Texas
Day Trip to Palo Alto Battlefield just North of Brownsville, Texas
February 12, 2010
Yesterday we did chores around the house and then rested.
Bob and Patty rest after completing chores
It's a dog's life
Today we took a trip to the National Historic Site at Palo Alto Battlefield just north of Brownsville, Texas.
We had decided not to go to Brownsville because the locals here in Harlingen tell us it is very dangerous down there. However, we looked the Battlefield up on our GPS unit and it erroneously directed us to a Walgreen store in downtown Brownsville, so we ended up in Brownsville after all. Once there, Bob went into the store to ask directions. Inside he spotted an Army General so he asked him where the Battlefield is and the General kindly directed us about five miles north to the Battlefield.
We drove north to the Battlefield.
After watching a short but informative movie about the Battle, we walked out onto the Battlefield. Pretty cool.
On the Battlefield
I am amazed at what I don’t know about the Mexican-American War. I remember studying it a bit in history in high school, but I obviously didn’t pay much attention.
Originally, settlers who moved into southern lands swore allegiance to Mexico. Eventually, however, those who lived in Texas rebelled and fought for independence from Mexico. Texas won independence from Mexico in 1836. What I didn’t know is that the southern border of the Republic of Texas was along the Nueces River which empties into the Nueces Bay at Corpus Christi.
When the Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845, the U.S. President James K. Polk claimed a boundary along the Rio Grande (then known as the Rio Bravo del Norte). President Polk had campaigned for president with a pledge to extend the United States to the Pacific Ocean, and the addition of the Republic of Texas as the 28th state represented a major step toward that goal. However, even though Texas had severed ties with Mexico in 1836, many Mexican leaders refused to recognize its independence. They denounced the U.S.’s move as an attack on Mexico. Even those who had accepted the loss of Texas bristled at the claim that the Rio Grande formed the boundary of the new state.
In the summer of 1845, Polk sent an envoy to Mexico City to negotiate an agreement between the two countries. At the same time, he ordered General Zachary Taylor to lead a 4,000-man army to Corpus Christi. The official word was that Taylor’s troops were being sent there to defend against Mexican invasion, but it was also a show of force designed to convince the Mexican government to accept the loss of Texas and agree to the Rio Grande boundary. Polk also wanted to buy the territories between Texas and the Pacific Ocean from Mexico.
The tactic failed. Mexican leaders expelled the U.S. envoy out of Mexico and announced that they would discuss nothing but the return of Texas. Polk then ordered General Taylor to move onward to claim the Rio Grande. Taylor led his troops south to occupy the banks of the Rio Grande River north of the Mexican city of Matamoros. He constructed Fort Texas there (later changed to Fort Brown after Major Jacob Brown who died while defending it). Mexican General Paredes sent thousand of troops to Matamoros and appointed General Mariano Arista to command his army there.
Meanwhile back in Washington, many were challenging Polk’s claims to the Rio Grande boundary. Polk realized that moving troops across the Rio Grande or initiating conflict might turn the American public against him. Instead, he ordered Taylor to wait for Mexican forces to cross the Rio Grande so that he could then claim that they had attacked American territory. Oh, that wily President Polk….
He didn’t have to wait long. Taylor had sent a scouting unit of 63 men out west of Fort Texas to a small settlement called Rancho de Carricitos. Arista, believing that Taylor’s entire army was on the move, ordered troops across the Rio Grande to confront the Americans. The 63-man scout party found themselves surrounded by 1,600 Mexican soldiers. In a brief skirmish, eleven U.S. soldiers were killed and most of the rest were taken captive.
That was just what Polk needed. Upon learning of the skirmish, Polk announced that Mexico had “shed American blood upon American soil.” Although not all legislators agreed, Congress voted to declare war. This is how on May 13, 1846, two years after Polk had declared the intention to peacefully acquire land to the Rio Grande, the United States and Mexico entered into a two-year war.
Taylor marched most of his army to Point Isabel (just across from South Padre Island) on the Gulf of Mexico to wait for ships carrying supplies needed in order to withstand a long siege. Taylor left 550 men at Fort Texas under the command of Major Jacob Brown to defend the post until his return. While Taylor was gone, Arista arrayed his men around the post and ordered his artillery to open fire.
Taylor knew that his fort was under fire. After gathering supplies and ammunition, he and his men set out with 2,300 troops and 200 supply wagons to make the 25-mile trek to break the siege at Fort Texas. General Arista watched Taylor’s moves carefully. On the morning of May 8, 1846, Arista positioned 3,200 troops at the halfway point of the road where it crossed broad plan at Palo Alto.
Although Arista had the advantage in troop numbers and they carried a large number of cannons into the field, Taylor’s troops were better trained. They carried newer rifles and their “Flying Artillery” possessed cannons with greater range that fired a variety of multiple-shot projectiles. The U.S. 18-pounder siege cannons dominated the battle and pounded Arista’s lines with exploding shot. The Mexican ranks were decimated.
Bob with 18-pounder cannon
Mexican cannon
U.S. Cannon in the field
Mexican efforts to mount cavalry charges to the U.S. flanks were turned back by the maneuverable and quick-firing “Flying Artillery” of Major Samuel Ringgold and Captain James Duncan. The Mexican soldiers held their ground, but after a four-hour battle in the late afternoon the Mexican toll was 100 dead and 125 wounded. Taylor’s force counted only 9 killed and 17 wounded.
“I was anxious to charge because the cannon fire was tearing at our ranks. I ordered General Anastacio Torrejon to attack from the left with the greater part of our cavalry, expecting to open the way for a second strike from the right – using infantry and the rest of the cavalry. I waited for Torrejon to complete his charge, but he was stopped by an opposing force that defended a marshy ravine and turned back the attack.” Mariano Arista, General, Mexican Army
Eight hundred lancers formed to charge….On they came – but when they had got within about 40 yards, the front of the square attacked, poured in its volley of buckshot and balls, and horses, officers, and….lancers were brought to the ground. Napoleon Dana, Lieutenant, U.S. Army
“The gunners went into it more like butchers than military men; each man stripped off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, and tied his suspenders around his waist; they all wore red flannel shirts and therefore were in uniform. To see them limbering and unlimbering, firing a few shots, then dashing through the smoke, and then to fire again with lightning-like rapidity, partly hid from view by dense clouds of smoke, with their dark-red shirts and naked arms, yelling at every shot they made, reminded me of a band of demons rather than of men. ” C.M. Reeves, Corporal, U.S. Army
To make an already long story short, this battle was over but the war continued for months. After many disastrous defeats by the Mexican forces, on September 14, 1847, Mexico City fell to the U.S. army lead by General Winfield Scott. A few months later, the two nations signed a peace treaty at Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the war.
Although some American’s felt we should keep the land we had conquered, it was agreed that we would retain that which we had claimed before the war. Mexico’s leaders faced the painful task of renouncing claims to Texas and accepting the Rio Grande as the boundary. They also sold us vast stretches of land for $15 million. That land became our southern most states of New Mexico, Arizona and California.
Out on the Battlefield it was interesting to see pictures of how the Battle shaped up and to actually see the places where the battle took place. We walked under a line of Mexican flags that respresent where the Mexican Army waited for Taylor to approach. A line of U.S. flags shows where Taylor stopped and prepared to fight. It was too far in the distance for us to walk.
Map of the Palo Alto Battlefield
A line of Mexican flags show where the Mexican Army waited for Taylor
The line of U.S. flags in the distance show where the U.S. Army halted and prepared to fight
Strategic map of the Battle
U.S. cannons in the distance
The Battlefield as it looks today
It was a most interesting day. I realized how little I knew about the Mexican-American War, and for that matter about President Polk.
