Book Description
Popular historian Joseph Wheelan recounts James Polk’s strategy of last resort for prying California away from Mexico. He had tried to buy it; he had instructed his agents to encourage a settlers’ revolt. When these measures failed, the impatient president, while cynically condemning Mexico’s anger over America’s annexation of Texas, sent General Zachary Taylor’s army to the Rio Grande River, into territory that Mexico claimed as hers. By provocatively sending Taylor there, the president got his war — and, as bitter corollaries, the scathing criticism of congressional leaders on moral grounds, and Mexico’s lasting distrust of its powerful northern neighbor.
The Mexican War was America’s first truly modern war. Steamships ferried troops, daguerreotypes captured the spectacle of infantry and cavalry marching off to battle, newspapermen reported from the front lines for the first time, and telegraphs helped speed news of victories to eager readers back home. For the first time, large numbers of the regular Army’s field-grade officers were West Point-trained. Weapons technology advances such as the mobile field artillery, the Colt six-shooter and the Sharp’s Rifle gave the U.S. Army daunting firepower. These advantages ensured victory even when Mexican troops outnumbered Americans by as much as 4-to-1.
Customer Reviews:
A book that was a pleasure to read.......2007-09-11
While there are countless books on the civil war, not many that I have found cover the mexican war quite like this one. It's a page turner, you finish the book knowing more then you did before. Since the victors offten write the history this shows a little of the mexican point of view, not a lot but a bit. I am sure the Mexican point of view would be interesting to read. And what really happed somewhere in the middle. But this book does give insight that was lost in my history classes
Obviously lacking maps.......2007-08-26
The author reports that the Duke of Wellington avidly followed the progress of the Mexican War on a map on his library wall. It would have been useful if the author included this map. For a war that stretched from Kansas to California, from to New Orleans to Mexico City, from Santa Fe to San Diego, only a few inadequate and pitiful maps are included. Although I am reasonably familiar with the Southwest, I was constantly referring to an atlas trying to follow the narrative and almost gave up in frustration half-way through the book. I suggest you acquire a good atlas of the Southwest and Mexico if you buy this book.
Excellent Overview of a Forgotten Part of American History.......2007-07-28
For most history fans, the Mexican War is a dort of Terra Incognito between the War of 1812 and the Civil War. If people remember anything it was the impetus for Thoreau to write "Civil Disobedience", a land grab, or the training ground for future Civil War Generals. All of this is covered in Mr. Wheelan's excellent book.
He starts with what led to the war, Manifest Destiny and Polk taking up the mantle of Andrew Jackson. The sordid role of petty polictics could read like today's headlines. The author clearly outlines how the U.S. and Mexico never seriously tried negotiation prior to the war's outbreak. Mexico was still angry about loosing Texas and wanting to avenge his pride.
Wheelan discribes life in the 1840's and innovations like the penny press and its effect on society. He clearly tells how both the regular and volunteer armies were put together and led. The like of the common soldier is also well told. The campaigns are clearly laid out, but my only complaint is that there were too few maps.
As in some periods of warfare, the 2 major leaders, Winfield Scott and Zackery Taylor dispised each other and in almost every way were opposites. But there dislike for each other paled in comparison to their mutual dislike of Polk. There feeling with Polk were mutual. The Mexican part of the war is not neglected.
Overall, I feel that this book and Richard Winder's "Mr. Polk's Army" are 2 essential and complimentary books on understanding the significant but neglected part of American History.
Excellent book on the Mexican War.......2007-04-29
There aren't too many books dealing with the Mexican War of 1846-48, so when I saw this come out in hardcover I had to get it. It was worth the money. Covering the entire conflict, from the Texas Annexation and Slidell's mission to Mexico City to the aftermath of the peace treaty, from James Knox Polk's early career to Abraham Lincoln's rise to fame, from dynamic young republic on the rise to sectional conflict leading to the Civil War, this book covers it all.
The book reads like a novel in many ways. When a battle is covered, the action flows from one part of the field to another, and does so without confusing readers. There are also maps included -- not as many as one would like, but they are there, and the battle maps show positions and movements for people who like such things.
Reading Joe Wheelan's "Invading Mexico," I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the Mexican War of the 1840s and the Iraq War of the 2000s (or Vietnam in the 1960s-70s). Similarities such as the war being launched on questionable pretexts, debates in Congress about the unconstitutionality of the conflict, the antiwar movement in the public, issues of executive privilge, among others. Though not everything is a perfect or even a mediocre parallel, this is a good book to read as a mirror held up to reflect the age we live in right now.
Book Description
Eminent military historian John S.D. Eisenhower has written a highly readable and expert account of a war which--though frequently overlooked--tumed out to be the training ground for the American Civil War.
Customer Reviews:
A light in a dark point of United States history.......2006-07-11
I think that this is a good book about the yankee-mexican war. It shows the political and military problems in both sides, USA and Mexican, and also writes about personal histories, always interesting. It shows clearly also evident, that it's bad business to be neighbour of United States if your are not strong. The different ways of conduct of United States with England ( in Canada and Oregon problem) and with Mexico shows it clearly. Some things are difficult to believe , by example , that in a fight hand to hand only a yankee died and almost three hundred mexican did. but in general, I think that it's a good book for a first sight of that conquest war.
I remember a film of John Wayne which when he travels to mexican lands and a mexican in a horse come to give him wellcome, John Wayne shoot him and kill. That's the way the yankees ( not americans, because all habitants of America are americans, mexicans too ) did with every country that they can do it, Mexico, Spain ( Puerto Rico, Cuba , Filipinas, etc ), Colombia with Panama Channel, etc.
And it's very curious how this war is hide of United States films . If one see westerns films and about California, it seems a empty land and nobody knows that it was stealed to mexicans. Fortunately the time is changing and every year more and more mexican people live in that States and, who knows ? When United Stated would be not so strong, another countries made him like he did with others.
Anyway a good book that respect both fighters, only I miss a complete map with all the land stealed to Mexico ( almost a third of the country ) that reach Canada.
Understanding US and Mexican Relations Today.......2006-06-07
This book is a must for anyone trying to understand US and Mexican relations today. It is very well reserched yet readable. This period in US history was not one of our finer moments. We are doomed to regret and pay for the actions of our imperialism, in the name of Manifest Destiny, for generations to come.This book helps us understand why we still have a price to pay in 2006.
a book about the wonderful US Army.......2006-02-09
I had read other reviews about how this book is such a concise and accurate portrait of the US-Mexican American War but I thought it lopsided. He does describe in great detail the movements, strategies and people surrounding the U.S. Army but beyond this there is not much information. There is not much account of the Mexican side and for the most part the Mexican Army comes across as incompetent. Mexican victories in the war are barely examined. US Army conduct seems to be very civil when in fact there was much contempt for the Mexicans by some and many atrocities and civilian casualties. The US soldiers seem to develop a respect for the Mexicans and their cutlture if one judges from this book, enjoying the many "fandangos" along the way to the next battle. Motivations for the war are only shallowly examined. There is no mention of the valuable ports to be won in California, which Polk had set his eyes on. There is one sentence that refers casually to the San Patricio battalion of deserters who fought for the Mexican Army but there is no discussion as to why they deserted or a look at Army moral. He discusses occasionally lack of discipline in the troops but never the causes, except perhaps weariness. Apaches are described as "killing" and "raiding" but Eisenhower seems to show a great deal of compassion on the next page when a US officer must "subdue" the Apaches and manages to have them "brought to the point where they are willing to sign a peace treaty" as if the Apaches only reservation to peace were their beligerence (Andrew Jackson broke between 80-90 treaties with the Native Americans during his presidency.) In this same passage Eisenhower describes how the US soldiers could only "shudder to think" what the fate of captured women might have been, but upon bringing the Apaches out of the mountains he never tells what their actual fate was. We are left shuddering in our imaginations. And the list goes on. The problem is not so much what Eisenhower tells but what he doesn't tell. He gives a famous quote of Ulysses Grant describing the war as " the most unjust war ever waged by a stronger nation against a weaker" but we never see the war Grant saw. The worst fatalities encountered in this book are the ones suffered by soldiers during battle. There is no record of the inhumanity that this war brought out in both countries. In the end it is simply a matter of a strong country pitted against an unfortunate weaker country, and the U.S. of course is fortunate enough to be the stronger. Injustice is not in this picture and if it is it is glossed over. If half the detail exercised in describing the geography of battle was given to the examination of politics, or to Mexico's understanding of the war and its battles then this would be a wonderful book. If you are interested in precisely where certain battalions and infantries of the US Army where and when then this is a super book. The physical description is detailed (although not particularly interesting) but the deeper issues that describe the real nature and character of war are virtually untouched and only lightly treated.
Al fin algo de verdad...........2005-10-28
Tenia que ser alquien como este reconocido historiador, una persona bien nacida, descendiente nada menos que del legendario Ike, quien les empieza a revelar a los norteamericanos la penosa historia de como se robaron, no encuentro otra palabra peor, la mitad del territorio que en ese entonces era propiedad de la republica mexicana, la cual siendo presa de desordenes internos, atizados por su perfido vecino del norte a traves del alevoso Joel. R. Poinsett, el que hasta el nombre de la flor de nochebuena se robo, fue facil presa del ave de presa que como vecino tenia al norte, yo quiero a los actuales ciudadanos de los estados unidos de norteamerica, me duele en el alma cuando los hieren a los matan,ya sea en Irak o en otro lado, me encantan los Bush, padre e hijo, Reagan, Kennedy y por supuesto, I like Ike, pero aquello que nos hicieron de 1821 a 1847 y en Veracruz con el lunatico de Woodrow Wilson, no tiene perdon de Dios.
Good Overview.......2005-02-24
This title compares well to the handful of other War History Books I've read.
Eisenhower does a good job of reviewing each significant battle in the right amount of detail, and the book provides decent maps and terrain descriptions (obvious musts). He also does a good job of describing the involvement of the various Generals (from both sides), and lower-ranked officers who would later play signicant roles in the American Civil War that would follow a bit more than a decade from the end of this confict.
Well done is the description of the psyche of the Mexican soldiers and populace, and the role it played in the course of the war.
While there are some descriptions of the lives of the American enlisted men (who obviously far outnumber the officers), Eisenhower doesn't really make as much as an effort as could have been made in this area... I also felt he was a bit pompous when he would question why men would follow certain leaders (like John Fremont, for example).
One area of the Mexican War, that any War History buff should not miss is the sub-story of the San Patricio (or St. Patrick's) Regiment of Irish "deserters" from the American side - which I first learned by reading this book... Knowing this story (and being half-Irish myself), I sometimes will get too many beers under my belt in a TJ bar, and say in spanish that the Irish fought harder for Mexico than the Mexicans did (they were actually forced to), and it always draws crys of "No es Cierto!" (It isn't True!)... and I say SI, ES CIERTO!
Book Description
In June 1846 Susan Shelby Magoffin, eighteen years old and a bride of less than eight months, set out with her husband, a veteran Santa Fe trader, on a trek from Independence, Missouri, through New Mexico and south to Chihuahua. Her travel journal was written at a crucial time, when the Mexican War was beginning and New Mexico was occupied by Stephen Watts Kearny and the Army of the West.
Her journal describes the excitement, routine, and dangers of a successful merchant's wife. On the trail for fifteen months, moving from house to house and town to town, she became adept in Spanish and the lingo of traders, and wrote down in detail the customs and appearances of places she went. She gave birth to her first child during the journey and admitted, "This thing of marrying is not what it is cracked up to be."
Valuable as a social and historical record of her encounters—she met Zachary Taylor and was agreeably disappointed to find him disheveled but kindly—her journal is equally important as a chronicle of her growing intelligence, experience, and strength, her lost illusions and her coming to terms with herself.
Customer Reviews:
Good reading!.......2007-09-19
I am an author. I am writing a novel based on my grandmother's life. I'm using this book as a guide to writing her story. She was born in 1863 in Clinton, Iowa and traveled west. The route she took is not know but this book gives a vivid account of the trail and its tribulations and high points.
"The curtain raises now with a new scene.".......2006-02-27
Many journals of travelers along the Santa Fe (and Oregon and California) Trail have been published, but Susan Magoffin's ranks among the best of them. Susan Magoffin was born of a wealthy family in Kentucky and had recently married the successful Santa Fe trader Samuel Magoffin. They had spent six months on a honeymoon trip to New York and Philadelphia (about which Susan also kept a journal, though to my knowledge it has not been published), and now, two months after their return to Independence, Missouri, she was to accompany her husband on a caravan transporting goods along the Santa Fe Trail to northern Mexico. She was 18 years old.
Magoffin is as charming as any 18 year old could be, and it's a joy for the reader to share her sense of adventure. She is obviously having the time of her life, despite the inconveniences of broken wagon bows and stormy weather. We also get a view of what life was like for typical travelers on the trail. There is also intrigue to a degree: Samuel's older brother James was on a mission for President Polk preceding Stephen Kearny's troops during the initial stages of the Mexican War, and news about James enters the journal at certain points, including once where he was robbed by the Apaches but somehow escaped with his life. After the trading caravan reached Santa Fe, the Magoffins contined on into Mexico, spending time at Chihuahua. The journal ends on September 8, 1847, and does not include her contracting yellow fever at Matamoras where she also gave birth to a son (he died a few days later). The couple then sailed across the Gulf of Mexico to the Mississippi River and to Susan's family in Kentucky. (Susan would live only another eight years, dying of childbirth at age 27.)
It's a wonderful first-hand account. My only complaint is that I wish editor Stella Drumm had identified locations (camping sites, geographic sites, etc.) mentioned by Magoffin in the journal. Other than that, it's a chronicle that can be read often and always seem fresh and exciting. A must-read record of an important and lively adventure.
Primary Source tale of a honeymoon on the Santa Fe Trail.......1998-11-01
Magoffin was a name familiar to the Mexicans who had trading relations with Susan's husband for years before he married her and took her with him from the states on an expedition to Chihuahua, Mexico. She kept a diary from which she drew her information for the only book I know written by a woman, young and pregnant, whose fate it was to die in her 26th year, at home. Accounts from her perspective at such a crucial time in relations between the United States and Mexico, in a venacular peculiarly her own, make her work one of considerable importance to the serious student of the time. Revealing also are individual encounters with men, some from her own country, and her opinion of Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny, commander of the U.S. Army of the West stationed in Sante Fe. Susan was a young lady of class the exercise of which makes the reader proud, and whose elegance charmed all who came to know her.
Book Description
Hispanics, Native Americans, and Anglo Americans made agonizing and crucial identity decisions in this southwestern region during the first half of the nineteenth century. Whereas the Mexican government sought to bring its frontier inhabitants into the national fold by relying on administrative and patronage linkages, Mexico's northern frontier gravitated toward the expanding American economy. Andrés Reséndez explores how the diverse and fiercely independent peoples of Texas and New Mexico came to think of themselves as members of one particular national community or another, in the years leading up to the Mexican-American War.
Customer Reviews:
HOW THE LITTLE DOG ATE HALF OF THE BIG DOG: and egame a very big dog........2006-05-05
The author has an impressive academic record both before and after he earned his doctorate. He has produced a most thorough ans useful interpretation of cultural relationd on the South western frontier.*
There are many more than the shown categories and subjects listed below in rhis entry yet they only refer to the United States, They could be doubled again with Mexico as the central noun. And we can add furner headings: Spanish Borderlands, Frontiers in generall. And you can probably think of several more. This omission of Mexico simply indicates ethno-centric nautr of the cataloging, ignoring the mult-national sweep of the subject and the wie-ranging rlevence to many disciplines.
Berein the author starts out with the vominous works of the famous Alexander von Humboldt, who led an expediton to gather all the information and data he could on what id now known as the American Sourwesr. The only ptoject of equal scope and importance covering this area is the multivolume series sponsored by the US government in the 1850s is known to we geographer, geologists, and studints of flora and fauna known as the "Pacific Railroad Reports" and that required the efforts of several huge mult-personnel expeditions over a much longer period.
The author states that he omits the lower Rio Grnde del Norte Valley and the upper Valley in the present El Paso-Juarez urnban comples. Bit puzzling to me for control of those two areas was the core of political and economic concern. El Paso controlled the major route to the vast territory of Nuevo Mexico, all of which was ceded as a result of the Mexican War.
Howevwer, this book is nor a history of the borderlands, which has been asubject of scholarly concern since toe 1920s, but rather concerns the larger questions of national indentity.
Two great civilizations clashed and the apparent little dog won. In 1800 the erstwhile mighty Spanish empire stretched from Calironia to Patagoina, and around the world, though less dominant than it was before the rise of the British Royal Navy and the depletion consequent to the constant wars in the Netherlans of the seventeenth century. But the Spanish Empire in the New World was about to topple due to internal political forces, and Spain would retain for almost a century control over Cuba, along the way selling Florida to the US.
In economic and population terms both the US and Spain, which soon broke off to become the subsequent Mexican nation were evely matched. The Alglos appraching from the east who were familiat with living in closely wooded lands, opposed to the Mexicans, whose ancestral home was semi-ard, yet that made little difference for the Spanish had been in the borderlnads for two centuries and knew how to live in an arid climate. On the other hand, the Anglos' migration into the mid West had stalled at the prairies of Illinous, whose lack of forests indicted to them that the area was infertile
The Mexican (Tejano) vwesus Anglo expansionists first met in the Arkansas, Lousiana area where there was no apparent difference in the vegatation and climate, yet the Tejanos formed a cluster in the San Antionio area and were not numererous enoght to opposed the Anglos physically so a plitical solution was initiated with the land grants given to Stephen F. Austin, who, carefully screening his colonists, was also thought capable of social contro of them.
In the upper Rio Grande basin eas loacted a corridor of Mexican settlement including the settled Pueblo Indians, while to the west and east roamed the powerful Navajo, Apache and Comanche nations, always nibbling on the fringes of Nuevo Mexico. Since Santa FE and Taos were the most northern urnan areas of Nuevo Mexico, they were thousand miles from Mexioc City, if not physically certainly in conssciousness. Thus the Snata Fe Trail stretching from Missouri across the plains was a much more efficient source of manufactured goods. When the US Army marched into New Mexico they were welcomed. While, Texas, ocourse, had been a sovereigh nation for ten years.
This work ends soon after the treaty og Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded upperCanifornia, Arizona, and New Mexico, moving the actual and defacto boundaries from the Rockies of Southern Colorado and the eastern edge of the Staked Plains, to the north bank of the Tio Grande, and westwaes along the Gila to the Colorado.
This book will bevery useful in following the development of the cultural history of the borderlands.
His thesis is that the Anglos won the contest with the Mexicans becaus of their vibrant and innovative culture contasted with a poverty-stricken heritage of domination by an elite born in Spain and the resulting economic stagnation. Even those of pure Spanish blood born in Mexico had no political power, and the mestizos and Indians were even worse off.
* Note my use of the term "American Southwest". This is just as much of an indication of the dominance of the US in the area as is the world-wide use of Eurocntric terms such ad Middle and Far Easr, and the placing of the Prime Meridan for world mapping and navigation. Even the French, who for many years used the Paris meridian as the point of origin, by the end of the nineteenth century were publishing maps base on Grrenwich, with that of Paris relegated to tivk marks on the border of the map proper.
Customer Reviews:
A useful and readable insight into U.S.-Mexican relations.......2001-12-07
This useful book offers more than its title implies. Instead of being a dry legal analysis of a treaty, it offers a different way of looking at the history of Mexican-American relations. The author provides a compact review of events before, during, and after the Mexican-American war. In addition, the book provides a capsule review of attempts by Chicanos to seek the reversal of past injustices through the courts and by means of political action. The clearly written text is supplemented with five maps and four figures. Michael Michaud, Vienna, Austria
Biased Analysis, Good Content.......2001-02-06
Richard Griswold Del Castillo's work is beneficial for a probing and well rounded study into the Mexican War and the Treaty that followed. This book has great content. Castillo knows the Treaty and the debates surrounding the Treaty inside and out. Also, he is able to inform the reader of unresolved issues still relevant today for a treaty that was signed over 150 years ago. Nevertheless, he is looking for a specific outcome for his analysis. Castillo condemns the United States for it's unfair treatment of Mexico and former Mexicans. However, much of his argument is based on Article X of the Treaty and the Protocol of Queretaro. Neither document was endorsed, nor supported, by the United States. He aknowledges that, yet still attacks the United States for not abiding by both of them. It's an angry look at the United States which portrays Mexico as an innocent victim in the conflict in 1846, and the United States as a selfish, evil empire forever after.
Book Description
For mid-19th-century Americans, the Mexican War was not only a grand exercise in self-identity, legitimizing the young republic's convictions of mission and destiny to a doubting world; it was also the first American conflict to be widely reported in the press and to be waged against an alien foe in a distant and exotic land. It provided a window onto the outside world and promoted an awareness of a people and a land unlike any Americans had known before. This rich cultural history examines the place of the Mexican War in the popular imagination of the era. Drawing on military and travel accounts, newspaper dispatches, and a host of other sources, Johannsen vividly recreates the mood and feeling of the period--its unbounded optimism and patriotic pride--and adds a new dimension to our understanding of both the Mexican War and America itself.
Customer Reviews:
Imagination sparked by elation.......2007-07-29
After reading this excellent book, I couldn't help but conclude that the single most defining emotion that swept the US during the war with Mexico (1846-48) was absolute euphoria: every segment of society, just about, was excited about the war and what it meant militarily, economically, and morally for the country. From the enthusiasm of the soldiers who volunteered to fight, to that of the reporters and travelers who gave rousing and heroic accounts of the battles and generals who led them, to the novelists and poets and historians who all put their (generally) elated spin on things - all are called forth by Robert Johannsen and given their due in these pages. The country whipped itself into a frenzy of hero worship and moral righteousness as it demonstrated to a surprised world that a republic could fight a foreign war successfully, even against great odds, and could be a moral model to a civilization it believed to be corrupt and degraded. Finally in the last chapter Johannsen allows the critics, those who thought the war was a land grab for expanded slavery, a destroyer of the republican values upon which the country was anchored, and a harbinger of bigger and more destructive wars to come, their say. But the critics were in the minority and were easily out argued. Johannsen's analysis, especially regarding the literature generated by the war, is deep and interesting. The book, though it doesn't describe battles and steers clear of politics, is an excellent account of how the war was viewed and interpreted by the American public at large while it was going on. The euphoria didn't last long, however, as the Civil War loomed just over the horizon.
prelude to a greater war.......2007-07-14
For the American Civil War buff, this book can be read as a prelude to that war. It describes the jingoism in the new American republic, and the prediliction of many to readily go to war. Johannsen's retelling of the ambient mood within the United States brings the Mexican War vividly to life. We also see mention of several officers who would later rise to prominence on both sides during the Civil War.
Perhaps the relatively easy victory against Mexico helped inspire the South to later secede. Not as a major factor, of course. But when the book shows the glorification and the stunning successes, in terms of land acquired, surely some of this must have persisted till 1860. Helping give rise to expectations of another easy war.
It really was a different America back then. With the presence of slavery being the most egregrious feature. But also the sheer adoration of war, and how this was seen as necessary for the US to fulfill its destiny. No mainstream American politician or public figure openly talks like this nowadays.
Not a history........2006-10-25
This is not a history of the Mexican-American war. It is a lengthy, in-depth description of how the contemporary newspapers (and other contemporary writers, including American soldiers) DESCRIBED the Mexican-American war. I read the first 75 pages, and I learned the names of some of the American generals, and I learned the names of a few of the big battles of the war, but I learned nothing about why the war was started, nothing about what was going on in Mexico before the war started. This book does not claim to be a history of the war, and if you're looking for a history of the war, look elsewhere.
An excellent book in the Mexican War historiography.......2001-04-15
"Two thumbs up" is the simplest review for this historical analysis of the Mexican War of 1846-48. I read Johannsen's book for a class on U.S. Diplomatic History between 1776 and 1913 and loved it!! Johannsen discusses the image of the Mexican War in Americans' minds, not so much the military history of the battles. We get a better perception of America as a whole in 1846. Americans were living in an age of social and economic changes and believed that commercial pursuits were destroying the republican foundations of the new nation. To many Americans, the war with Mexico rejuvenated republican spirits and showed the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon United States against a "backward," supposedly racially inferior Mexican enemy. This book goes beyond the accounts of critics of the war, who argued that President James K. Polk and others were trying to extend slavery across the continent. We get a better sense of American reaction to the Mexican War and the changes the United States underwent during this era of "Manifest Destiny."
Book Description
The Rogue's March tells controversial true story of the US Army deserters--the majority of them Irish immigrants--who fought valiantly as a Mexican Army unit during the Mexican War of 1846. It takes a close look at the organized prejudice against Irish Catholic and German immigrants.
Customer Reviews:
Going to war in Mexico.......2007-07-05
Peter F. Stevens does an outstanding job in bringing to life the issues that permeated and greatly harmed the American armies of General Zachary Taylor and General Winfield Scott from 1846 to 1848. At the core was American nativism, hatred and fear of newly arrived Catholic immigrants mainly from Ireland and Germany. Recruited nearly at the pier, these soldiers had no loyalty nor a real investment in their future as Americans. What loyalty they had was toward their Catholic faith. Meeting them in the army was a cadre of immigrant hating junior officers who often imposed discipline more severe than found in European armies. The result was the highest desertion rate of any war the United States ever fought. More important, the Mexicans took advantage of immigrant soldiers' unhappiness and formed the St. Patrick's Battalion, led by John Reily, that distinguished itself in battle against former comrades and messmates until their defeat and capture. The author shows how severe the courts martial were that resulted in the execution of fifty deserters and the lashing and branding of others including John Reily. That this series of events became a downside of Manifest Destiny and a forerunner of the Civil War becomes prominent in the text. This worthy book is a fine read, well researched, militarily and historically sound, and serves as a real contribution to the field of military and social American history.
For God or Country?.......2003-12-22
An engaging history lesson of both the Mexican-American War and the Anti-Catholic/Immigrant prejudice of Nativists and West Pointers who would later be made famous by the American Civil War. This is as much a story of persecution by bigoted officers as it is an Order of Battle for the conflict. All the major battles of the war are covered with maps and detailed first hand accounts of what happened.
Well-educated and brilliant officers were of differing opinions about the legitimacy of the war, the treatment of German and Irish Catholics, and the tactics used on the field. It was surprising to me to read the correspondence of figures such as Grant, Lee, Sherman, Taylor, Scott, Bragg, and a host of others, illuminating their personal feelings on both sides of those issues and how the experience of the war changed the sentiments and conduct of many of those same officers. This would be reflected in the Civil War some 20 years later.
An intriguing example of the use of "flying batteries" as an innovative use of Artillery showed one of the reasons an outnumbered, and arguably out classed, military was able to defeat an enemy on foreign soil so far away from home.
The story revolves around the main character, the leader of the "San Patricos" and as a counterpoint, an established Irishman settled in the country and the Army. They both faced the same insults and persecutions, and the same offers and temptations to change sides and ironically, both men end up being promoted from enlisted men to commissioned officers in the two opposing armies.
I imagined at first that this would be a story of a man's internal conflict of having to choose loyalty to church over country; though a powerful theme of the book, this was not so much the case. The stronger case was made that the largest desertion rate in the history of the US Army occurred at a time when because of their nationality and religion, men were treated as less deserving of respect and dignity resulting in harsher treatment than "native born Americans". Punishments for identical infractions were much more degrading and humiliating for "foreigners" than for "Americans" in the same unit. A lesson in the effects of fair and equal treatment could not be stronger given to the American Army and indeed this did change. The disturbing part of this history is the undeniable cover up by first the Army and then the Government of the United States for over 120 years. This book should be on the required professional development reading list for Officers and NCOs alike.
Mr. Stevens writing puts emotion and personality to the characters and events described by using copious amounts of official Courts-Martial transcripts, Government Archives records of Great Britain, Ireland, Mexico, and the United States. In addition he draws from the personal diaries, journals, and letters, of the men and women involved. He also cites official war correspondence from the officers of both sides, and newspaper articles of the day.
the rogue's march.......2001-01-09
A must read for the student of Irish-American and Vietnam history. Goes into detail of the anti-Catholic/anti-emmigrant climate of America in the the 1840's. A story of America's first war of agresssion against another independent nation, shows the beggings of Americas imperialistic wars.A good companion text for istorians of America's involvement in South East Asia,"if we do not learn from history we are cursed to repeat it."
A History of Prejudice and Heroism.......2000-04-05
Throughout Mexico, one can hear of the legend of the SanPatricios, a battalion of soldiers in the U.S.-Mexico War that wasmade up almost entirely of deserters from the U.S. Army. Predominately Irish and/or Catholic, the San Patricios fought well for the Mexicans -- and they suffered for it significantly when the U.S. finally won the war.
Stevens does an excellent job of telling the story of the battalion, the history behind its foundation, and the punishment its members faced after the war. Adding to the interest of the story is the role that many of those in the U.S. Army during the U.S.-Mexico War went on to play pivotal roles in the U.S. and CSA armies during the Civil War.
Awesome story.......1999-11-16
Truly awesome story. Well written and researched. Really made me think. Brings up a lot of repressed issues that are difficult to deal with as an American.
Average customer rating:
- Fast reading biography of important yet overlooked hero
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Defiant Peacemaker: Nicholas Trist in the Mexican War (Elma Dill Russell Spencer Series in the West and Southwest, No 17)
Wallace Ohrt
Manufacturer: Texas A&M University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0890967784 |
Customer Reviews:
Fast reading biography of important yet overlooked hero.......1999-09-29
Defiant Peacemaker is a fantastic biography that covers the entire life of Nicholas Trist. Any one who enjoys a good biography will love this one. I find the subtitle 'Trist In The Mexican War' to be misleading. It is a true indepth bio of the life of a man who lost his father at a young age, married Thomas Jefferson's grand daughter, worked at various political appointed job which made him well known around Washington DC, also was Ambassador to Cuba. Trist is the only man in American history who single handedly ended a war. He negotiated the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo to end the Mexican War. He never held a political appointment after. A great biography details the changes of fortunes of a life, good times and bad times. Mr. Ohrt addresses these details so well, you leave this book feeling that you really know Trist and feel for his misfortunes, especially considering the contribution he made to his country, and to know his country never recognized his efforts.
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