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CAMPAIGNS IN THE AMERICAN WEST

While the crucial fighting was taking place in Mexico, various U.S. expeditions effected the conquest of Mexico's territories in the American Southwest.

Kearny in New Mexico

Immediately after the declaration of war, Brigadier General Stephen Watts Kearny, stationed at Fort Leavenworth, was ordered to occupy New Mexico and California. With an army consisting largely of Missouri volunteers and numbering fewer than 2,000 (though gloriously labeled the Army of the West), he moved down the Santa Fe Trail into New Mexico in July 1846. The Mexican governor was unable to rally any resistance, and Kearny entered Santa Fe unopposed on Aug. 18, 1846. The conquest of New Mexico had, in fact, taken place through peaceful trade and commerce in the preceding years.

General Stephen Watts Kearny

Kearny established a civil government with Charles Bent, a Santa Fe trader from Missouri, as governor. He then divided his command into three groups: one, under Sterling Price, was to occupy New Mexico; a second, under Alexander William Doniphan, was ordered to capture Chihuahua; the third, under his own command, headed for California. Price faced unrest and then rebellion in New Mexico in January 1847. Bent was murdered at his home in Taos. Price fought three engagements with rebels, many of whom were Pueblo Indians, and by mid-February had the revolt under control.

Drawing of Santa Fe, from Emory's report (National Archives)

Doniphan and the Missouri Volunteers struggled down the Rio Grande, suffering many privations along the route, to reach the vicinity of present El Paso, Tex., late in December 1846. On Christmas Day at El Brazito they were attacked by a small detachment of Mexicans who were easily routed. The Missourians rested at Paso del Norte (present Ciudad Juarez) until Feb. 8, 1847, when the march to Chihuahua City began. On February 28 the Americans won a decisive victory at the crossing of the Sacramento River just outside Chihuahua. Their casualties consisted of one killed and five wounded; Mexican losses were about 300 dead and another 300 wounded. In May, Doniphan took his command eastward to Saltillo to join Taylor's forces.

Passing San Felippe, New Mexico, from Emory's report. (National Archives)

Kearny set out for California on September 25 with only 300 dragoons. At Socorro, N. Mex., they met the famous guide Kit Carson, who was returning from California. Learning that the conquest of California was virtually complete, Kearny sent 200 of his men back to Santa Fe and, led by Carson, continued to California.

Conquest of California

The American settlers in California had revolted against Mexican rule and established (June 1846) the Bear Flag Republic, under John C. Fremont, before news of the war reached them. On July 2, U.S. Commodore John Drake Sloat landed at Monterey. He proclaimed U.S. jurisdiction on July 7 and two days later occupied San Francisco. However, California was by no means under U.S. control. Mexican authority in California was divided between two rivals, Pio Pico in Los Angeles and Jose Castro in Monterey. Following the American landing, Castro headed south, apparently to attempt reconciliation with Pico and resistance to the United States. However, Commodore Robert Stockton, who replaced Sloat on July 23, sailed down the coast and landed troops under Fremont at San Diego and others near Los Angeles. Pico and Castro fled on August 10.

Captain John Charles Fremont

Heavy-handed martial law administration precipitated a revolt in southern California in September. Led by Jose Maria Flores, the rebels had expelled the Americans from Los Angeles and San Diego by the end of October. On Dec. 6, 1846, Kearny, en route to San Diego, met the rebels in an indecisive action at the Battle of San Pascual. Joining Stockton, who had arrived at San Diego, Kearny defeated a rebel band near Los Angeles on the San Gabriel River on Jan. 8-9, 1847. On January 13, Fremont received the final surrender of the rebels and signed the Treaty of Cahuenga. At the end of the month another American expedition, "half naked and half fed," reached San Diego. The remnant of 500 Mormon volunteers under Phillip St. George Cooke, it had marched from Utah to Sante Fe and across scorching deserts in southern New Mexico and Arizona.

Reunion - The Journey Home
The Mormon Brigade, back from the War with Mexico; reunited with family members near Devil's Gate, Wyoming.

After a bitter dispute among Stockton, Fremont, and Kearny, the last established a provisional government in California. With California secure, the U.S. Navy attempted the conquest of Mexican ports on the Pacific, capturing Mazatlan (Nov. 11, 1847), Guaymas (Nov. 17, 1847), and San Blas (Jan. 12, 1848).

Additional Sources:

www.utep.edu
www.grunts.net
www.dmwv.org
www.npg.si.edu
www.arts-history
www.humanities-interactive.org
www.militarymuseum.org rip.physics.unk.edu
www.army.mil
www.diggerhistory.info
www.oldgloryprints.com
www.npg.si.edu
www.gagos.com
www.radicalmoderates.org

IMPACT OF THE WAR IN THE UNITED STATES

Despite the objections of the abolitionists, the war received enthusiastic support in all sections of the United States and was fought almost entirely by volunteers. The army swelled from just over 6,000 to over 115,000. Of this total approximately 1.5 percent were killed in the fighting, and nearly 10 percent died of disease; another 12 percent were wounded or discharged because of disease or both. For years afterward, Mexican War veterans continued to suffer from the debilitating diseases contracted during the campaigns. The casualty rate was thus easily over 25 percent for the 17 months of the war; the total casualties may have reached 35-40 percent if later injury- and disease-related deaths are added. In this respect the war was the most disastrous in American military history.

News from the Mexican War (Richard Woodville)

During the war political quarrels arose regarding the disposition of conquered Mexico. A strong "All-Mexico" movement urged annexation of the entire territory. Abolitionists opposed that position and fought for the exclusion of slavery from any territory absorbed by the United States. In 1847 the House of Representatives passed the Wilmot Proviso, stipulating that none of the territory acquired should be open to slavery. The Senate avoided the issue, and a late attempt to add it to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was defeated.

Mexico City

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was the unsatisfactory result of Nicholas Trist's unauthorized negotiations. It was reluctantly approved by the U.S. Senate on Mar. 10, 1848, and ratified by the Mexican Congress on May 25. Mexico's cession of California and New Mexico and its recognition of U.S. sovereignty over all Texas north of the Rio Grande formalized the addition of 3.1 million sq km (1.2 million sq mi) of territory to the United States. In return the United States agreed to pay $15 million and assumed the claims of its citizens against Mexico. A final territorial adjustment between Mexico and the United States was made by the Gadsden Purchase in 1853.

The War with Mexico is notable for a number of "firsts."

The first foreign war of the United States.
The first war anywhere in the world to be photographed.
The first war in which steamboats played an important role.
The first war in which newspaper correspondents regularly reported from battles.
The first war in which graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point participated.

Among these were a number of officers who would later face each other across the battlefields of the Civil War: Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Braxton Bragg, Ulysses S. Grant, George Meade, George McClellan, and William T. Sherman, and others.