The Friday Record - The Mexican War

Mike Flanagan, in his wonderful little book IT’S ABOUT TIME: How Long History Took, tells us that The Mexican War lasted 1 year, 9 months and 27 days during 1846-1848. This war has part of its history with the Republic of Texas. In 1836, Texas won independence from Mexico and became its own country, but from the beginning, Texans planned to become part of the United States. “Due to internal disputes over slavery and continuing international arguments with Mexico,” Texas was not annexed into the U.S. until 1845, according to THE UNITED STATES: A Brief Narrative History. This annexation did not sit well with Mexico, who recognized neither the boundaries between the two countries nor the annexation of Texas.

Moreover, President James Polk very much wanted to add both New Mexico and California territories to the United States. Efforts to buy the territory from Mexico failed and Polk realized he could only achieve his goal by force. He knew, however, that he would not gain favor from his own countrymen or the international community if he started the conflict. Instead, Polk sent American troops to the disputed Texas-Mexico border. As a young Ulysses S. Grant later said, “We were sent to provoke a fight, but it was essential that Mexico commence it.” And commence it they did. On May 9, 1846 Mexican troops crossed the border and attacked the Americans. Eleven soldiers were killed, five wounded and the rest taken prisoner.

Polk immediately asked Congress to declare war on Mexico.

Both Mexico and the U.S. were ill-prepared for the war. Though Mexico had 32,000 soldiers, they were mostly pressed into service or recruited from prisons. At the start of the war, the U.S. had only 7,000 troops. By 1849, that number had increased to 104,000, with most being volunteers signed up for only six- to twelve-month stints. Ill-trained and ill-equipped, the troops often rebelled against the discipline of the military and committed plunder, rape and murder.

The obedience of the Mexican army wasn’t any better and the U.S. army consistently defeated the larger Mexican armies.

General Zachary Taylor (later President Taylor) scored two major victories North of the Rio Grande and on May 19th his army crossed the border into Mexico. They quickly captured Matamoros and achieved Polk’s goal of conquering the northern provinces of Mexico.

Taylor’s popularity and folk-hero status grated on Polk and he soon replaced Taylor with Winfield Scott as field commander. Upset about his reduction in command, Taylor ignored orders and took the offensive himself. Once again the American army met up with a much larger Mexican force. Santa Anna offered for the Americans to surrender, but Old Rough and Ready Taylor replied, “Tell them to go to hell.” The hard fought two-day battle ended in a stalemate.

Meanwhile, Scott started the long-planned move on the Mexican capital by landing his forces at Vera Cruz. After a week-long siege, the Mexican commander surrendered and Scott’s troops started the 260-mile journey to Mexico City. On September 13, 1847, the U.S. Marines occupied the “Halls of Montezuma” when they hoisted the Stars and Stripes over the National Palace.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo  was drawn up on February 2, 1848. Mexico gave up all claims to land north of the Rio Grande as well as ceding California and New Mexico to the United States. For this, the U.S. paid Mexico $15 million. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty on March 10, 1848, officially ending the war.

AMERICA: A Narrative History outlines the legacy of this often forgotten war: 1,721 killed, 4,102 wounded and 11,155 dead of disease. “Out of every 1,000 American soldiers in Mexico, some 110 died.” This is the deadliest combatants-killed ratio in U.S. History. In other words, the percentage of those who died compared to those who fought is higher than in other war. The ratio in the U.S. Civil War was 65 dead out of every 1,000 who fought.

The landing of Scott’s forces in Vera Cruz was the first major amphibious military operation by American forces. The military and naval costs came to $98 million. For this price plus the $15 million Mexico was paid, the U.S. acquired over 500,000 square miles of territory and truly stretched “from sea to shining sea.”

Also of historical interest is the list of junior officers who would later serve as commanding officers during the Civil War: Jefferson Davis (President of the Confederacy), Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas Jackson, George B. McClellan, George Pickett, Braxton Bragg and George Meade. It was on the battlefields of the Mexican War that these soldiers gained significant combat experiences, later used against each other during The War Between the States a mere 12 years later.

The Mexican War had a huge impact on the United States, evoking “a growing spirit of patriotic nationalism that increasingly characterized the American people,” says THE UNITED STATES. In contrast, it also aggravated growing tensions which featured prominently in the sectional conflict, leading to the Civil War.


Resources:

AMERICA: A NARRATIVE HISTORY by George Brown Tindall and David E. Shi
IT’S ABOUT TIME: HOW LONG HISTORY TOOK by Mike Flanagan
THE UNITED STATES: A BRIEF NARRATIVE HISTORY by Link Hullar and Scott Nelson


Anna Kathryn Lanier
Where Tumbleweeds Hang Their Hats
http://www.aklanier.com/
http://annakathrynlanier.blogspot.com/

The Friday Record - The Pony Express

For today's blog, I'm once again turning to Mike Flanagan's book: IT'S ABOUT TIME: How Long History Took. I've done several blogs using this little book since I started The Friday Record and I recommend it for a quick look at history. The back blurb says that IT'S ABOUT TIME “chronicles nearly two hundred key events” which “offer an utterly unique and fascinating perspective on human history.”

(Pony Express Rider, Billy Fisher, right)

On page 94, Flanagan reports on The Pony Express, which existed in 1860-61 for 1 year, 6 months, 22 days. With the Westward Expansion off to a pretty good start and large settlements established along the west coast, it was important for business to be conducted in a timely matter. Back then, timely manner meant twenty days by coach from St. Louis, Missouri to Sacramento, California or thirty days by ship from New York City to San Francisco, California. So, William Russell, Alexander Majors and W. B. Wendell devised a plan to send mail via horseback, a much faster mode of transportation, which cut the time in half to only ten days. The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco has posted a reprint of the San Francisco Newsletter, September 1925, which says,

Six hundred broncos, especially chosen for fleetness, toughness and endurance, were purchased. Seventy-five men, none of them weighing over one hundred and ten pounds, were engaged as riders, being selected on account of their bravery, their capacity for deprivation and their horsemanship, as well as for their shooting abilities and their knowledge of the craft and the manner of attack of the Indians. One of these, Henry Wallace**, was selected for the signal honor of inaugurating the Pony Express on April 3, 1860. In one of the laced pockets of his mochilla (Mexican saddlebags) he carried a message of congratulation from President Buchanan to the Governor of California, the words having been telegraphed that very morning from Washington to St. Joseph.

**This is in dispute. On the City of St. Louis, Missouri website, it says “Historians have never fully agreed whether Johnny Fry or Billie Richardson was the first rider...” So, I have any idea who Henry Wallace is...

One hundred ninety (190) stations were set up over the 1,966-mile trail. According to the San Francisco Newsletter, the riders were given six hours to ride sixty miles on six different horses, which were traded at the stations. Other resource sites say the riders were allowed to travel up to 75 miles before trading off with another rider.

While The Pony Express was a huge and instant success, its days were numbered from the start. Already, transcontinental telegraph wire was being strung and railroad tracks laid. In addition, the cost of sending a letter was prohibitive, $5 a half-ounce (compared with our 44 cents for the first ounce). The founders, who already owned a freighting business, envisioned government contracts to be big money-makers. Unfortunately, that never came about and when the telegraph was finally finished, The Pony Express met its doom. So did the financial situations of its founders. All three died in poverty, having lost half a million dollars in the venture.

(Frank E. Webner, right)

However, during its short-lived life, The Pony Expressed covered over 650,000 miles and delivered 34,753 pieces of mail. Information in that mail included the election of Abraham Lincoln as president and the taking of Fort Sumter by the Confederates.

Anna Kathryn Lanier

http://www.aklanier.com/

The Friday Record - THE BLACK PLAGUE

Once again, for the Friday Record, I will turn to Mike Flanagan's book IT'S ABOUT TIME: How Long History Took. For those of you new to my blog, I began The Friday Record using his book, because it was a quick and easy way to find a subject for the posting. Mike's little book lists dozens of historical events with a short description of it and, most important to the title, he tells us how long it took. The shortest time entry is the photographing of the flag raising on Iwo Jima (1/400th of a second). The longest is The Universe (13.7 to 14.5 billion years).

Today I'm going to discuss The Black Death (1347-51), just because it caught me eye. The plague most likely originated in China, where incidents of it are recorded as early as 500 A.D. According IT'S ABOUT TIME, the plague arrived in Spain from Crimea in October 1347 on rat infested merchant ships. From there, it continued to spread across Europe along the trade routes, both over land and by sea. It reached Marseilles, France in January 1348 and Great Britain the following September. By the winter of 1349 it was in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Mike tells us, “This first encounter of the plague ended in Scandinavia in 1351. It returned again in 1365, and many times thereafter.” (109)

Prior to the plague invading Europe, social events helped set the stage for the spread of the disease. It's estimated that the population of Europe doubled between 1000 and 1300 and soon the people out-stripped the food supply. Failed crops and higher demand caused food shortages that left the people in extreme hunger at least once in their lifetime. In addition, overpopulation, bad health and a poor economy weakened the people and left them vulnerable to the plague.

Exact numbers on deaths vary from one-tenth to one-third to half the population. And perhaps all three figures are true. Melissa Snell, on About.com medieval's site tells us that while some heavily populated areas were hit hard, “At the same time, a few areas in Europe managed to escape the worst. Milan, as was previously mentioned, saw little infection, possibly due to the drastic measures taken to prevent the spread of the illness. The lightly-populated and little-traveled region of southern France near the Pyrenees, between English-controlled Gascony and French-controlled Toulouse, saw very little plague mortality. And strangely enough the port city of Bruges was spared the extremes that other cities on the trade routes suffered, possibly due to a recent drop-off in trade activity resulting from the early stage of the Hundred Years War.” So, it's quite possible that some areas of Europe saw half their population die of the dreaded disease, while others were barely touched.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND, a College Outline Series book by Barnes and Noble, gives a pretty good description of The Black Death, aka bubonic plague: "Black spots appeared on the bodies of the victims: they vomited blood, broke out with boils, developed a high fever, and soon died.” It goes on to say that unsanitary conditions and lack of medical knowledge most certainly contributed to the spread of the disease and the high number of deaths. (53)

The effects of the plague were momentous. Wages increased because there were fewer workers to hire and those still around could demand higher wages. For this same reason, serfs were given more freedom, which resulted in lower land values (fewer serfs meant a decline in assets). Industry and trade were disrupted as well. Wages for skilled artisans soared and many serfs gave up working the land to become skilled craftsmen. In addition, lower demand for food goods lowered the prices of agricultural goods, as the prices of manufactured goods rose.

The noble landholders lost the most economically. Their land was worth less than it once was, they were bringing in less income via agricultural goods and rents, yet paying more for finished products and labor.

The economy was going to hell in a hand basket. England's Parliament tried to prevent wages from rising astronomically with the passage of the Statute of Laborers (1351), which limited wages to pre-plague levels, but it did little good. In order to save themselves, some lords broke up their lands and others “commuted services of their laborers to money payments instead of following the earlier practice of paying in work or produce.” (53) (mmmm, how do you pay a laborer for work by paying in work? Perhaps you have another laborer do something for the first, like replace a roof?) France increased its tax on the peasantry (the poorer you were, the more you had to pay?). Landowners sought legislation that would force the peasants to stay on their farms. These acts helped ignite the peasants' revolts that followed the plague.

According to IT'S ABOUT TIME, the Middle Ages ended in 1453. Even if one takes only the low estimate of 10% of the population of Europe dying in four years, it's not hard to imagine that major economical, political and social changes would have taken place.

Works Cited:

IT'S ABOUT TIME: How Long History Took, Mike Flanagan
HISTORY OF ENGLAND:Survey of Events from 55 BC to Resent Times, J. A. Rickard
THE HERITAGE OF WORLD CIVILIZATIONS (my college world history book)
The Spread of the Black Death through Europe by Melissa Snell


Anna Kathryn Lanier
Where Tumbleweeds Hang Their Hats
Heartwarming, Sensual Westerns
http://www.aklanier.com/