Desperate Stand: The Battle of Buena Vista (review)

In the opening weeks of 1847, General Zachary Taylor's army had a firm hold on northeastern Mexico. Taylor had won major victories in the opening months of the Mexican-American War in 1846, and he held the important Mexican towns of Matamoros, Camargo, Monterrey, and Saltillo. However, at the dawn of the new year the war's focus was shifting south to an invasion of central Mexico by another army under General Winfield Scott. To meet manpower needs the War Department transferred many of Taylor's men to Scott's army and ordered the former to remain in a defensive posture. With numbers reduced to under 5,000, Taylor's army, now mostly volunteer troops, was in a precarious position.

As soon as General Antonio López de Santa Anna discovered Taylor's situation, he marched his army 280 miles north in an attempt to break the Americans' grip on northern Mexico. The two armies clashed seven miles south of Saltillo near the hacienda of Buena Vista on 23 February 1847. With a numerical advantage of three to one, Santa Anna launched repeated attacks against the American center and left flank. With the timely deployment of units and the skillful use of artillery, the Americans held on by a hair at day's end. Taylor's men were exhausted and near the breaking point, but so were the Mexicans, whose subsequent retreat gave Taylor the crowning victory of his military career. The battle not only propelled the American general to the White House but also made heroes of Jefferson Davis and Braxton Bragg.

In Desperate Stand: The Battle of Buena Vista, Stephen A. Carney provides a military primer on the engagement. This forty-page overview is one of several such studies published by the U.S. Army Center of Military History. Military historians who are familiar with the topic will find little that is new in this publication for it does not purport to be a thoroughly researched, analytical study, nor does it make original contributions to Mexican-American War scholarship. There are no citations and only a brief bibliography of six secondary sources labeled as "Further Readings." The work also lacks an index.

What this study does, however, is provide an excellent introduction to the battle for novices or history buffs who have little knowledge of the war with Mexico. More importantly, Desperate Stand is a solid starting point for young army officers who want to know more about tactics and military history in general. Carney provides a useful introductory essay on force structure and supply for both the United States and Mexican armies. He also does an excellent job of describing the terrain and explaining the impact of geography on the battlefield. Military personnel will be comfortable with terminology such as "center of gravity," "command and control," "order of battle," "unit cohesion," and "column formation," which the author incorporates throughout this brochure-length publication. Carney also appropriately gives General John E. Wool credit for ordering the disposition of American troops and for actually directing the army during the early stages of the battle.

There is no effort at story-telling here and no attempt to portray the human side of combat. It is rather a mechanical summary of the main events. However, for anyone interested in the basic facts or concerned with the tactical arrangement of forces, this is a good starting place.