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Authors: H.W. Brands
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fire necessary.”
The approach of the Americans compelled Mexico’s ablest commander to try to cut them off. Antonio López de Santa Anna had been in and out of office more times than most of his compatriots could remember. He was living in exile inCuba at the outbreak of fighting on the Rio Grande in 1846, but with a promise to negotiate an end to the hostilities, he persuaded the Polk administration to allow him through the American blockade of the Mexican coast. He forgot his promise on reaching Mexican soil and rallied the army and people against the invaders. He hurried north from the capital to challengeZachary Taylor, who, refusing to be Polk’s pawn and Scott’s coat holder, had advanced from Monterrey toward central Mexico.
The two armies met atBuena Vista, just south of Saltillo. Santa Anna’s force outnumbered Taylor’s, but Taylor had the better position, with mountains guarding his flanks. In two days of bloody fighting Taylor’s men inflicted heavy casualties on the Mexicans, sufficient to make Santa Anna withdraw but not so grievous as to allow Taylor to continue south. Taylor treated the outcome as a triumph and headed back to the United States to accept the Whig nomination for president.
Santa Anna returned south to fend off Scott, who, as luck would have it, was approaching Santa Anna’s birthplace and hometown, Jalapa, on the road from Vera Cruz to Mexico City. Grant looked forward to the collision, albeit not as much as he might have. After tasting battle on the Rio Grande and at Monterrey, he felt confined by his quartermaster’s duties. He wrote to his commanding officer requesting permission to relinquish his assignment. “I must and will accompany my regiment in battle,” Grant insisted. He threatened to do so even if he was not replaced as quartermaster. He realized he would be leaving the stores in his care unguarded, but he had an answer, of sorts. “I am amenable to court-martial should any loss occur to the public property in my charge by reason of my absence while in action.”
Grant’s superior appreciated the sentiment but was unimpressed by the logic. “Lieutenant Grant is informed that the duty of Quartermaster and Commissary is an assigned duty, and not an office that can be resigned,” he responded. “However valuable his services might be, and certainly would be, in line , his services in his present assigned duties cannot be dispensed with.”
Consequently Grant had to watch while others got the thrilling tasks. Santa Anna selected to make his stand in a narrow pass by the village ofCerro Gordo, near a mountain of the same name just west of Jalapa. The Mexicans blocked the road upon which the Americans were approaching and placed artillery on the surrounding elevations. To attack Santa Anna head-on would have been suicidal.
So Scott sent scouts behind the ridges the Mexicans controlled. Robert E. Lee, a handsome captain of engineers from Virginia who had graduated from West Point fourteen years before Grant and many places higher in his class, and who was widely deemed the most promising officer in the army, led a reconnaissance north of Santa Anna’s position. Lee ventured far into the territory held by the Mexicans and at one point found himself alone and surrounded by the enemy near a spring to which they regularly resorted. Lee ducked under a fallen log to escape detection, only to have some of the Mexicans approach and sit on the very log under which he was hiding. He held his breath, and held his spot till darkness allowed him to escape.
He returned to the American camp with word that it might be possible for an American column to slip behind the ridges, improve the route he had discovered and attack the Mexican positions from the rear. This intelligence became the basis for Scott’s battle plan and for the battle itself. “Perhaps there was not a battle of the Mexican war, or of any other, where orders issued before an engagement were nearer being a correct
The approach of the Americans compelled Mexico’s ablest commander to try to cut them off. Antonio López de Santa Anna had been in and out of office more times than most of his compatriots could remember. He was living in exile inCuba at the outbreak of fighting on the Rio Grande in 1846, but with a promise to negotiate an end to the hostilities, he persuaded the Polk administration to allow him through the American blockade of the Mexican coast. He forgot his promise on reaching Mexican soil and rallied the army and people against the invaders. He hurried north from the capital to challengeZachary Taylor, who, refusing to be Polk’s pawn and Scott’s coat holder, had advanced from Monterrey toward central Mexico.
The two armies met atBuena Vista, just south of Saltillo. Santa Anna’s force outnumbered Taylor’s, but Taylor had the better position, with mountains guarding his flanks. In two days of bloody fighting Taylor’s men inflicted heavy casualties on the Mexicans, sufficient to make Santa Anna withdraw but not so grievous as to allow Taylor to continue south. Taylor treated the outcome as a triumph and headed back to the United States to accept the Whig nomination for president.
Santa Anna returned south to fend off Scott, who, as luck would have it, was approaching Santa Anna’s birthplace and hometown, Jalapa, on the road from Vera Cruz to Mexico City. Grant looked forward to the collision, albeit not as much as he might have. After tasting battle on the Rio Grande and at Monterrey, he felt confined by his quartermaster’s duties. He wrote to his commanding officer requesting permission to relinquish his assignment. “I must and will accompany my regiment in battle,” Grant insisted. He threatened to do so even if he was not replaced as quartermaster. He realized he would be leaving the stores in his care unguarded, but he had an answer, of sorts. “I am amenable to court-martial should any loss occur to the public property in my charge by reason of my absence while in action.”
Grant’s superior appreciated the sentiment but was unimpressed by the logic. “Lieutenant Grant is informed that the duty of Quartermaster and Commissary is an assigned duty, and not an office that can be resigned,” he responded. “However valuable his services might be, and certainly would be, in line , his services in his present assigned duties cannot be dispensed with.”
Consequently Grant had to watch while others got the thrilling tasks. Santa Anna selected to make his stand in a narrow pass by the village ofCerro Gordo, near a mountain of the same name just west of Jalapa. The Mexicans blocked the road upon which the Americans were approaching and placed artillery on the surrounding elevations. To attack Santa Anna head-on would have been suicidal.
So Scott sent scouts behind the ridges the Mexicans controlled. Robert E. Lee, a handsome captain of engineers from Virginia who had graduated from West Point fourteen years before Grant and many places higher in his class, and who was widely deemed the most promising officer in the army, led a reconnaissance north of Santa Anna’s position. Lee ventured far into the territory held by the Mexicans and at one point found himself alone and surrounded by the enemy near a spring to which they regularly resorted. Lee ducked under a fallen log to escape detection, only to have some of the Mexicans approach and sit on the very log under which he was hiding. He held his breath, and held his spot till darkness allowed him to escape.
He returned to the American camp with word that it might be possible for an American column to slip behind the ridges, improve the route he had discovered and attack the Mexican positions from the rear. This intelligence became the basis for Scott’s battle plan and for the battle itself. “Perhaps there was not a battle of the Mexican war, or of any other, where orders issued before an engagement were nearer being a correct
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