POLK'S ADMINISTRATION AND THE MEXICAN WAR, 1845-49.
President Polk was a native of North Carolina. In boyhood he removed
with his father to Tennessee, and in 1839 rose to the position of
governor of that State. At the head of his cabinet he placed James
Buchanan of Pennsylvania.
[Sidenote: Causes of Mexican War.]
2. A war with Mexico was at hand. On the 4th of July, 1845, the Texan
legislature ratified the act of annexation. The Mexican minister at
Washington immediately left the country. The authorities of Texas
sent an urgent request to the President to dispatch an army for their
protection. Accordingly, General Zachary Taylor was ordered to march
thither from Louisiana. Texas claimed the Rio Grande as her western
limit, while Mexico was determined to have the Nueces as the separating
line. The government of the United States resolved to support the claim
of Texas. General Taylor was sent to the mouth of the Nueces, and in
January, 1846, he moved forward to the mouth of the Rio Grande, and
built Fort Brown.
[Illustration: James K. Polk.]
[Sidenote: Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma.]
3. On the 26th of April a company of American dragoons was attacked by
the Mexicans, _east of the Rio Grande_, and was obliged to surrender.
This was the first bloodshed of the war. General Taylor hastened to
Point Isabel and strengthened the defenses. This done, he set out with
a provision-train and an army of two thousand men to return to Fort
Brown. Meanwhile, the Mexicans had crossed the Rio Grande and taken a
position at Palo Alto. On the 8th of May the Americans came in sight
and joined battle. After a severe engagement the Mexicans were driven
from the field.
4. On the following day General Taylor resumed his march, and came
upon the Mexicans again at a place called Resaca de la Palma. Here the
enemy fought better than on the previous day. The American lines were
severely galled until Captain May's dragoons charged through a storm
of grape-shot, rode over the Mexican batteries, and captured La Vega,
the commanding general. The Mexicans, abandoning their guns, fled in a
general rout.
[Sidenote: War Declared.]
5. When the news from the Rio Grande was borne through the Union, the
war spirit was everywhere aroused. On the 11th of May, 1846, Congress
made a declaration of war. The President was authorized to accept
fifty thousand volunteers, and ten million dollars was placed at his
disposal. Nearly three hundred thousand men rushed forward to enter the
ranks.
6. The American forces were organized in three divisions: THE ARMY OF
THE WEST, under General Kearny, to cross the Rocky Mountains against
the northern Mexican provinces; THE ARMY OF THE CENTER, under General
Scott as commander-in-chief, to march from the Gulf coast into the
heart of the enemy's country; THE ARMY OF OCCUPATION, under General
Taylor, to hold the districts on the Rio Grande.
[Sidenote: Monterey.]
7. Ten days after the battle of Resaca de la Palma General Taylor
captured Matamoras, and in August laid siege to Monterey. On the 21st
of September the Americans carried the heights in the rear of the
town. The Bishop's Palace was taken by storm on the following day. On
the 23d the city was successfully assaulted in front. The American
storming parties charged into the town; hoisted the victorious flag of
the Union; turned upon the buildings where the Mexicans were concealed;
charged up dark stairways to the flat roofs of the houses; and drove
the enemy to a surrender.
[Illustration: John Charles Fremont.]
8. General Santa Anna was now called home from Havana to take the
presidency of Mexico. A Mexican army of twenty thousand men was sent
into the field. General Taylor again moved forward, and on the 15th
of November captured the town of Saltillo. Victoria, a city in the
province of Tamaulipas, was taken by General Patterson.
9. In June of 1846 the Army of the West, led by General Kearny, set out
from Fort Leavenworth for the conquest of New Mexico and California.
After a wearisome march he reached Santa Fé, and on the 18th of August
captured the city. With four hundred dragoons Kearny continued his
march toward the Pacific coast to find that California had already been
subdued.
[Sidenote: Conquest of California.]
10. For four years Colonel John C. Fremont had been exploring the
country west of the Rocky Mountains. In California he received
dispatches informing him of the war with Mexico, and began to urge the
people of California to declare their independence. A campaign was
begun to overthrow the Mexican authority. Meanwhile, Commodore Sloat
had captured the town of Monterey, on the coast. A few days afterward
Commodore Stockton took San Diego. Before the end of summer the whole
of California was subdued. On the 8th of January, 1847, the Mexicans
were decisively defeated in the battle of San Gabriel, by which the
authority of the United States was completely established.
[Sidenote: Buena Vista.]
11. General Scott now arrived in Mexico and ordered the Army of
Occupation to join him on the Gulf for the conquest of the capital.
This left Taylor and Wool in a critical condition at Monterey; for
Santa Anna was advancing against them with twenty thousand men. General
Taylor was able to concentrate at Saltillo an effective force of but
four thousand eight hundred. At the head of this small army he chose a
battlefield at Buena Vista. On the 23d of February the battle began.
Against tremendous odds the field was fairly won by the Americans.
The Mexicans, having lost nearly two thousand men, made a precipitate
retreat.
[Sidenote: Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo.]
12. On the 9th of March, 1847, General Scott, with twelve thousand
men, landed to the south of Vera Cruz, and invested the city. On the
morning of the 22d a cannonade was begun. On the waterside, Vera
Cruz was defended by the castle of San Juan d'Ulloa. For four days
the bombardment continued without cessation. An assault was already
planned, when the authorities of the city proposed capitulation. On the
27th the American flag was raised over Vera Cruz.
13. The route to the capital was now open. On the 12th of the month
General Twiggs came upon Santa Anna, with fifteen thousand men, on the
heights of Cerro Gordo. On the 18th, the American army advanced to
the assault; and before noonday every position of the Mexicans had
been successfully stormed. Nearly three thousand prisoners were taken,
together with forty-three pieces of bronze artillery.
[Illustration: Operations in Mexico.]
14. On the next day the victorious army entered Jalapa. The strong
castle of Perote was taken without resistance. Turning southward,
General Scott next entered the ancient city of Puebla, no opposition
being encountered. Scott here waited for reinforcements from Vera Cruz.
On the 7th of August General Scott began his march upon the capital.
The army swept through the passes of the Cordilleras to look down on
the VALLEY OF MEXICO.
[Sidenote: The City of Mexico.]
15. The city of Mexico could be approached only by causeways leading
across marshes and the beds of bygone lakes. At the ends of these
causeways were massive gates strongly defended. To the left were
Contreras, San Antonio, and Molino del Rey. Directly in front were the
powerful defences of Churubusco and Chapultepec.
16. On the 20th of August Generals Pillow and Twiggs stormed the
Mexican position at Contreras. A few hours afterwards General Worth
carried San Antonio. General Pillow led a column against one of the
heights of Churubusco; and after a terrible assault the position was
carried. General Twiggs stormed another height of Churubusco. Still
another victory was achieved by Generals Shields and Pierce, who
defeated Santa Anna's reserves.
[Illustration: Scott's Army Entering the City of Mexico.]
17. On the morning after the battles the Mexican authorities came out
to negotiate. General Scott rejected their proposals. On the 8th of
September General Worth stormed the western defences of Chapultepec,
and on the 13th that citadel itself was carried by storm.
18. On the following morning forth came a deputation from the city
to beg for mercy; but General Scott, tired of trifling, turned them
away with contempt. "Forward!" was the order that rang along the lines
at sunrise. The war-worn regiments swept into the famous city, and
at seven o'clock the flag of the Union floated over the halls of the
Montezumas.
19. On leaving his capital, Santa Anna turned about to attack the
hospitals at Puebla. Here eighteen hundred sick men had been left
in charge of Colonel Childs. A gallant resistance was made by the
garrison, until General Lane, on his march to the capital, fell upon
the besiegers and scattered them. It was the closing stroke of the war.
[Sidenote: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.]
20. The military power of Mexico was completely broken. In the winter
of 1847-48, American ambassadors met the Mexican Congress at Guadalupe
Hidalgo, and on the 2d of February a treaty was concluded. By the terms
of settlement the boundary-line between Mexico and the United States
was established on the Rio Grande from its mouth to the southern limit
of New Mexico; thence westward along the southern, and northward along
the western boundary of that territory to the Gila; thence down that
river to the Colorado; thence westward to the Pacific. New Mexico
and Upper California were relinquished to the United States. Mexico
guaranteed the free navigation of the Gulf of California and the river
Colorado. The United States agreed to surrender all places in Mexico,
to pay that country fifteen million dollars, and to assume all debts
due from Mexico to American citizens.
[Sidenote: California and Wisconsin Admitted.]
21. A few days after the signing of the treaty, a laborer, employed by
Captain Sutter on the American fork of Sacramento River, in California,
_discovered some pieces of gold in the sand_. The news went flying to
the ends of the world. Men thousands of miles away were crazed with
excitement. From all quarters adventurers came flocking. Before the
end of 1850, San Francisco had grown to be a city of fifteen thousand
inhabitants. In September of that year, California was admitted into
the Union; and by the close of 1852, the State had a population of more
than a quarter of a million.
22. In 1848 Wisconsin was admitted into the Union. The new commonwealth
came with a population of two hundred and fifty thousand. Another
presidential election was already at hand. General Lewis Cass, of
Michigan, was nominated by the Democrats, and General Zachary Taylor by
the Whigs. As the candidate of the new Free Soil party, ex-President
Martin Van Buren was put forward. The memory of his recent victories
in Mexico made General Taylor the favorite with the people, and he was
elected by a large majority. As Vice-president, Millard Fillmore, of
New York, was chosen.