had relatives and friends back in the United

States. A mob of volunteers came to the State and they were

provided with weapons and supplies to fight the war with Mexico.

Well, they didn't last very long. Santa Anna was defeated, the

Battle of San Juantico, he was captured and he signed an agreement

that Texas would be independent. However, the Mexican government

refused to honor this agreement and declared that Texas would never

be independent. They continued to have raids across the Rio Grande

River for the next several years.

I should point out from the very time that Mexico became

independent, there was one word to describe the government there -

instability. There were 50 different governments in a period of 40

years. Revolts, revolutions, were followed by counter revolutions

and through all this period right up through the Mexican War, there

was never any single individual, group, party or coalition that was

able to reach a compromise or be able to reach a peaceful agreement

with their neighbors to the North.

James K. Polk had been elected President in 1844. He took

office on March 4, 1845. Three days prior to that in the last act

of his administration, President John Tyler signed a congressional

resolution inviting Texas to become a State in the Union and Texas

had approved this on the following July 4th.

Immediately after this action the Mexican ambassador left

Washington, all relations were broken off. When Polk attempted to

send a new minister to Mexico, he was going to offer him 40 billion

dollars to buy California and the Southwest. The Mexicans refused

to receive the minister. They would not negotiate at all. In

fact, later on during the War the legislation in Mexico actually

passed a law indicating that it would be treason to negotiate with

the Americans. So it is a very difficult situation all around.

President Polk is one of the most interesting presidents I

think in United States history, a single minded individual. He was

a protege of Andrew Jackson. He was a very partisan democrat as

far as he was concerned the Whigs could do no good whatsoever so he

was going to have some problems with his generals because Winfield

Scott was a very prominent Whig and of course Zachary Taylor would

be a presidential candidate in the following election in 1844.

He came to office with four goals which he wrote in his diary.

One was to settle the bounty dispute with Great Britain in Oregon

which he accomplished; to establish an independent treasury; to

lower the tariff which was all done and to acquire one way or

another California and the southwest.

Zachary Taylor was a Brevet Brigadier General. He was an old

regular, he was not West Point. He was prominent in the Seminole

War. He was the only man who ever accomplished anything during

that long outstanding fight. He was given half of the entire

regular army and was sent first to Louisiana and then to Texas.

These people were now citizens of the United States and they had to

be protected from Mexican raids.

However, the significant thing was when he arrived he went to

the south side of the Nueces River. The Nueces had been the

traditional boundary between the northern most Mexican providence

and Texas. The Texans claimed that the Rio Grande was the actual

boundary so you had this strip of land in here to dispute. He

actually arrived at Corbins Creek and was in Louisiana territory.

Among others, President Abraham Lincoln who was then a young

Congressman, added "since when is this our land down there". He

dropped forward a little bit.

Taylor would move on orders from Washington the following year

in early 1847 to the banks of the Rio Grande River. He would fight

the battles at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma and then he would

cross over the river into Mexico. He would have a training camp in

this area here. He would move further south to the largest city in

northern Mexico, Monterrey, and finally would fight the Battle of

Buena Vista in 1847.

The actual skirmish appeared on a scouting party April 25,

1847 when Captain Thornton's men were ambushed by some Mexicans.

Some were killed and the others were taken as prisoners. The word

was sent back to Washington. This was all that Polk needed in order

to go to Congress for a declaration of war. American's blood taken

on American soil. Grant in his memoirs later on indicated that

they had been sent there just to provoke a fight.

Taylor was very disturbed about his supply point. The Navy

was at Port Isabelle which is on the opposite side of this creek

here. In March, most of his men were over to Port Isabelle to make

sure that the area was secure. He left a very small detachment at

Fort Texas and while he was at Port Isabelle, the Mexican Army

crossed the Rio Grande and attacked Fort Texas. There weren't very

many casualties. One of the persons killed was the commander

there, Major Jacob Brown and Fort Texas was renamed Fort Brown in

his honor.

The cannonading was heard from Port Isabelle and General

Taylor started marching back toward Brownsville. He met the

Mexican Army at a place called Palo Alto. This is now one of our

newest National Parks. Palo Alto is an extremely flat area. Here

we have the Mexican commander General Arista. Most of the field

looked liked this. There was one little hill know as Arista Hill

which is about 12 or 15 feet higher than the rest of the plains.

General Zachary Taylor, the commanding general of the American

Army, was a very plain, ordinary man. He had plantations in

Louisiana and Mississippi and no matter where he was posted during

his army command he always managed to find a plot of ground to do

some digging in. He loved gardening.

Grant had some comments to make about him. He said that he

rarely ever wore a uniform. He liked the stint that he's showing

in this drawing with both legs over the side of the horse, side

saddle. In the midst of the major battles that he was involved in,

there's was absolutely unconcern. He was not a great planner. He

was seen as a sort of seat of the pants type commander.

One of the stories about his uniform was that he had a meeting

with Commodore Conner to arrange joint strategy with the Navy and

he knew that Conner was a stickler for proper dress so he dragged

this wrinkled uniform and went off to meet the Commodore. Conner

knowing Taylor's aversion to uniform showed up in civilian clothes

for a mutually embarrassing meeting.

This was the U.S. Army's position just about in here. The

right flank would be over in this area. About the only fighting

that was done with the infantry there was an attack by some lancers

from a Mexican army who made an attack on the extreme right flank.

The infantry formed a hollow square and quickly drove off the

Mexicans. From that point on the battle became strictly an

artillery engagement.

The Mexicans had heavy, old artillery, solid shell only. They

were pulled around by oxen. The Americans had developed a light

artillery that was called a flying artillery under Captain Ringgold

which was very very effective. They were able to move from place

to place, blow holes in the Mexican line and move on before the

Mexicans could do anything about it with their artillery.

The grass went on fire late in the day and broke off the

engagement and the following morning the Mexican Army withdrew six

or seven miles to the Rio Grande River. About noon time the

following day, May 9, 1847 the American Army caught up with the

Mexicans at a place called Resaca de la Palma. This was a dry bed

of the former bed of the Rio Grande River.

There was a lot of chaparral a jungle type area and in this

particular section a young lieutenant just out of West Point

Ulysses S. Grant led his platoon into battle. He talked about how

confusing it was, you didn't know what anybody was doing on the

other side. But eventually the Americans were able to work their

way around the Mexican flank. However, the main assault was down

the road really on the outskirts of Brownsville today there is a

bridge over this particular section. There was some Mexican

artillery posted in that area.

Charles May, a captain, was ordered to charge down and take

these guns. As he came up, one of the artillery officers said,

"wait a minute, Charlie let me draw that fire." So he fires, the

Mexicans fired back and then the Americans charged down the road,

overran the guns, became completely disorganized and came back to

the American line bearing one of the Mexican generals as a

prisoner. Taylor was not happy with this. He turned to the

infantry and gave them the order, he said "take those guns, and

this time by God keep them". The guns were taken, the Mexican Army

was routed, they retreated across the Rio Grande River, many would

drown as they attempted to cross and the guns at Fort Texas hurried

them on their way.

After a few days, the Mexican Army had retreated to the south.

Taylor began a campaign which took him on a march up through the

south bank of the Rio Grande to a number of Mexican villages. He

went through Camargo. Up until this point, the entire American

Army had about 4,000 regulars plus some Texas rangers.

However, General Gaines in New Orleans completely without any

authority had recruited about 8,000 volunteers and shipped them

from New Orleans over to Texas. Taylor didn't know what to do with

them. They didn't have any uniforms, they didn't have any weapons,

they were ill disciplined, no provisions. So the obvious happened

in this camp, the regulars observed sanitary provisions and were

very careful in how they regulated their activities. The

volunteers were undisciplined and it sounds just like the early

days of the Civil War and the result was obvious about 1,500 died

within a very short period of time.

Finally, Taylor moved South at the city of Milan. Some of the

American officers climbed this tower and could see the beginning of

Monterrey in the distance. Monterrey was the largest city in

northern Mexico. It was heavily fortified. There were a number of

large stones, structures about the city which stood as forts.

They sent Joseph Mansfield at that time to do the

reconnaissance. He advised that the Americans try to take the city

from the west. General William Worth's division therefore was sent

on a wide circuit through the northern part of the country over to

the western part of the city.

There are some hills, this photograph was taken from

Independence Hill which is fortified. Federation Hill is here.

This is the road which led south to Mexico City. The American

troops went around this leg, attacked Federation Hill from the

other side. It was led by Charles Fuergeson Smith at that time a

captain. He was a much admired man who had served as commandant

cadet at the time Grant and Sherman were at West Point. He was

backed up by Persifor Smith.

They overran the hill. The following morning at 3:00 a.m.

they came back to Independence Hill. It was heavily raining, it

was foggy and they had reached almost the summit of the hill before

the Mexican's sent them downhill. They quickly overran the

position and Worth, therefore, moved in from the west. Taylor was

making attacks from the eastern part of the city and gradually the

two units approached the main plaza in Monterrey.

This cathedral was damaged by American artillery during the

course of fighting. The Mexicans asked for a truce. Taylor had

lost heavily, about ten percent of his men. He was very short of

ammunition and so he agreed to the truce. The Mexican army marched

out and they said that there would not be any fighting for the next

eight weeks.

President Polk was very very unhappy with this. And by this

time they realized the Mexican's were not going to come to peaceful

terms unless further action was taken and it would require probably

the capture of Mexico City itself.

Taylor indicated that it could not be done from this area in

Mexico. We have several hundred miles of almost dessert

conditions, water would be very scarce and virtually ended supply

line that it could not be done. So they started looking at a

campaign from the sea.

Meanwhile, General John Wool had marched down to San Antonio.

He had Robert E. Lee with him. Wool will show here with this staff

on the streets of ?. Probably the first military picture ever

taken. The street as it appears today. Still virtually unchanged.

Now we have one of the great villains of history that enters

the picture. We have General Santa Anna. He was born in Mexico in

1794 - spanish heritage. He became a cadet in the Spanish Colonial

Army and an officer. He was early court marshalled for

embezzlement. He would be President of Mexico 11 different times.

He was involved in about every revolt that took place during that

time. He lost a leg at Vera Cruz fighting the French. He had the

leg put into a very elaborate mausoleum. He had a statute erected

for himself with a finger pointing north towards Texas. The cynics

said it actually pointed towards The Mint. In a later revolt, the

leg was dragged out of the mausoleum, through the streets of Mexico

and thrown to the dogs.

He had sent an ambassador to Washington at the time he was in

exile in Havana and indicated that for the proper bribe he would be

able to go into Mexico and settle the war and sell California to

the United States. In return Polk sent a secret mission to talk to

him in Havana. This was a navy commander, Alexander McKinnsey. He

showed up for his secret mission in Havana in home dress uniform

and an open carriage at high noon. Santa Anna said, "why did the

President send this fool to me." In any event he was allowed to

proceed through the American Naval blockade of Mexico. This had

been set up when the war had started. Commodore Conner had

reported back to Washington that Santa Anna had been allowed to

proceed and landed in Vera Cruz on August 15, 1847.

Within a month he had taken command of the Mexican Army. He

had learned through a lost order - there was one also in the

Mexican War. You all heard about 191 in Antietam. But General

Scott had arrived to command the forces that were going to invade

Mexico through Vera Cruz. He had hoped to have a meeting with

General Taylor. General Taylor was in a snit about this time.

Number one because he was criticized for allowing a truce and

number two because he was not given the command for the expedition

to Mexico City.

So he took off in a different direction and left Scott waiting

for him. Scott took the opportunity to issue orders directly

removing all of these regulars except some artillerymen. Taylor's

army of about 4,000 men were being replaced with volunteers and he

sent two copies of these instructions to General Taylor.

One of the messengers, a lieutenant and an escort were

captured and murdered by the Mexicans and then a short time later,

the order was in Santa Anna's hands. So, what he planned to do was

to march north, destroy Taylor's army and then turn back to the sea

and stop Scott as he tried to land at Vera Cruz.

He made a punishing march north. He started out with about

25,000 men and had only about 15,000 when he arrived. The area was

very short of water and supplies. The men were totally exhausted.

The same day he arrived, he sent a letter to General Taylor asking

him to surrender, that he was so completely outnumbered and

apparently Taylor gave a rather profane answer that wasn't in the

best of taste. So, his adjutant William Bliss, who was known as

Perfect Bliss who was also his son-in-law cleaned it up and said,

"we decline to surrender at this time".

Santa Anna began an immediate assault on the American

division. The artillery was posted on this hill and there was a

little chapel there. The road is in basically the same position as

it was at the time. The railroad was not there. To the right

intangible, rocky gully so they didn't worry about the right flank

at all. On the left again you had hills and gullies. This was the

American Division through here. When the assaults were all turned

back through the course of the day, this was on February 22, 1847,

the following morning Santa Anna renewed his assault and began as

close to the mountain as he could get.

They were Kentuckians, Indiana and some Missourians in that

area and finally they gave way. Some of these Mexican Lancers

actually got all of the way past the American flank up to a little

village at Buena Vista and there they were turned back by none

other than Jeff Davis and the 1st Mississippi Rifles.

Another assault was made this time Davis had his troops put

into a very deep formation and the Mexicans ran into the trap and

it was a virtual slaughter. Some of the Mississippians got out

this lonely night and finished off some Mexicans prisoners.

There were additional assaults all along the right of the

American line, counter attacks. George Thomas was prominent in the

artillery unit in that particular area. Towards the end of the day

the American Army was almost completely broken and only Braxton

Bragg was available. He brought his artillery unit and asked

Taylor, "who will support me", and Taylor said, "Major Bush and I

will support you." He asked him what he was using, single or

double shot and he told him to use canister. He said double

canister and give em hell. Braxton Bragg in the finest day in his

long military career who saved the day for the American Army there.

They thought they were in for another bad day, the following

day but as dawn broke the Mexican Army had retreated and Taylor was

in command of the field. There was no point of fighting in the

northern area except guerrilla warfare for rest of the Mexican War.

Santa Anna returned to Mexico City and proclaimed a great

victory and then proceeded to try to raise another army. He lost

over half his men in the retreat to desertion.

So our scene now turns to the city of Vera Cruz on the Mexican

coast. There was a fortress on an island that's now connected with

land. One of the strong positions that had been involved in many

of the earlier wars in Mexico and when Scott arrived on the sea

they went on a reconnaissance on a small naval vessel. They got

too close to the fort and the fort opened fire on them. The

cannonballs were landing all around the ship. Fortunately, it was

not struck. If it had been it could have been quite a change in

American history. Because on board was Scott, and his generals and

a number of younger officers including Robert E. Lee, Pierre

Beauregard, Joseph Johnston and George Meade. Meade was very

critical but he could have never gotten anywhere near that fort.

On March 9th the Navy moved the troops from a transport on

naval vessels and onto barges and landed on a beach about three

miles south of Vera Cruz. It was an incredible operation for that

day. There was some light skirmishing but the Mexicans quickly

retreated but the Naval vessels were prepared to really bombard

them if need be from offshore. But by the end of the day there

were 12,000 men on the beach without a single casualty which is a

fantastic achievement.

This is the area as it looks today. The area around Vera Cruz

was very sandy, its all built up today but guns and supplies were

drawn with great difficulty through the sand. Scott gradually

extended his line in a semi-circle about seven miles around the

city of Vera Cruz. The mortar that he had requested had not shown

up so he borrowed some heavy artillery, guns from the Navy. They

were brought onto the shore with great difficulty and they were

manned by Navy crews.

The bombardment opened. Stonewall Jackson was one involved.

The positions were lined up by Robert E. Lee as one of the chief

engineers and when he and Beauregard were out on a scouting mission

they had a very narrow escape. They were coming back after dark

they were challenged by a sentinel and Lee called out "friends",

and Beauregard said, "officers" and the single colonel was so

flustered he fired anyway and the bullet went between Lee's left

arm and his body and singed his uniform. Another close call for a

future Confederate general.

There were more forts around Vera Cruz that would reply

ineffectually until the American bombardment and after three days

a truce was declared and the Mexican Army marched out. They were

on parole however; and they were quickly brought back into the

Mexican Army under Santa Anna violating the truce.

The commander at this point was General Winfield Scott. A

great giant of a man, 6' 5" tall. He had been a general at the age

of 28 in the War of 1812 and he would still be a general 50 years

later when the Civil War broke out. He was, according to John

Eisenhower, possibly the greatest general in American History. He

was a very careful planner, master tactician, and a master of

logistics as the campaign will show. But he was still "old fuss

and feathers".

At Vera Cruz Ethan Allen Hitchcock, who was the Inspector

General of the Army, told about a letter that Scott had written.

It was to be copied and he was to sign it and it was going to

Washington. Mistakes were found and some changes had been made in

the letter and General Scott said, "there, you put a G in Colonel

Harding's name I bet $10,000 that there was no G in the original.

I agree to be shot tomorrow morning if I put G in the original.

Follow me, follow me out of a third story window, I'll kill myself

if you don't, I'll kill six others and then kill myself. I'll not

survive it. I'll die before I sent such a copy to the government.

What will be said of me. Can I write nonsense and don't know to

spell Colonel Harding's name. Hardin, there's no g in, never was.

No matter how strange stone follow me, don't you attempt to correct

my spelling." Hitchcock mentioned this is about a fourth part of

what he said of the same sort.

He had to get out of Vera Cruz in a hurry. This was yellow

fever country along this area. So, this was late March and he

began his movement to Mexico City. There were two roads that they

could take north or south. He decided on the northern route

because the road was better. This was the very route that Cortes

had taken in the conquest of Mexico over 300 years earlier. They

would fight a battle at Cerra Gordo, Popocatepetl, Puelbo and then

approach Mexico City south of these lakes and approach Mexico City

from the southwest.

The Army was organized in four divisions under Generals Worth,

Quitman, Twiggs, Gideon Pillow. Worth and Quitman would be dead by

the time of the Civil War. Twiggs would be dismissed from the

service, for surrendering the Federal forces in Texas. Of course,

Gideon Pillow will go with the South. Fortunately for the North as

General Grant once said.

The first obstacle was the National Bridge built in 1803, the

site of a lot of fighting for some obscure reason that the Mexicans

were ordered to hold it but failed to do so and retreated in a very

strong division and Scott was surprised that a lot of them crossed

the river at that point.

Approaching Cerra Gordo you again run into almost jungle like

conditions and the National Road would go up into this area here.

The Battle of Cerra Gordo fought between Santa Anna and the

American Army. This is the Mexican position on these hills. The

National Road would be down in this area here and the river here.

Santa Anna expected to be attacked in this area. He ignored

the hill which was known as El Telegrafo. This would be Anna's

signal station. This is before telegraph.

It is now basically cornfields and grazing land for animals.

At that time it was very grown up. Santa Anna ignored the flank

when he was warned about it by some of his aides, he said, "a

rabbit couldn't get through there." Beauregard made some

preliminary reconnaissance. He was followed by Robert E. Lee who

found a route around the Mexican flank.

Lee had another adventure at this particular time, he found a

spring with a path leading up to it and there he heard people

approaching so he jumped down under log and lay there. The

Mexicans came up and drank at the spring and from that point on for

several hours there was a constant movement of Mexicans back and

forth to the spring. Someone came and sat on the log and at one

point one Mexican actually stepped over the log without seeing

Robert E. Lee laying partly under it. It was only with darkness

that Lee was able to withdraw from there and get back to the unit.

The Mexicans had artillery positions on these little hills

just off the road. Gideon Pillow was told to demonstrate against

the artillery position while the main assault was made to the

right. He argued with his engineering officer. He refused to go

the way the officer had suggested, brought his men up were his

flank was exposed. His men suffered very badly. They were

Pennsylvania and Tennessee Volunteers. Pillow suffered a minor arm

wound and supposedly yelled out to his men, "go on without me men,

I'm shot all to pieces."

An attack was made El Telegrafo Hill several hundred men had

dragged a cannon up to a nearby hill and started blasting away at

the Mexican division. James Shields with about 300 men worked his

way around the extreme left flank of the Mexican Army through the

village of Cerra Gordo. There weren't many men there but the

Mexicans didn't know it and immediately word spread throughout the

Mexican Army that the Americans were behind them. It became a

complete route. Santa Anna was forced to abandon his carriage,

with his treasure, his papers and with an extra wooden leg which

eventually ended up in Chicago.

The Army proceeded to the city of Jalapa nearby was the

magnificent hacienda of Santa Anna himself. This is one wing of

the building. It is surrounded by beautiful gardens, park like

setting and had 180,000 acres. The next stop was a prison Herota

that had been used to imprison a lot of the Texas prisoners during

the early stages of war. When Scott arrived they were able to

rescue some American prisoners plus the two mexican generals who

had surrendered Vera Cruz and had been thrown into jail.

Onto the City of Crobra. At this point the twelve month

enlistments were expiring for many of the volunteers. So, Scott

was forced to stay there for about four months until he got

reinforcements through volunteers. There was no fighting there at

that time. There was fighting later on after the fall of Mexico

City when Santa Anna doubled back on the city and attempted to take

it from the American Garrison there. Arrival of more volunteers to

Vera Cruz drove him off and that was the end of his military

career.

To go forward a little bit, he came back as President of

Mexico again in the 1850's. He sold the Gadsden Purchase to the

United States for 15 million dollars supposedly most of the money

went in his pocket. He was driven out of Mexico once more only to

return as a very old man, died blind and in poverty in 1874 in

Mexico City.

Approaching Mexico City himself, Scott went to the south and

he found that this area could not be taken. It was heavily

fortified. It had an area here with a heavy volcanic type of rock

- very rugged area but Robert E. Lee found a road through the

south. The troops, and most of the Army moved this way while Worth

kept the Mexicans occupied from this area here.

Pillow was in charge of the advance. There were about 7,000

Mexicans under a General Valencia here, Santa Anna with another

12,000 was here. Pillow managed to get past almost in a trap

between the blue Mexican unit while the regulars Persifor Smith

almost took command and ordered an assault for the next morning.

He found a route around the Mexican flank but Santa Anna did not do

anything.

During the course of the night, Lee was forced to cross this

area known as pedregal three times in a terrific rain storm,

thunder, lightening and after the war General Scott said it was the

one of the most courageous acts of anyone during the entire

campaign. He brought up reinforcements and Valencia had thought

that the area was impassable. He had gotten drunk the night before,

passed out promotions and when the assault came the next morning

Valencia just seventeen minutes by one of the officers blocked it.

Santa Anna for some reason didn't do anything. He moved back a

little bit actually and allowed Valencia to be overrun. Valencia

also made himself very scarce after this time and Santa Anna

ordered him shot.

Here is section of the area, a very rugged country. As I

said, Lee had crossed this three times in the course of the night.

This was the battlefield known as Contreras. There was a stream

here and deep gully, the Americans went around to the right. This

was all open there at the time but its all grown up today.

The next obstacle would be the convent and a stream known as

Churubuso. Assaults were made. Twigg and Ward attacked the bridge

and Pillow attacked the convent. The convent is still standing.

It was protected or occupied by a lot of American deserters known

as San Caprico battalion. They were mostly foreign born, a lot of

Irish.

When the men were captured, some of them were punished in

prison and they were branded if they deserted prior to the

fighting. There were about 50 who had deserted after the actual

fighting had started and they were all sent to die. Twenty were

executed almost immediately. Another 30 were taken over on a hill

overlooking Chapultepec Castle, nooses around their neck and they

stood there all afternoon while the fighting was going on at

Chapultepec. The American flag went up, the mules were lashed

forward and the thirty were hanged.

This would be a path down the bridge. Today it was more of a

drainage ditch than a river. Its completely gone today, covered

over by a throughway and rail transit line.

For the next operation, Scott had to decide how they were

going to get to Mexico City. Again, he relied greatly on

Beauregard and Lee and the other engineers. This was all slugged

area. They could only approach the city by a number of causeways

through the various gates of the city. The causeways, of course,

you would have to have your men in a very narrow position. You

couldn't fight the enemy but on the other hand you could bring up

your artillery and get the concentrated forces of the Mexicans

there.

An argument evolved on whether they would attack Chapultepec

and the area around here. In a lengthy discussion Robert E. Lee

and other officers suggested an attack from the south. But

Beauregard carried the day and he said, "we can't move as fast as

Chapultepec behind the ? and then we'll move into the city."

Chapultepec was said to be the strongest fortification on the

north American continent. It sits on a hill known as Grasshopper

Hill. This was the site of the Aztec emperors at the time of the

Mexican War, it was the Military Academy and later it became the

palace of Maxmillian and was the National Palace until 1939. It is

now a National History Museum. It was indeed a formidable position

to try and attack.

It was a modern city in Mexico there are some various statues

there. There is also a monument to Chapultepec. The city was

taken on September 13, 1847. Another very beautiful monument

commemorates the Mexican cadets who died in the fighting there in

Chapultepec. It's known as the Infant. One of them had wrapped

himself in the Mexican flag and jumped off the castle wall rather

than to surrender to the Americans. So they're regarded as the

greatest heros in Mexican history.

From there without pausing the Army continued to the very

gates of Mexico. This is one of the very rare sections of causeway

that's still left. This was the southwestern gate which was

assaulted by Twigg's men. And the gate of the convent and I should

mention that in one assault on the gate which was quickly repulsed

Richard Ewell and Kearny had attacked and Kearny had lost an arm

there.

The church of St. Coyocan was just inside gate when it was taken.

Lieutenant Grant, who was just a quartermaster at that time, had no

business actually out fighting but he was with the fighting men.

He and some infantrymen dismantled a small piece of artillery and

took the barrel and dragged it up to this tower. It's not a very

good picture, the gate was locked, there was just no place to get

in. This is where Grant had brought the piece of artillery and

starting fighting his way in.

Stonewall Jackson was also in that area at the same time. His

unit was pulverized. His horses were dead and one of his

classmates rode by and said, "are you in a bad way, old jack".

About three o'clock the next morning on September 14, 1847,

the city officials arrived at Scott's headquarters and indicated

that Santa Anna had withdrawn the army during the course of the

night. So, about noon time that day, General Scott and the

Dragoons rode into the city to the main square and he took up his

headquarters at what was then the National Palace.

The Peace Treaty was not signed until the following February.

A little war broke out between Scott, Worth and Pillow and got to

all kinds of court marshals and inquiries afterwards.

When Scott came back even the Duke Wellington said, "it was

the greatest military accomplishment in history." He said,

"General Scott is the greatest living general."

In a quiet corner of Mexico city is the oldest United States

National Cemetery. There are 750 Americans buried there.

So what did all this mean? We accomplished one of Polk's

goals. We reached an agreement with the Mexicans finally that we

get free title to Texas. We would get California, Arizona and New

Mexico, Nevada and part of Colorado. We would pay them 15 million

dollars and we would drop all other financial claims.

Politically stating its claims to the country. You had the

northern Whigs especially in New England who were violently opposed

to the war. John Quincy Adams was one of the ones who had proposed

a resolution in the House of Representatives that actually passed

by a vote of 89-85 in 1848. This was after the fighting but before

the Peace Treaty. It had said that the war had been

unconstitutional, unnecessary and recommended immediate withdrawal

of all American troops. Grant said it would be one of the sorriest

wars of a strong nation imposing on a weak nation.

From a military standpoint, what did we learn there. Every

battle except Palo Alto and Monterrey were aggressive, offensive

operations. They used the bayonets very effectively in many of

these battles. Taylor said, "we will rely on the bayonet", and he

is echoed in the Mexican War by Stonewall Jackson, "sir, we will

give them the bayonet". I think that it produced a feeling of

optimism in all of these officers who fought down there and if you

had a highly trained, motivated men that were properly discipline

you could overcome any obstacle. However, it didn't take into

effect the sand, quoting General Grant, "with the old style muskets

at the time of the Mexican War somebody could shoot at you from 200

or 300 yards away all day long without you ever knowing about it."

With the rifle coming in after the Civil War it changed the

complexion of war completely. It would be a sad lesson for the

officers and the thousands of the men who died in needless assaults

from the Mexican War.

Grant, I think, looked back on Scott. Scott when he had

reached Puelbo had sand in his supply line. He realized he could

not hold it against the guerrillas between Puelbo and Vera Cruz.

He lived off the land and at one point just before the final battle

of Mexico City reached a truce with Santa Anna that was planned at

least two weeks and the American Army would be able to buy supplies

from the mexican city and actually go into Mexico City which they

did. It worked for a couple days and on the third day, the

residents turned on them and stoned the Americans. They overturned

some of the wagons and were yelling "death to the Americans",

"death to Santa Anna". This was a very nonpartisan group.

The Vietnam War I think was almost a reflection again of some

of the anti-war activity at that time and of course I think the

Mexicans depended on that. They thought if they could hold out

long enough the American populace will turn against this very

unpopular war. You will always have a situation like that at time

of war.

Our relations later on, we were on the Mexican side when the

French intervened in the 1860's. Sheridan was sent to the border

and we possibly could have had an operation against the French if

they hadn't withdrawn. Maxmillan of course was executed.

In the long dictatorship of Diaz which lasted from the 1870's

until 1911, there was a great talk about exploitation under the

cable deals with Americans getting concessions on mining petroleum,

railroading, banking. Again, a lot of ill feeling there. The

Marines occupied Vera Cruz in 1914 and General Pershing went into

northern Mexico in 1916. So, we have had a long period of troubled

relationship with Mexico. We hope that it would be better in the

future. One last slide to conclude just to show that apparently we

still have a few young friends in Mexico.