by jimmypolkeditor | Mar 23, 2020 | Mexican-American War
On April 26, 1846, a detachment from Zachary Taylor’s army under Captain Seth Thornton was ambushed by a numerically superior Mexican force near Brownsville, Texas. Nearly all of the Americans were captured or killed. Mexico fired the first shot of the...
by jimmypolkeditor | Mar 21, 2020 | Mexican-American War
on January 13, 1847, Mexican General Andres Pico quietly surrendered California to John C. Fremont by agreeing to the Treaty of Cahuenga. This transferred undisputed control of California into the command of the United States, which continues to the present. Mexico...
by jimmypolkeditor | Mar 19, 2020 | Manifest Destiny
Despite the famous slogan “54-40 or fight,” used to promote the Democrats’ 1844 platform of settling the Oregon boundary dispute, James K. Polk and most of the United States government in 1845 did not actually want to go to war over the Oregon territory. This was...
by jimmypolkeditor | Mar 18, 2020 | Manifest Destiny
What is the Great American Desert? Rather than being a region unified by a certain common climate, as “desert” is usually taken to mean, the term “Great American Desert” in the early 19th century referred to a vast swath of largely unexplored and mostly...
by jimmypolkeditor | Mar 17, 2020 | Mexican-American War
Today, March 17, is Saint Patrick’s day. Saint Patrick played a major role in the Mexican-American war as the symbol for many disaffected immigrants who deserted to join the Mexican Army during the war. Some of the fiercest battles of the two-year conflagration were...
