OUR WAR WITH MEXICO.
On the 18th of June, 1846, A. W. Doniphan was elected colonel of the
regiment that he commanded in the Mexican War. In his speech at
Independence, Jackson County, Mo., on July 29, 1837, he declared he had
not been a candidate for office for seven years, and did not expect to
be for the next seventy years to come. The passage by the American
Congress of the resolutions of annexation, by which the republic of
Texas was incorporated into the Union as one of the States, having
merged her sovereignty into that of our own Government, was the prime
cause which led to the war with Mexico. However, the more immediate
cause of the war may be traced to the occupation by the American army of
the strip of disputed territory lying between the Nueces and the Rio
Grande.
Bigoted and insulting, Mexico was always prompt to manifest her
hostility toward this Government, and sought the earliest plausible
pretext for declaring war against the United States. This declaration of
war by the Mexican government, which bore date in April, 1846, was
quickly and spiritedly followed by a manifesto from our Congress at
Washington, announcing that a state of war existed between Mexico and
the United States. Soon after this counter declaration, the Mexicans
crossed the Rio Grande in strong force, headed by the famous generals,
Arista and Ampudia. This force, as is well known, was defeated at Palo
Alto on the 18th, and at Resaca de la Palma on May 9, 1846, by the
troops under command of Major-General Taylor, and repulsed with great
slaughter. The whole Union was in a state of intense excitement. General
Taylor's recent and glorious victories were the constant theme of
universal admiration. The war had actually begun; and that, too, in a
manner which demanded immediate action. The United States Congress
passed an act about the middle of May, 1846, authorizing President Polk
to call into the field 50,000 volunteers designed to operate against
Mexico at three distinct points, namely: The southern wing, or the "Army
of Occupation," commanded by Major-General Taylor, to penetrate directly
into the heart of the country; the column under Brigadier-General Wool,
or the "Army of the Center," to operate against the city of Chihuahua;
and the expedition under the command of Colonel (afterward
Brigadier-General) Kearney, known as the "Army of the West," to direct
its march upon the city of Santa Fé. This was the original plan of
operations against Mexico, but subsequently the plan was changed.
Major-General Scott, with a well-appointed army, was sent to Vera Cruz,
General Wool effected a junction with General Taylor at Saltillo, and
General Kearney divided his force into three separate commands; the
first he led in person to the distant shores of the Pacific. A
detachment of nearly eleven hundred Missouri volunteers, under command
of Col. A. W. Doniphan, was ordered to make a descent upon the State of
Chihuahua, expecting to join General Wool's division at the capital,
while the greater part was left as a garrison at Santa Fé, under command
of Col. Sterling Price. The greatest eagerness was manifested by the
citizens of the United States to engage in the war, to redress our
wrongs, to repel an insulting foe, and to vindicate our national honor
and the honor of our oft-insulted flag.
The call of the President was promptly responded to, but of the 50,000
volunteers at first authorized to be raised, the service of about 17,000
only were required. The cruel and inhuman butchery of Colonel Fannin and
his men, all Americans, the subsequent and indiscriminate murder of all
Texans who unfortunately fell into Mexican hands; the repeated acts of
cruelty and injustice perpetrated upon the persons and property of
American citizens residing in the northern Mexican provinces; the
imprisonment of American merchants without the semblance of a trial by
jury, and the forcible seizure and confiscation of their goods; the
robbing of American travelers and tourists in the Mexican country of
their passports and other means of safety, whereby they were in certain
instances deprived of their liberty for a time; the forcible detention
of American citizens, sometimes in prison and other times in free
custody; the recent blockade of the Mexican ports against the United
States trade; the repeated insults offered our national flag; the
contemptuous ill treatment of our ministers, some of whom were spurned
with their credentials; the supercilious and menacing air uniformly
manifested toward the Government, which with characteristic forbearance
and courtesy had endeavored to maintain a friendly understanding;
Mexico's hasty and unprovoked declaration of war against the United
States; the army's unceremonious passage of the Rio Grande in strong
force and with hostile intentions; her refusal to pay indemnities, and a
complication of lesser evils, all of which had been perpetrated by the
Mexican authorities, or by unauthorized Mexican citizens, in a manner
which clearly evinced the determination on the part of Mexico to
terminate the amicable relations hitherto existing between the two
countries, were the causes which justified the war.
On the 18th day of August, 1846, after a tiresome march of nearly 900
miles in less than fifty days, General Kearney with his whole command
entered Santa Fé, the capital of the province of New Mexico, and took
peaceable possession of the country, without the loss of a single man or
shedding a drop of blood, in the name of the United States, and planted
the American flag in the public square, where the stars and stripes and
eagle streamed above the Palacio Grande, or stately residence of
ex-Governor Armigo.
On the 29th of July, 1847, Captain Ruff was dispatched by General Smith
with a squadron composed of one company of the Second Dragoons under
Lieutenant Hawes and his own company of mounted riflemen, in all
eighty-six men, to attack the town of San Juan de los Llanos. In this
engagement the Mexicans lost forty-three killed and fifty wounded. Only
one American was wounded and none killed. At the battle of San Pascual,
on the morning of the 6th of December, General Kearney commanding, with
Captains Johnson, Moore, and Hammond as principal aids, drove the enemy
from the field. Loss not known. American loss, seventeen killed and
fourteen wounded. On the 5th of November, 1846, a small detachment of
forty-five volunteers, commanded by Captains Thompson and Burrows, met
and totally defeated 200 Californians on the plains of Salinas, near
Monterey. American loss, four killed and two wounded. On the 8th of
January General Kearney and Commodore Stockton, with 500 men, met the
insurgents, 600 strong, to dispute the passage of the river San Gabriel.
This action lasted one hour and a half. The next day the Mexicans were
again repulsed. Their loss on both days estimated in killed and wounded
not less than eighty-five; American, two killed and fifteen wounded. A
battle commanded by Doniphan was fought on Christmas day at Brazito,
twenty-five miles from El Paso. Mexican loss was seventy-one killed,
five prisoners, and 150 wounded, among them their commanding general,
Ponce de Leon. The Americans had none killed and eight wounded. On the
27th the city of El Paso was taken possession of without further
opposition. On the 13th a battle with the Indians occurred. Americans
lost none; Indians had seventeen killed and not less than twenty-five
wounded. On the 19th of January, Governor Bent was murdered with his
retinue. On the 24th Colonel Rice encountered the enemy. Our loss was
two killed and seven wounded. The Mexicans acknowledged a loss of
thirty-six killed and forty-five prisoners. On the 3d of February, met
the enemy at Pueblo de Taos. The total loss of the Mexicans at the three
engagements was 282 killed--wounded unknown. Our total was fifteen
killed and forty-seven wounded. On the 24th, in an engagement at Las
Vegas, the enemy had twenty-five killed, three wounded; our loss, one
killed, three wounded. At Red River Cañon we were vigorously attacked by
a large body of Mexicans and Indians; Americans lost one killed and
several wounded; Mexicans and Indians, seventeen killed, wounded not
known. At Las Vegas Major Edmondson charged the town; there were ten
Mexicans slain and fifty prisoners taken. On the 9th of July a
detachment of Captain Morin's company was attacked; five of our men
killed and nine wounded. On the 26th of June Lieutenant Love was
attacked and surrounded by Indians; they cut their way through with a
loss of eleven; the Indians lost twenty-five. On the 27th of October
Captain Mann's train was attacked; American loss, one killed, four
wounded; Indian loss not known.