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(WAR between the U.S. and MEXICO -- continued)
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WAR between the U.S. and MEXICO (8 of 9)
At Vera Cruz
The U.S. Army at Chapultepec
In December, 1846, 856 Missourians, led by Alexander Doniphan, had left Santa Fe and skirmished against Mexicans at the Rio Grande, near El Paso. On February 28, fifteen miles north of Chihuahua, they fought a Mexican force, and the next day they rode into Chihuahua unopposed. In late May they joined Taylor's forces. Then, with their period of enlistment completed, they returned to Missouri.
Meanwhile, guerrilla forces were harassing Taylor's supply lines. Small armies of hacienda-owning warlords had entered the fighting, some of them hoping for independence from Mexico City. Some Mexicans in the north were interested in negotiations with the U.S. to that end. Some were interested in maintaining economic ties with the United States.
Fighting in the north was occasionally brutal, especially that conducted by Texas Rangers, who exercised a grudge against Mexicans and attacked with little regard for civilian lives or property. General Taylor complained that they were "too licentious" and in need of discipline.
Weakening Mexico's cause in the north was rebellion in the center-west of Mexico. The former president, Anastasio Bustamente, was put in command of an expedition that was supposed to counter U.S. intrusions into California, but before Bustamente's force got as far as Guadalajara insurrection intervened. And at Mazatlán, the port from which Bustamente's force was supposed to debark, civil war had erupted, making departure impossible and weakening Mexico farther north.
Mexico's acting president, Valentín Gómez Farías, remained in conflict with the Catholic Church. The Church in Mexico had been blessing troops before they went into battle, praying for a Mexican victory and organizing religious processions, but they were ignoring requests for donations of money. In Congress it was argued that the war effort could not continue without financial help from the Church, and Congress voted 46 to 32 to seize church property. Across Mexico and in the streets of Mexico City, priests and lay people protested. Criollo regiments in Mexico City revolted, and, because they were known to enjoy festivities and dancing the polka, it was called the Polko (sic) Rebellion. In the streets were leaflets reading "Death to Congress" and "Death to Farías." Farías mobilized a militia with which to combat the revolt, and the unrest continued into February, with newspapers on the side of the revolt. The government ordered the arrests of some military leaders. Moderates joined in opposing the government, and, on March 5, the government arrested the leader of the moderates, Gómez Pedraza. Santa Anna returned to Mexico City and ordered an end to hostilities. Farías resigned, complaining of broken health, and was replaced by a supporter of the Church, Pedro Anaya. And the Church extended two million pesos to Santa Anna in exchange for the repeal of anti-clerical laws.
On March 9, the U.S. landed a force of 12,000 under the command of General Winfield Scott. The landing was unopposed. U.S. forces asked the city of Vera Cruz to surrender, and following its refusal and four days of bombardment from land and U.S. ships, the U.S. captured the city, on March 28, with a loss for the U.S. of 20 killed.
On March 31, news of the invasion reached Mexico City -- twenty-two days after the event. A wave of patriotism swept through Mexico City, and it was decreed there that any Mexican who sought peace with U.S. troops on Mexican territory would be charged with treason. Santa Anna went eastward with a force to confront the U.S. invasion, hoping to hold the U.S. forces to the lowlands and exposure to the yellow fever.
The supplies that Scott was waiting for did not arrive, and rather than wait longer he left his First Infantry at Vera Cruz and moved the rest of his force inland, to a higher elevation and toward Mexico City. In mid April Scott and his army found Santa Anna's army waiting for them at a narrow pass by a hill known as Cerro Gordo. The Battle of Cerro Gordo began on April 17. Santa Anna had 32 artillery pieces, elite cavalry units and a total of about 12,000 men, for what has been viewed as the most important battle of the war.
Santa Anna did not array his forces well. Captain Robert E. Lee and his associates found a route around Santa Anna's flank. The attack from an unexpected direction and toward the rear of Santa Anna's army resulted in Scott's army capturing around 3,000 men and 43 heavy guns. Scott lost 63 killed and 353 wounded. An estimated 1,000 Mexicans were killed or wounded. The remainder of Santa Anna's army fled along the national roadway inland.
Santa Anna returned to Mexico City, where by now news had arrived that the Battle of Buena Vista, back in February, had not been the success that Santa Anna had described. But Santa Anna was still looked to as the only man who could save Mexico, and he was allowed to advance and to occupy the city of Puebla, on the national roadway between Vera Cruz and Mexico City.
Scott tried to treat the inhabitants of Puebla well, while he awaited reinforcements and supplies. Some of his force returned home, their enlistments over. In June an English delegation arrived at Scott's headquarters and announced Santa Anna's willingness to end the war. The message from Santa Anna was that it was essential that the U.S. advance no farther and that it send him $10,000 in cash so that he could influence the necessary people. The money was given to Santa Anna, but it was another ruse.
Reinforcements arrived and Scott drilled his troops until August 7, when he left a garrison force at Puebla and started for Mexico City with an army of 10,700 men. At Austerlitz, Napoleon entered battle with 68,000, against a combined Russian and Austrian force of 85,000. In Washington D.C. the war was being pursued with some mind to economy.
With about 7,000 infantry and youthful volunteers from Mexico, Santa Anna marched to a fortified hill seven miles east of the city -- El Penón. Scott's army swung to the south (around Lake Chalco and Lake Xochimilco), and Santa Anna hastily repositioned his forces and relocated his headquarters at a monastery at Churubusco, five miles south of Mexico City. Santa Anna still had some hope in his cavalry, although the cavalry was ineffective against a standing line of riflemen. Santa Anna's cannon were antiquated, the powder they used was of poor quality and the gunners inadequately trained. The weapons of his infantry were discards from Europe.
On August 20 a major battle ensued. With Santa Anna were 204 deserters from the U.S. Army, mostly Irish Catholics who had decided that this was in part at least a religious war -- Catholics against Protestants. They formed what was called the Batallón San Patricio (Saint Patrick's Battalion) and are said to have rebelled against abusive treatment by Protestant officers. Among Protestant citizens of the United States the war against Mexico had inflamed some anti-Catholic passions.
Scott's force feigned a frontal attack in one area while others swung around toward the rear of Santa Anna's force. Santa Anna was demonstrating again that he was something less than a gifted tactician. Scott lost 60 dead and wounded. His force counted 813 prisoners taken, including four generals. An estimate of Mexican casualties is 700.
Among the prisoners taken were men of the St. Patrick's Battalion. Military trials were held and 70 of them sentenced to death. General Scott pardoned five of them and reduced the sentences of fifteen others to fifty lashes and the letter D (for desertion) branded on their cheek. The remaining fifty were hanged on September 12.
On September 13, Scott's army reached Chapultepec Castle -- the Halls of Montezuma (Moctezuma) -- two miles southwest of the city. A force of 832 National Guardsmen made a stand there, joined by 43 cadets from a military academy there, some as young as thirteen. Rather than surrender, the cadets fought to their deaths, and September 13 was to be a day celebrated every year in Mexico, the Day of the Boy Heroes of Chapultepec.
Members of a city council negotiated with General Scott, and a guarantee for the safety of the people of Mexico City was established, but it came to naught as outraged Mexicans launched attacks against U.S. forces as they entered the city and U.S. forces fired back in self-defense. Late on the second day in the city (September 15), the U.S. forces celebrated their victory, with music and alcohol, while civilians were tending their dead. Soon, business-starved shopkeepers in Mexico City opened their coffee shops, photography studios, dance and pool halls and other manner of commerce with U.S. soldiers.
Santa Anna had fled with an army of around 9,000, intending to carry on the war, to attack the U.S. garrison at Puebla and to cut Scott's supply line. But before he reached Puebla his demoralized army disintegrated. Guerrilla operations continued against Scott's lines of supply but dwindled by November -- the month that the U.S. Navy captured Mazatlán and the port town of Guaymas. Santa Anna took up residence in the town of Tehuacán, and there, on January 23, 350 Texas Rangers arrived intending to capture Santa Anna, to exact revenge upon him for the Alamo. But Santa Anna had fled two hours before their arrival, and soon the U.S. gave him safe passage into exile -- to Jamaica.
A provisional government had been established at Querétaro, about 100 miles northwest of Mexico City, with a former chief justice of Mexico's Supreme Court, Manuel de la Peña, as interim president -- while some states remained in rebellion against the central government and some, including monarchists, wanted to continue fighting the United States. In November enough support was given to the national government that a quorum was considered to have been obtained and legitimacy established, allowing Peña's government to move toward a settlement with the United States.
Negotiations began in January, and on February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed. Those who had wanted the United States to acquire Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila and other northern states, and Yucatán, were disappointed. But from Mexico the United States won recognition as having Alto California, New Mexico and Texas to the Rio Grande. Mexico was given a guarantee of rights for the people who had been living in these areas and loyal to Mexico. The U.S. agreed to prevent attacks by Indians across the new border into Mexico. Mexico was agreeing to giving up a good percentage of its territory, and although the United States was virtually dictating the terms of the settlement it wanted to give Mexico something and agreed to pay 15 million dollars for damages, to assume responsibility for 3 million dollars in claims against Mexico by U.S. citizens and to relieve Mexico of its monetary debt to the United States. The U.S. President received the signed treaty on February 19. Mexico's Congress went into session in May and ratified the treaty. And that month so did the U.S. Congress -- a treaty that was to remain active into the twenty-first century.
In the war, the United States lost 1,721 killed and 11,550 deaths from other causes, mainly disease, and the war cost the federal government 100,000,000 in 1848 dollars.
Copyright © 2009-2010 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.