“We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God,” by Howard Zinn (1997)
Author: Howard Zinn
Zinn, Howard. “U.S. Mexico War: ‘We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God.’” Zinn Education Project, www.zinnedproject.org/materials/us-mexico-war-tea-party/.
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Colonel Ethan Alien Hitchcock, a professional soldier, graduate of the Military Academy, commander of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, a reader of Shakespeare, Chaucer, Hegel, Spinoza, wrote in his diary:
Fort Jesup, La., June 30, 1845. Orders came last evening by express from Washington City directing General Taylor to move without any delay to some point on the coast near the Sabine or elsewhere, and as soon as he shall hear of the acceptance by the Texas convention of the annexation resolutions of our Congress he is immediately to proceed with his whole command to the extreme western border of Texas and take up a position on the banks of or near the Rio Grande, and he is to expel any armed force of Mexicans who may cross that river. Bliss read the orders to me fast evening hastily at tattoo. I have scarcely slept a wink, thinking of the needful preparations. I am now noting at reveille by candlelight and waiting the signal for muster.. . . Violence leads to violence, and if this movement of ours does not lead to others and to bloodshed, I am much mistaken.
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Jan 27Vivianne L Vivianne L : I agree with the part that says "Violence leads to violence." This is seen throughout history that no matter what battles always lead to destruction and death.
May 27
Jan 28Rosa Z Rosa Z : In the battle, Colonel Ethan Alien Hitchcock had to make sure that no Mexican would cross the river for an assault. He had no idea whether or not what they were doing was correct.Jan 28Rosa Z Rosa Z : He was not even able to sleep because he felt that there would soon be violence.
Feb 3Allen A Allen A : Where did he keep this diary and was it everything that he wrote in it true because if so its possible that if this ended up in enemy hands then they could use this info against the US?
Hitchcock was not mistaken. Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase had doubled the territory of the United States, extending it to the Rocky Mountains. To the southwest was Mexico, which had won its independence in a revolutionary war against Spain in 1821-a large country which included Texas and what are now New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, and part of Colorado. After agitation, and aid from the United States, Texas broke off from Mexico in 1836 and declared itself the “Lone Star Republic.” In 1845, the U.S. Congress brought it into the Union as a state.
In the White House now was James Polk, a Democrat, an expansionist, who, on the night of his inauguration, confided to his Secretary of the Navy that one of his main objectives was the acquisition of California. His order to General Taylor to move troops to the Rio Grande was a challenge to the Mexicans. It was not at all clear that the Rio Grande was the southern boundary of Texas, although Texas had forced the defeated Mexican general Santa Anna to say so when he was a prisoner. The traditional border between Texas and Mexico had been the Nueces River, about 150 miles to the north, and both Mexico and the United States had recognized that as the border. However, Polk, encouraging the Texans to accept annexation, had assured them he would uphold their claims to the Rio Grande.
Ordering troops to the Rio Grande, into territory inhabited by Mexicans, was clearly a provocation. Taylor’s army marched in parallel columns across the open prairie, scouts far ahead and on the flanks, a train of supplies following. Then, along a narrow road, through a belt of thick chaparral, they arrived, March 28, 1846, in cultivated fields and thatched-roof huts hurriedly abandoned by the Mexican occupants, who had fled across the river to the city of Matamoros. Taylor set up camp, began construction of a fort, and implanted his cannons facing the white houses of Matamoros, whose inhabitants stared curiously at the sight of an army on the banks of a quiet river.
‘Our Manifest Destiny’
The Washington Union, a newspaper expressing the position of President Polk and the Democratic party, had spoken early in 1845 on the meaning of Texas annexation:
Let the great measure of annexation be accomplished, and with it the questions of boundary and claims. For who can arrest the torrent that will pour onward to the West? The road to California will be open to us. Who will stay the march of our western people?
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Jan 27Estefania H Estefania H : President Polk and the Democratic already have the idea that California is all theirs and no one is going to stop them. They will claim the land and push their boundary more forward into Mexico's territory.
Jan 27Fabian L Fabian L : Polk has the mindset of having california and they will fight for the land till they have it.Jan 27Jan 28Vivianne L Vivianne L : What did Polk have against the Mexicans? Also, Polk words this as he is ready to start the annexation and is eager to take California.Jan 29Ariana O Ariana O : Polk was very eager to claim California and was making it a very big deal by putting it in newspapers and making it a big deal.Feb 3Allen A Allen A : What were his intentions for expanding US soil as far as California, what had him so intrigued?Feb 3Feb 4Mar 8Rosa Z Rosa Z : Polk had the desire to have Cali so he went for it completely and no he has it, and he´s not going to let anyone try to take it away from him.May 27
It was shortly after that, in the summer of 1845, that John O’Sullivan, editor of the Democratic Review, used the phrase that became famous, saying it was “Our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” Yes, manifest destiny.
All that was needed in the spring of 1846 was a military incident to begin the war that Polk wanted. It came in April, when General Taylor’s quartermaster, Colonel Cross, while riding up the Rio Grande, disappeared. His body was found eleven days later, his skull smashed by a heavy blow. It was assumed he had been killed by Mexican guerrillas crossing the river.
The next day (April 25), a patrol of Taylor’s soldiers was surrounded and attacked by Mexicans, and wiped out: sixteen dead, others wounded, the rest captured. Taylor sent a dispatch to Polk: “Hostilities may now be considered as commenced.”
The Mexicans had fired the first shot. But they had done what the American government wanted, according to Colonel Hitchcock, who wrote in his diary, even before those first incidents:
I have said from the first that the United States are the aggressors. . . . We have not one particle of right to be here. … It looks as if the government sent a small force on purpose to bring on a war, so as to have a pretext for taking California and as much of this country as it chooses, for, whatever becomes of this army, there is no doubt of a war between the United States and Mexico. . .. My heart is not in this business … but, as a military man, I am bound to execute orders.
Paragraph 14 0Jan 28Sofia M Sofia M : I am not surprised that Mexico and U.S. fought in the war for land because that's how the U.S. likes to be.Jan 28Vivianne L Vivianne L : This is interesting as because the Mexicans fired the first shot this started a war with the Americans. Then again this is what the Americans had wanted all along.Jan 29Ariana O Ariana O : I was taken back when some of the us solders were very much against the war but was still forced to do what was told.Feb 3Allen A Allen A : The US technically took the first step in action for a war between them and Mexico by pushing them the way they were.Feb 3Ritchy V Ritchy V : The US provoked the war in order to get Mexico to initiate it for them to justify their actions.Mar 8Rosa Z Rosa Z : The Mexican started the war because they had to protect their country and their people so Americans wouldn't pass their space and take away what is not theirs.
On May 9, before news of any battles, Polk was suggesting to his cabinet a declaration of war, based on certain money claims against Mexico, and on Mexico’s recent rejection of an American negotiator named John Slidell. Polk recorded in his diary what he said to the cabinet meeting:
I stated … that up to this time, as we knew, we had heard of no open act of aggression by the Mexican army, but that the danger was imminent that such acts would be committed. I said that in my opinion we had ample cause of war, and that it was impossible . . . that I could remain silent much longer .. . that the country was excited and impatient on the subject.. . .
Paragraph 16 0Jan 28Sofia M Sofia M : Americans decided to declare war with Mexico because they got attacked by them.Jan 28Vivianne L Vivianne L : Here Polk says that it was necessary for them to go into battle because the Mexicans left them with no choice. It's crazy to see that Polk wanted this to happen from the start so they could start fighting.Jan 29Ariana O Ariana O : It gets me upset in a way because the way Polk was handling this situation and how careless he could be.Feb 3Ritchy V Ritchy V : I was not surprised that there was no aggression by the Mexican army and that the U.S. was the cause of the war.Feb 4Jesusita G Jesusita G : It makes me so angry to learn that Polk didn't care about Mexico or his own people because.
The country was not “excited and impatient.” But the President was. When the dispatches arrived from General Taylor telling of casualties from the Mexican attack, Polk summoned the cabinet to hear the news, and they unanimously agreed he should ask for a declaration of war. Polk’s message to Congress was indignant:
Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil…
Paragraph 18 0Jan 27Emily V Emily V : I learned that after the killing of James Polk there was a declaration of war towards Mexico because they assumed that they were the ones that killed Polk. There was a feud.Jan 28Alejandro M Alejandro M : I'm agree with you the dead of polk's was the declaration of warJan 28Jan 28Vivianne L Vivianne L : So many people of america did not agree with the idea of the war but after the death of Polk they had to do something. This is was the start of a war between the Americans and Mexicans. [Edited]Jan 29Evelin R Evelin R : It makes me so angry because they are blaming everything on Mexico but the United States started a lot and even their own people didn't agree with the war.Feb 3Allen A Allen A : So Polk used propaganda to create support in his actions of talking California as he did not tell the full story for there to be understanding in why Mexico did what they did.Mar 8Rosa Z Rosa Z : Makes me furious that they're blaming everything on Mexico and that they started the war. I believe that Americans started because they're the cause that the war started, they wanted the land of Mexico so to get it they provoke them.Jun 2
Congress then rushed to approve the war message. Schroeder comments: “The disciplined Democratic majority in the House responded with alacrity and high-handed efficiency to Polk’s May 11 war recommendations.” The bundles of official documents accompanying the war message, supposed to be evidence for Polk’s statement, were not examined, but were tabled immediately by the House. Debate on the bill providing volunteers and money for the war was limited to two hours, and most of this was used up reading selected portions of the tabled documents, so that barely a half-hour was left for discussion of the issues.
The Whig party also wanted California, but preferred to do it without war. Nevertheless, they would not deny men and money and so joined Democrats in voting overwhelmingly for the war resolution, 174 to 14. In the Senate, there was debate, but it was limited to one day, and “the tactics of stampede were there repeated,” according to historian Frederick Merk. The war measure passed, 40 to 2, Whigs joining Democrats. John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, who originally voted with “the stubborn 14,” later voted for war appropriations.
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois was not yet in Congress when the war began, but after his election in 1846 he had occasion to vote and speak on the war. His “spot resolutions” became famous-he challenged Polk to specify the exact spot where American blood was shed “on the American soil.” But he would not try to end the war by stopping funds for men and supplies. Speaking in the House on July 27, 1848, in support of the candidacy of General Zachary Taylor for President, he said:
If to say “the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the President” be opposing the war, then the Whigs have very generally opposed it. … The marching an army into the midst of a peaceful Mexican settlement, frightening the inhabitants away, leaving their growing crops and other property to destruction, to you may appear a perfectly amiable, peaceful, unprovoking procedure; but it does not appear so to us. . .. But if, when the war had begun, and had become the cause of the country, the giving-of our money and our blood, in common with yours, was support of the war, then it is not true that we have always opposed the war. With few individual exceptions, you have constantly had our votes here for all the necessary supplies. …
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Jan 27Nicole G Nicole G : It is interesting that they opposed the idea of attacking the Mexican settlement, but once the war started they supported it.Jan 28Jan 29Ariana O Ariana O : Its very pleasing to know that at least one person out of all these men was trying to do the right thing and have peace between the two.Jan 31Vivianne L Vivianne L : It's interesting to see how Abraham Lincoln was against the war between America and Mexico. As well as the Whig party opposed it but why would they go through with it?Feb 3Feb 3Ritchy V Ritchy V : It's sad how the inhabitants were forced to leave their crops and property to destruction.Mar 8Rosa Z Rosa Z : It´s a sad situation that they had to leave their lands and go somewhere else there not comfortable with.Jun 2Guadalupe A Guadalupe A : It’s sad how they had to leave their lands and go somewhere were they aren’t comfortable
A handful of antislavery Congressmen voted against all war measures, seeing the Mexican campaign as a means of extending the southern slave territory. One of these was Joshua Giddings of Ohio, a fiery speaker, physically powerful, who called it “an aggressive, unholy, and unjust war.”
After Congress acted in May of 1846, there were rallies and demonstrations for the war in New York, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and many other places. Thousands rushed to volunteer for the army. The poet Walt Whitman wrote in the Brooklyn Eagle in the early days of the war: “Yes: Mexico must be thoroughly chastised! . . . Let our arms now be carried with a spirit which shall teach the world that, while we are not forward for a quarrel, America knows how to crush, as well as how to expand!”
Accompanying all this aggressiveness was the idea that the United States would be giving the blessings of liberty and democracy to more people. This was intermingled with ideas of racial superiority, longings for the beautiful lands of New Mexico and California, and thoughts of commercial enterprise across the Pacific. The New York Herald was saying, by 1847: “The universal Yankee nation can regenerate and disenthrall the people of Mexico in a few years; and we believe it is a part of our destiny to civilize that beautiful country.”
The Congressional Globe of February 11, 1847, reported:
Mr. Giles, of Maryland-I take it for granted, that we shall gain territory, and must gain territory, before we shut the gates of the temple of Janus. .. . We must march from ocean to ocean. .. . We must march from Texas straight to the Pacific ocean, and be bounded only by its roaring wave…. It is the destiny of the white race, it is the destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race. .. .
Paragraph 28 0Jan 28Yamile B Yamile B : The "We must march from ocean to ocean" reminds me of the song "From Sea to Shining Sea."Feb 3Allen A Allen A : They contradict their own statements by saying "We must march from ocean to ocean" and later on saying , "be bounded only by its roaring wave"?Feb 4Feb 16Vivianne L Vivianne L : Here they make it clear that they want more territory. I wonder why gaining more land is a sense of power?Mar 8Rosa Z Rosa Z : "We must march from ocean to ocean." It's saying that they have conquer new and old lands that are from others making them theirs so they can expand their territory and get more power.
Anti-War Sentiment
The American Anti-Slavery Society, on the other hand, said the war was “waged solely for the detestable and horrible purpose of extending and perpetuating American slavery throughout the vast territory of Mexico.” A twenty-seven-year-old Boston poet and abolitionist, James Russell Lowell, began writing satirical poems in the Boston Courier (they were later collected as the Biglow Papers). In them, a New England farmer, Hosea Biglow, spoke, in his own dialect, on the war:
Ez fer war, I call it murder,-
Paragraph 32 0Jan 28Yamile B Yamile B : Those that were against the war were aware of the reason behind it, they knew it was solely to have more slave states spread across the U.S.Jan 29There you hev it plain an’ flat;
I don’t want to go no furderParagraph 33 0Jan 28Nicole G Nicole G : His view is the same as the Anti-Slavery Society because they both oppose the war with Mexico.Jan 29Feb 17Than my Testyment fer that. . . .
They may talk o’ Freedom’s airyParagraph 34 0Jan 28Yamile B Yamile B : I think the farmer is saying that the Americans are telling the people that they will grant them all liberty after the war.Jan 29Alejandro M Alejandro M : I am agree with you becuase the farmers they promised more than they could grantTell they’er pupple in the face,-
It’s a grand gret cemetaryParagraph 35 0Jan 29Alejandro M Alejandro M : this could be taken as all the fallen soldiers during the conflict.Feb 4Estefania H Estefania H : He is saying that the war is actually just a excuse to murder everyone that gets in the United States way of getting land.Per the barthrights of our race;
They jest want this CalifornyParagraph 36 0Jan 28Nicole G Nicole G : It is not surprising that a lot of people realized how the U.S. wanted California because of the way they always talked about how they needed to expand their country.Jan 29Alejandro M Alejandro M : I agree with you since the US only wanted more territory that represented more powerJan 28Yamile B Yamile B : I think he's saying that the Americans are just lying to the people because all they want is to seize California from Mexico to expand.Feb 4Feb 17Vivianne L Vivianne L : It's interesting to see that it wasn't hidden that the Americans wanted to expand more land. So it made it clear to most that they wanted to go to war.So’s to lug new slave-states in
To abuse ye, an’ to scorn ye,Paragraph 37 0Jan 28Nicole G Nicole G : Some people who supported the war even admitted that the reason for supporting it is because they could have slaves wherever they wanted and would be able to have more slave states by expanding.Jan 29Alejandro M Alejandro M : I agree with you since the slavers only did it to have more space for more slavesFeb 10Estefania H Estefania H : Biglow is saying that the United States just too California to make them slave-states and only to take away Mexicans land and country.Feb 17Vivianne L Vivianne L : It's crazy to see how people supported this war based off the fact for more slavery.An’ to plunder ye like sin.
The war had barely begun, the summer of 1846, when a writer, Henry David Thorean, who lived in Concord, Massachusetts, refused to pay his Massachusetts poll tax, denouncing the Mexican war. He was put in jail and spent one night there. His friends, without his consent, paid his tax, and he was released. Two years later, he gave a lecture, “Resistance to Civil Government,” which was then printed as an essay, “Civil Disobedience”:
It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. .. . Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers .. . marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart.
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Jan 28Thoreau disobeyed the law when he didn’t pay his taxes (in protest of the US-Mexico war). What do you think about disobeying laws you think are unjust?
Jan 28Nicole G Nicole G : I think that Thoreau didn't do anything wrong by disobeying the law because if something is unjust, you should not have to support it and protesting against it can help to change the injustice.Jan 28Yamile B Yamile B : I think it's the only way to take action by calling it to attention. Like Thomas Jefferson said, "If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so."
His friend and fellow writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, agreed, but thought it futile to protest. When Emerson visited Thoreau in jail and asked, “What are you doing in there?” it was reported that Thoreau replied, “What are you doing out there?”
The churches, for the most part, were either outspokenly for the war or timidly silent. The Reverend Theodore Parker, Unitarian minister in Boston, combined eloquent criticism of the war with contempt for the Mexican people, whom he called “a wretched people; wretched in their origin, history, and character,” who must eventually give way as the Indians did. Yes, the United States should expand, he said, but not by war, rather by the power of her ideas, the pressure of her commerce, by “the steady advance of a superior race, with superior ideas and a better civilization … ”
Do you think Reverend Parker was in the minority with this attitude about Mexicans? Why or why not?
I think Reverend Parker wasn’t in the minority with that attitude about Mexicans because I believe many people agreed with the idea that white Americans are the superior race and could build a better civilization
The racism of Parker was widespread. Congressman Delano of Ohio, an antislavery Whig, opposed the war because he was afraid of Americans mingling with an inferior people who “embrace all shades of color. … a sad compound of Spanish, English, Indian, and negro bloods . . . and resulting, it is said, in the production of a slothful, ignorant race of beings.”
As the war went on, opposition grew. The American Peace Society printed a newspaper, the Advocate of Peace, which published poems, speeches, petitions, sermons against the war, and eyewitness accounts of the degradation of army life and the horrors of battle. The abolitionists, speaking through William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator, denounced the war as one “of aggression, of invasion, of conquest, and rapine-marked by ruffianism, perfidy, and every other feature of national depravity …” Considering the strenuous efforts of the nation’s leaders to build patriotic support, the amount of open dissent and criticism was remarkable. Antiwar meetings took place in spite of attacks by patriotic mobs.
As the army moved closer to Mexico City, The Liberator daringly declared its wishes for the defeat of the American forces: “Every lover of Freedom and humanity, throughout the world, must wish them [the Mexicans] the most triumphant success…
Frederick Douglass, former slave, extraordinary speaker and writer, wrote in his Rochester newspaper the North Star, January 21, 1848, of “the present disgraceful, cruel, and iniquitous war with our sister republic. Mexico seems a doomed victim to Anglo Saxon cupidity and love of dominion.” Douglass was scornful of the unwillingness of opponents of the war to take real action (even the abolitionists kept paying their taxes):
No politician of any considerable distinction or eminence seems willing to hazard his popularity with his party … by an open and unqualified disapprobation of the war. None seem willing to take their stand for peace at all risks; and all seem willing that the war should be carried on, in some form or other.
Where was popular opinion? It is hard to say. After the first rush, enlistments began to dwindle. Historians of the Mexican war have talked easily about “the people” and “public opinion.” Their evidence, however, is not from “the people” but from the newspapers, claiming to be the voice of the people. The New York Herald wrote in August 1845: “The multitude cry aloud for war.” The New York Morning News said “young and ardent spirits that throng the cities . . . want but a direction to their restless energies, and their attention is already fixed on Mexico.”
It is impossible to know the extent of popular support of the war. But there is evidence that many organized workingmen opposed the war.
There were demonstrations of Irish workers in New York, Boston, and Lowell against the annexation of Texas, Philip Foner reports. In May, when the war against Mexico began, New York workingmen called a meeting to oppose the war, and many Irish workers came. The meeting called the war a plot by slaveowners and asked for the withdrawal of American troops from disputed territory. That year, a convention of the New England Workingmen’s Association condemned the war and announced they would “not take up arms to sustain the Southern slaveholder in robbing one-fifth of our countrymen of their labor.”
Some newspapers, at the very start of the war, protested. Horace Greeley wrote in the New York Tribune, May 12, 1846:
We can easily defeat the armies of Mexico, slaughter them by thousands, Who believes that a score of victories over Mexico, the “annexation” of half her provinces, will give us more Liberty, a purer Morality, a more prosperous Industry, than we now have? … Is not Life miserable enough, comes not Death soon enough, without resort to the hideous enginery of War?
Paragraph 53 0Feb 1Nicole G Nicole G : The fact that the U.S. already saw themselves defeating Mexico before it actually happened shows how they thought they were superior compared to Mexico.Feb 17Vivianne L Vivianne L : I agree with this. America already was thinking that they won before it even ended. This shows some form of superiority in their mind against the Mexicans.Feb 4Emily V Emily V : many immigrants saw that what Mexico was going through and helped them. They noticed how America thought they were better.Feb 4Jesusita G Jesusita G : America thought so highly of themselves they weren't even worried about losingFeb 10Feb 11Allen A Allen A : They use rhetorical questions to show that what we were doing was pointless and wrong.Feb 12Jun 2
The Recruits
What of those who fought the war-the soldiers who marched, sweated, got sick, died? The Mexican soldiers. The American soldiers. We know little of the reactions of Mexican soldiers. We know much more about the American army–volunteers, not conscripts, lured by money and opportunity for social advancement via promotion in the armed forces. Half of General Taylor’s army were recent immigrants–Irish and German mostly. Their patriotism was not very strong. Their belief in all arguments for expansion paraded in the newspapers was probably not great. Indeed, many of them deserted to the Mexican side, enticed by money. Some enlisted in the Mexican army and formed their own battalion, the San Patricio (St. Patrick’s) Battalion.
At first there seemed to be enthusiasm in the army, fired by pay and patriotism. Martial spirit was high in New York, where the legislature authorized the governor to call 50,000 volunteers. Placards read “Mexico or Death.” There was a mass meeting of 20,000 people in Philadelphia. Three thousand volunteered in Ohio.
This initial spirit soon wore off. One young man wrote anonymously to the Cambridge Chronicle:
Neither have I the least idea of “joining” you, or in any way assisting the unjust war waging against Mexico. I have no wish to participate in such “glorious” butcheries of women and children as were displayed in the capture of Montercy, etc. Neither have I any desire to place myself under the dictation of a petty military tyrant, to every caprice of whose will I must yield implicit obedience. No sir-ee! … Well, I won’t.. . . Human butchery has had its day… . And the time is rapidly approaching when the professional soldier will be placed on the same level as a bandit, the Bedouin, and the Thug.
Paragraph 58 0Feb 1Nicole G Nicole G : I find it surprising how before there were many people who were willing to be recruited for the war, but now hardly anyone wanted to be apart of the war against Mexico.Feb 1Yamile B Yamile B : I think many just opened their eyes to realize that what was going to happen was unjust to the Mexicans so they wanted nothing to do with it.Feb 10Alejandro M Alejandro M : The war between USA and Mexico was a war for the resources in my opinion.Feb 11Allen A Allen A : They realized how wrong and one-sided this war was and did not want to be a part of it.Feb 22Vivianne L Vivianne L : It's crazy to think that people would think it is okay to butcher women and children. It makes sense why many refused to keep being in the army.
There were extravagant promises and outright lies to build up the volunteer units. A man who wrote a history of the New York Volunteers declared:
Many enlisted for the sake of their families, having no employment, and having been offered “three months’ advance”, and were promised that they could leave part of their pay for their families to draw in their absence. … I boldly pronounce, that the whole Regiment was got up by fraud.
Paragraph 60 0Feb 1Nicole G Nicole G : I think it was wrong to lie to people and make promises that they already know they won't fulfill just so they can get more recruits on their side.Feb 1Yamile B Yamile B : Yes, I agree especially since they are risking their lives and many might not even get back to their families.Feb 10Alejandro M Alejandro M : I am agree with you becuase I think that is wrong to lie ot the people.Feb 11Sofia M Sofia M : They join the military for their family because that's all they can do to help them.Feb 12Ritchy V Ritchy V : Many people were lied to just so they would volunteer and be part of the war.Feb 22Vivianne L Vivianne L : I find it sickening because these people need to provide for their families so they trick them. Don't they understand how horrible it is?Jun 2Guadalupe A Guadalupe A : It’s wrong to lie to people, don’t give them false hopes if your not going to make them happen
By late 1846, recruitment was falling off, so physical requirements were lowered, and anyone bringing in acceptable recruits would get $2 a head. Even this didn’t work. Congress in early 1847 authorized ten new regiments of regulars, to serve for the duration of the war, promising them 100 acres of public land upon honorable discharge. But dissatisfaction continued.
The Reality of Battle
And soon, the reality of battle came in upon the glory and the promises. On the Rio Grande before Matamoros, as a Mexican army of five thousand under General Arista faced Taylor’s army of three thousand, the shells began to fly, and artilleryman Samuel French saw his first death in battle. John Weems describes it:
He happened to be staring at a man on horseback nearby when he saw a shot rip off the pommel of the saddle, tear through the man’s body, and burst out with a crimson gush on the other side.
Paragraph 65 0Feb 3Nicole G Nicole G : It must have been very difficult for the men in the battle to witness so many violent and harsh deaths happen.Feb 11Feb 12Ritchy V Ritchy V : I think if I witnessed my first death in battle I would be scared and traumatized and I wouldn't want to keep fighting.Jun 2Guadalupe A Guadalupe A : I bet it was really difficult for the men to see such brutal deaths
When the battle was over, five hundred Mexicans were dead or wounded. There were perhaps fifty American casualties. Weems describes the aftermath: “Night blanketed weary men who fell asleep where they dropped on the trampled prairie grass, while around them other prostrate men from both armies screamed and groaned in agony from wounds. By the eerie light of torches ‘the surgeon’s saw was going the livelong night.' ”
Away from the battlefield, in the army camps, the romance of the recruiting posters was quickly forgotten. The 2nd Regiment of Mississippi Rifles, moving into New Orleans, was stricken by cold and sickness. The regimental surgeon reported: “Six months after our regiment had entered the service we had sustained a loss of 167 by death, and 134 by discharges.” The regiment was packed into the holds of transports, eight hundred men into three ships. The surgeon continued:
The dark cloud of disease still hovered over us. The holds of the ships . . . were soon crowded with the sick. The effluvia was intolerable. . . . The sea became rough. .. . Through the long dark night the rolling ship would dash the sick man from side to side bruising his flesh upon the rough corners of his berth. The wild screams of the delirious, the lamentations of the sick, and the melancholy groans of the dying, kept up one continual scene of confusion. . . . Four weeks we were confined to the loathsome ships and before we had landed at the Brasos, we consigned twenty-eight of our men to the dark waves.
Paragraph 68 0Feb 11Feb 17Allen A Allen A : I wonder if those who were tossed overboard had died from sickness or were near death when they were tossed.Feb 22Vivianne L Vivianne L : It's sickening to hear about the poor conditions of the ships. As well as they had to leave the ship being in the ocean due to its conditions.Jun 2
Meanwhile, by land and by sea, Anglo-American forces were moving into California. A young naval officer, after the long voyage around the southern cape of South America, and up the coast to Monterey in California, wrote in his diary:
Asia . . . will be brought to our very doors. Population will flow into the fertile regions of California. The resources of the entire country . . . will be developed. . . . The public lands lying along the route [of railroads] will be changed from deserts into gardens, and a large population will be settled. . . .
It was a separate war that went on in California, where Anglo-Americans raided Spanish settlements, stole horses, and declared California separated from Mexico-the “Bear Flag Republic.” Indians lived there, and naval officer Revere gathered the Indian chiefs and spoke to them (as he later recalled):
I have called you together to have a talk with you. The country you inhabit no longer belongs to Mexico, but to a mighty nation whose territory extends from the great ocean you have all seen or heard of, to another great ocean thousands of miles toward the rising sun…. Our armies are now in Mexico, and will soon conquer the whole country. But you have nothing to fear from us, if you do what is right. . . . if you are faithful to your new rulers… I hope you will alter your habits, and be industrious and frugal, and give up all the low vices which you practice; but if you are lazy and dissipated, you must, before many years, become extinct. We shall watch over you, and give you true liberty; but beware of sedition, lawlessness, and all other crimes, for the army which shields can assuredly punish, and it will reach you in your most retired hiding places.
Paragraph 73 0Feb 4Nicole G Nicole G : The officer from the U.S. was basically telling the Indian chiefs that they were their new ruler and that they needed to listen to them, or else they would do something bad to them.Feb 17Allen A Allen A : They basically said that they would kill their people into extinction if they did not listen.Feb 22Vivianne L Vivianne L : I agree this is what it's talking about but it's saddening that they would do this to the Indians
General Kearney moved easily into New Mexico, and Santa Fe was taken without battle. An American staff officer described the reaction of the Mexican population to the U.S. army’s entrance into the capital city:
Our march into the city .. . was extremely warlike, with drawn sabres, and daggers in every look. … As the American flag was raised, and the cannon boomed its glorious national salute from the hill, the pent-up emotions of many of the women could be suppressed no longer … as the wail of grief arose above the din of our horses’ tread, and reached our ears from the depth of the gloomy-looking buildings on every hand.
Paragraph 75 0Feb 4Nicole G Nicole G : They did not care that they were destroying what the people in that city had worked on and instead, raised their flag.Feb 11Feb 22Vivianne L Vivianne L : This is disgusting as they place a an American flag silencing the pain of the Mexicans.Jun 2Guadalupe A Guadalupe A : They didn’t care that they were destroying what people in the city had worked on
That was in August. In December, Mexicans in Taos, New Mexico, rebelled against American rule. As a report to Washington put it, “many of the most influential persons in the northern part of this territory were engaged in the rebellion.” The revolt was put down, and arrests were made. But many of the rebels fled, and carried on sporadic attacks, killing a number of Americans, then hiding in the mountains. The American army pursued, and in a final desperate battle, in which 600 to 700 rebels were engaged, 150 were killed, and it seemed the rebellion was now over.
In Los Angeles, too, there was a revolt. Mexicans forced the American garrison there to surrender in September 1846. The United States did not retake Los Angeles until January, after a bloody battle.
General Taylor had moved across the Rio Grande, occupied Matamoros, and now moved southward through Mexico. But his volunteers became more unruly on Mexican territory. Mexican villages were pillaged by drunken troops. Cases of rape began to multiply.
As the soldiers moved up the Rio Grande to Camargo, the heat became unbearable, the water impure, and sickness grew-diarrhea, dysentery, and other maladies-until a thousand were dead. At first the dead were buried to the sounds of the “Dead March” played by a military hand. Then the number of dead was too great, and formal military funerals ceased. Southward to Monterey and another battle, where men and horses died in agony, and one officer described the ground as “slippery with . . . foam and blood.”
The U.S. Navy bombarded Veracruz in the indiscriminate killing of civilians. One of the navy’s shells hit the post office, another a surgical hospital. In two days, 1,300 shells were fired into the city, until it surrendered. A reporter for the New Orleans Delta wrote: “The Mexicans variously estimate their loss at from 500 to 1000 killed and wounded, but all agree that the loss among the soldiery is comparatively small and the destruction among the women and children is very great.”
Colonel Hitchcock, coming into the city, wrote: “I shall never forget the horrible fire of our mortars … going with dreadful certainty often in the center of private dwellings- it was awful. I shudder to think of it.” Still, Hitchcock, the dutiful soldier, wrote for General Scott “a sort of address to the Mexican people” which was then printed in English and Spanish by the tens of thousands saying “. . . we have not a particle of ill-will towards you-we treat you with all civility-we are not in fact your enemies; we do not plunder your people or insult your women or your religion … we are here for no earthly purpose except the hope of obtaining a peace.”
It was a war of the American elite against the Mexican elite, each side exhorting, using, killing its own population as well as the other. The Mexican commander Santa Anna had crushed rebellion after rebellion, his troops also raping and plundering after victory. When Colonel Hitchcock and General Winfield Scott moved into Santa Anna’s estate, they found its walls full of ornate paintings. But half his army was dead or wounded.
General Winfield Scott moved toward the last battle-for Mexico City-with 10,0000 soldiers. They were not anxious for battle. Three days’ march from Mexico City, at Jalapa, seven of his eleven regiments evaporated, their enlistment times up, the reality of battle and disease too much for them.
On the outskirts of Mexico City, at Churubusco, Mexican and American armies clashed for three hours and thousands died on both sides. Among the Mexicans taken prisoner were sixty-nine U.S. army deserters.
As often in war, battles were fought without point. After one such engagement near Mexico City, with terrible casualties, a marine lieutenant blamed General Scott: “He had originated it in error and caused it to be fought, with inadequate forces, for an object that had no existence.”
In the final battle for Mexico City, Anglo-American troops took the height of Chapultepec and entered the city of 200,000 people, General Santa Anna having moved northward. This was September 1847. A Mexican merchant wrote to a friend about the bombardment of the city: “In some cases whole blocks were destroyed and a great number of men, women and children killed and wounded.”
General Santa Anna fled to Huamantla, where another battle was fought, and he had to flee again. An infantry lieutenant wrote to his parents what happened after an officer named Walker was killed in battle:
General Lane … told us to “avenge the death of the gallant Walker”… Grog shops were broken open first, and then, maddened with liquor, every species of outrage was committed. Old women and girls were stripped of their clothing-and many suffered still greater outrages. Men were shot by dozens … their property, churches, stores and dwelling houses ransacked… It made me for the first time ashamed of my country.
Paragraph 88 0Feb 10Yamile B Yamile B : I truly do wonder what the parents of this soldier thought? Did they think their son exaggerated or were they shocked by such things?Feb 10Nicole G Nicole G : I think this proves just how terrible the things the US did were, that even the army infantry from there was ashamed of his own country.Feb 22Vivianne L Vivianne L : I agree because no one should see these horrors. I am surprised this is the first time they were ashamed of their country.Feb 11Manuel C Manuel C : He should be ashamed but it should also help him realize the high expectations you have for someone or something is just as great of disappointment when you find out for who they truly are or what their true intentions could be.Feb 11Emily V Emily V : This is evident that the people who were involved during the war were harmed in a merciless way.Feb 11Juan V Juan V : just as great of disappointment when you find out for who they truly are or what their true intentions could be.
One Pennsylvania volunteer, stationed at Matamoros late in the war, wrote:
We are under very strict discipline here. Some of our officers are very good men but the balance of them are very tyrannical and brutal toward the men… [T]onight on drill an officer laid a soldier’s skull open with his sword.. .. But the time may come and that soon when officers and men will stand on equal footing. … A soldier’s life is very disgusting.
Paragraph 90 0Paragraph 90, Sentence 2 0Feb 10Yamile B Yamile B : It's disturbing to even imagine seeing all the deaths and assaults and on top of that, the soldiers were still mistreated by some of their officers.Feb 22Vivianne L Vivianne L : I agree this is disturbing to hear about. The soldiers were fighting alongside America but were being harmed too.
On the night of August 15, 1847, volunteer regiments from Virginia, Mississippi, and North Carolina rebelled in northern Mexico against Colonel Robert Treat Paine. Paine killed a mutineer, but two of his lieutenants refused to help him quell the mutiny. The rebels were ultimately exonerated in an attempt to keep the peace.
Desertion grew. In March 1847 the army reported over a thousand deserters. The total number of deserters during the war was 9,207: 5,331 regulars, 3,876 volunteers. Those who did not desert became harder and harder to manage. General Gushing referred to sixty-five such men in the 1st Regiment of the Massachusetts Infantry as “incorrigibly mutinous and insubordinate.”
The glory of the victory was for the President and the generals, not the deserters, the dead, the wounded. The Massachusetts Volunteers had started with 630 men. They came home with 300 dead, mostly from disease, and at the reception dinner on their return their commander, General Gushing, was hissed by his men.
As the veterans returned home, speculators immediately showed up to buy the land warrants given by the government. Many of the soldiers, desperate for money, sold their 160 acres for less than $50.
Mexico surrendered. There were calls among Americans to take all of Mexico. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed February 1848, just took half. The Texas boundary was set at the Rio Grande; New Mexico and California were ceded. The United States paid Mexico $15 million, which led the Whig Intelligencer to conclude that “we take nothing by conquest…. Thank God.”
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