In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

ONE .TWAS MID-AUGUST, 1846, when Brigadier General Stephen Watts Kearny led his confident American forces into the ancient capital of Santa Fe, bringing an old era to an end and inaugurating a new one. Since 1610, Santa Fe had been the center of a Spanish civilization established in the Southwestern wilderness and imposed upon Indian cultures ranging from primitive nomadic tribes to more sedentary Pueblos. Kearny's conquest brought a dramatic change, far more drastic than the one that had occurred as a result of Mexican independence . For now the energetic, aggressive Anglo-American civilization would be grafted on the aged and somewhat lethargic Spanish and Indian ones. The Mexican War unofficially began on April 25, 1846, when a Mexican force of 1,600 men attacked some sixty-three American dragoons in the disputed area between the Rio Grande and Nueces rivers. In the encounter there were American casualties and Americans taken prisoner, so that when the alarming news reached Washington on May 9, the expansion -minded president, James Knox Polk, could deliver a war message with all the indignation of a victim of wanton aggression. In actuality, however, Polk in consultation with his cabinet had already decided to goto war.1 Relations between the two countries had been deteriorating for several years. The instability of the Mexican government had resulted in loss of American property in the troubled country amounting to $8,000,000. The annexation of Texas wasbitterly resented in Mexico City. Then there was the rejection of the Slidell mission on December 20, 1845. The Mexican i i Conquest & Military Rule 2 NEW MEXICO'S QUEST FOR STATEHOOD government, sensing an overpoweringdesire on the part of its expanding northern neighbor to acquire by purchase much of Mexico's northern domain , refused to discuss with John Slidell, the special presidential envoy, any question except the annexation of Texas, which was already regarded as a closed matter by the United States. Polk followed up this famous rebuff by dispatching a force under the command of General Zachary Taylor to the Rio Grande. Taylor not only occupied territory claimed by Mexico but blockaded the river so as to prevent supplies from reaching the Mexican town of Matamoros on the other side. Polk apparently had hoped for a quick Mexican response to this move, but when the weeks passed without a skirmish he decided to launch a war which would, in effect , acquire those vast Mexican holdings we wished to purchase. The clash in April onlyadded righteousness to the cause. The response to Folk's war messagewas decisive. Soon after its delivery, the Senate voted 40 to 2 for war with Mexico, while the House approved 174to 14. Congress also voted a $10,000,000 appropriation to support the war and authorized the recruitment of 50,000 volunteers. But even while this action wasbeing taken, hostilities were in process. The Mexican commander , General Mariano Arista, had crossed the Rio Grande and had engaged Taylor's forces in battle from May 8 to 13at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, but was defeated in both encounters. The victorious Taylor then crossed the river and seized control of Matamoros and began an invasion of northern Mexico which reached its first major climax at the crucial battle of Monterrey in September. In the meantime, Polk and his cabinet had decided on an invasion of Mexican territory north of the Rio Grande. Kearny, then only a colonel, was instructed to muster his "Army of the West" at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. A respected officer and rigid disciplinarian, Kearny had been serving on the frontier almost continually since 1819. In 1833, his years of service had been recognized by his elevation to lieutenant colonel of the newly organized First Dragoon Regiment, often regarded as the forerunner of the United States Cavalry. Many subsequent expeditions into the frontier regions west of the Mississippi marked him as a natural leader for such a western invasion. Consequently, he was elevated on June 30to the rank ofbrigadier general, and on the same daydeparted for Santa Fe.2 What the result of this American conquest would be no one knew for certain. A few Americans, of course, envisioned some type of union with the United States, and the Hispano3 majority wasno doubt apprehensive on that score. But at this point, American policy, at least officially, wasone of righteous indignation. Mexico has "shed American blood upon the American soil," repeated Folk's Secretary of State, James Buchanan,4 in a [3...

Share