Mexican–American War: Difference between revisions

Mexican–American War
Date 1846–1848 Location Texas, New Mexico, California; Northern, Central and Eastern Mexico; Mexico City Result United States victory; Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexican Cession
Belligerents
United States	Mexico
Commanders and leaders
Zachary Taylor Winfield Scott Stephen W. Kearney	Antonio López de Santa Anna Mariano Arista Pedro de Ampudia
Strength
7,000–44,000	18,000–40,000
Casualties and losses
KIA: 1,733 Total dead: 13,283 Wounded: 4,152	25,000 killed or wounded (Mexican government estimate)

The Mexican–American War was a military conflict fought between the United States and Mexico in the years 1846 to 1848.

The war arose from the competing claims to Texas by Mexico and the United States in the wake of the U.S. annexation of Texas in 1845. Mexico had always refused to recognize the loss of Texas in 1836 and announced its intention to take back what it considered a rebel province. In the United States, the war was a partisan issue, supported by most Democrats and opposed by most Whigs. Popular belief in the Manifest Destiny of America ultimately translated into public support for the war. In Mexico, the war was considered a matter of national pride.

The most important consequence of the war was the Mexican Cession, in which the Mexican territories of California and New Mexico were ceded to the United States. American politics entered several years of heated debate over slavery in the new territories, finally resolved by the Compromise of 1850. In Mexico, the enormous loss of territory which resulted from the war encouraged the central government to enact policies to colonize its northern territories as a hedge against further losses.

In the U.S., the war is sometimes called the Mexican War. In Mexico, it is called la intervención norteamericana (the North American Intervention) [1] or la guerra del 47 (the War of '47).

Prior to the Mexican-American War, Texas and other northern territories of Mexico were frequented by American mountain men and tradesmen who traversed the Santa Fe Trail. Americans were already in California, coming by way of the California Trail, and American ships had been exchanging goods for hides and tallow along the coast of California. For the 25 years subsequent to Mexico's independence from the Spanish Empire this area had been a part of the first Mexican republic (1823-1861) or the First Mexican Empire (1822-1823) that preceded it. The Spanish Empire had acquired these territories by conquering of the Aztec Empire and various other Native American peoples.

In the years following the Louisiana Purchase by the United States, U.S. settlers began to move westward into Spanish territory, encouraged by Spanish land grants and the United States government. After the Mexican War of Independence, Mexico inherited ownership of the North American territories from Spain and the westward migration of U.S. settlers continued. The Mexican government had an uneasy relationship with these early settlers, in part because the settlers were mostly Protestants in an officially Catholic Mexico.

In the mid-1830s, the government of Mexico, under General Santa Anna, attempted to centralize power. However, several Mexican states rebelled against his government, including Texas, California, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Durango, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Yucatán, Jalisco and Zacatecas. Texans had multiple grievances, including the abolition of slavery by Mexico in 1829 and the abolition of a federalist Constitution of 1824 for a centralist government under Santa Anna. The violent insurgency started in Texas is known as the Texas Revolution.

The new Mexican government, weakened and virtually bankrupt from the Mexican War of Independence, found it difficult to govern its northern territories, hundreds of miles from Mexico City, the nation's capital, but brutally put down rebellions in its southern territories.

In the successful 1836 Texas Revolution, Texas won its independence after defeating Santa Anna and the Mexican army. General Santa Anna was taken captive by the Texas militia and only released after he promised to recognize the sovereignty of the Republic of Texas. However, when Santa Anna returned to Mexico, the government never recognized the loss or independence of the Republic of Texas and declared its intention to recapture what it considered a breakaway province.

In the decade after the war, Texas consolidated its position as an independent republic by establishing diplomatic ties with Great Britain and the United States. By and large, most Texans were in favor of annexation by the United States, but anti-slavery Northerners feared that admitting another slave state would tip the balance of national power to the slave-holding South, and they delayed Texas's annexation for almost a decade. Consequently, Texas was not admitted to the union until 1845, when it became the 28th state.

The Mexican government complained that by annexing its "rebel province," the United States had intervened in Mexico's internal affairs and unjustly seized its sovereign territory. The major European powers, led by Britain and France, recognized the independence of Texas and repeatedly tried to dissuade Mexico from declaring war. British efforts to mediate were fruitless as additional political disputes (particularly the Oregon boundary dispute) arose between Britain and the United States.

In 1845, the new U.S. President, James K. Polk, sent diplomat John Slidell to Mexico City in an attempt to purchase Mexico's California and New Mexico territories. American expansionists wanted California to thwart British ambitions in the area and to have a port on the Pacific Ocean, which would allow the United States to participate in the lucrative trade with Asia. Polk authorized Slidell to forgive the $4.5 million owed to U.S. citizens from the Mexican War of Independence and pay another $25 to $30 million in exchange for the two territories.

However, Mexico was neither inclined nor in a position to negotiate, largely because of political turmoil. In 1846 alone, the presidency changed hands four times, the war ministry six times, and the finance ministry sixteen times. ^[1] According to historian D.F. Stevens both Mexican public opinion and Mexican political factions and leaders were hawkish on the issue of North American territories, advocating a policy of war ^[2]. Mexicans opposing open conflict with the United States such as President José Joaquin de Herrera and others were considered traitors. When President Juaquin de Herrera considered receiving Slidell in order to peacefully negotiate the problem of Texas annexation, he was deposed after being accused of treason and trying to hand over part of national territory.

Military opponents of President José Joaquin de Herrera considered Slidell's presence in Mexico City an insult. After a more nationalistic government under General Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga came to power, the new government publicly reaffirmed Mexico's claim to Texas, and Slidell left in a temper, convinced that Mexico should be "chastised." [2]

Mexico, which had never recognized Texas's independence, claimed the Nueces River — about 150 miles north of the Rio Grande — as the border between Texas and Mexico. The United States, however, upheld Texas' claim to the land between the Nueces and the Rio Grande. The boundary claimed by Texas was established by the defunct 1836 Treaty of Velasco that ended the Texas Revolution. Mexico argued that General Santa Anna signed the treaty under duress, when he was held captive by the Texans, so it was invalid. Moreover, the Mexicans argued, Santa Anna had no authority to negotiate or sign a treaty, and the Treaties were never ratified by the Mexican government. In 1846, after Texas was admitted into the Union, Polk sent troops under General Zachary Taylor to the Rio Grande River to protect Texas from a threatened Mexican invasion (Bauer; 6, 17-18).

Taylor ignored Mexican demands to withdraw to the Nueces and began constructing a make-shift fort (later known as Fort Brown) on the banks of the Rio Grande opposite the Mexican town of Matamoros. Mexican forces under General Mariano Arista prepared for war.

On April 24, 1846, a 2,000-strong Mexican cavalry detachment attacked a 63-man American patrol that was sent into the contested territory north of the Rio Grande and south of the Nueces rivers. The Mexican cavalry succeeded in routing the patrol, killing 11 U.S. soldiers in what later became known as the Thornton Affair, after the slain U.S. officer who was in command. A few survivors escaped and returned to Fort Brown.

On May 3, Mexican artillery at Matamoros opened fire on Fort Brown, which replied with its own guns. The bombardment continued for five days and expanded as the Mexican forces gradually surrounded the fort. Two U.S. soldiers were killed during the bombardment, including Jacob Brown, after whom the fort was later named.

On May 8, Zachary Taylor arrived with 2,400 troops to relieve the fort. However, Arista rushed north and intercepted him with a force of 3,400 at Palo Alto. The Americans used a new artillery method named flying artillery — a mobile light artillery that was mounted on horse carriages, with all cannoneers mounted as well. American artillery had a devastating effect on the Mexican Army. The Mexicans responded with cavalry skirmishes and its own artillery. The American flying artillery somewhat demoralized the Mexican side and they felt the need to find a terrain more to their advantage. They retreated to the far side of a dry riverbed (resaca) during the night, which provided a natural fortification, but also scattered their troops so that communication was difficult. During the Battle of Resaca de la Palma the next day, the two sides engaged in vicious hand-to-hand fighting. The American cavalry managed to capture the Mexican artillery, leading the Mexican side to retreat, a retreat that turned into a rout. Because of the terrain and the dispersion of his troops, Arista found it impossible to rally his forces. Mexican casualties were heavy, and they were forced to abandon their artillery and baggage. Fort Brown inflicted further casualties as the withdrawing troops passed by them and swam across the Rio Grande where many drowned.

By then, Polk had received word of the Thornton affair, and added this to the rejection of Slidell as the casus belli. A message to Congress on May 11, 1846 stated that Mexico had "invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil". A joint session of Congress overwhelmingly approved the declaration of war. Democrats overwhelmingly supported the war. 67 Whigs voted against it on a key amendment, but on the final passage only 14 Whigs voted no, including then representative Abraham Lincoln. The United States declared war on Mexico on May 13, 1846, and Mexico declared war on 23 May.

Whigs in both North and South generally opposed the war, while Democrats mostly supported it. Whig Abraham Lincoln contested the causes for the war and demanded to know the exact spot on which Thornton had been attacked and U.S. blood had been shed.

"This war is a nondescript," declared Whig leader Robert Toombs of Georgia. "We charge the President with usurping the war-making power . . . with seizing a country . . . which had been for centuries, and was then in the possession of the Mexicans. . . . Let us put a check upon this lust of dominion. We had territory enough, Heaven knew." [Beveridge 1:417]

After the declaration of war, U.S. forces invaded Mexican territory on two main fronts. The U.S. war department sent a cavalry force under Stephen W. Kearny to invade western Mexico from Fort Leavenworth, reinforced by a Pacific Fleet under John D. Sloat. This was done primarily because of concerns that Britain might also attempt to occupy the area. Two more forces, one under John E. Wool and the other under Taylor, were ordered to occupy Mexico as far south as the city of Monterrey.

In 1846, the Mexican territory of California was thinly populated, with small and scattered settlements of both Spanish-speaking Californios and Hispanos and English-speaking immigrants, and both were outnumbered by the Native American populations.

On June 14, 1846 30 American settlers in Sonoma, after a night of drinking, arrested and imprisoned Lieutenant Colonel Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and proclaimed an independent republic of California; this proved to be a short-lived "republic" and its influence never reached further than Sonoma and scattered parts of northern California. Captain John C. Frémont of the U.S. Army arrived with his soldiers at the so-called "Bear Flag Revolt" in Sonoma on June 25 and organized the rebels into a motley group calling itself the California Battalion.

On July 7, on California's Pacific coast, Sloat claimed Monterey (not to be confused with Monterrey, Nuevo León), taking formal control of California under the U.S. flag. He transferred his command to Commodore Robert F. Stockton on July 15.

On August 13, 1846, American naval forces sailed into Los Angeles and raised the U.S. flag without opposition. However, the heavy-handed martial law of Captain Archibald Gillespie, who was acting commander of Los Angeles, ignited a popular uprising led by José Mariá Flores. Gillespie's small but oppressive garrison was thrown out on September 23 and his life was spared in a truce on the condition that he immediately leave California.

Stockton was informed of this revolt by the ¨Paul Revere¨ of California, Lean John, and promised to make quick work of the uprising and their leaders by sending Captain William Mervine and a ship to San Pedro. As Captain Mervine landed his 350 men on October 7, 1846, Gillespie, seeing Mervine and his force land, immediately scrapped the truce made with the Californios. The new expedition quickly set out for Los Angeles, anxious to cover themselves in martial glory. In a skirmish known as ¨The Battle of the Old Woman's Gun¨, mounted Californios led by Jose Antonio Carillo met Mervine's sailors, Marines, and Bear Flaggers with fire from a single cannon which took a terrible toll on Mervine's men, forcing him to retreat with his marines back to his ship Savannah, where the Californios couldn't reach them. This battle is also known as the Battle of Dominguez Rancho. During the skirmish, ten Americans were wounded, of which four later died (Bauer, 185). The Californios suffered no dead and 5 wounded. As a great number of American reinforcements approached, the Californios retreated as night fell. Commodore Stockton landed in San Diego and later relieved Mervine and Gillespie with large reinforcements.

Meanwhile, General Kearny and the Army of the West (some 1,700 U.S. army troops) marched to Santa Fe, New Mexico and took control. Kearny then proceeded onward with a considerably smaller detachment of 300 dragoons along the Gila River valley, and across the deserts to California, arriving there with fewer than 150 men. General Kearny had been ill-advised by a number of Americans, including his famous scout-Kit Carson, that the Californios were cowards and would sooner run than fight. Kearny received the news that Andres Pico and his insurgents were in the vicinity. Before dawn on December 6, 1846, at San Pascual (near present day Escondido, California) General Kearny and the Army of the West, augmented by Gillespie's men, fought a pitched battle with less than 150 Californios. The Californios, renowned for their horsemanship, easily outmanuevered the Americans with their lassos roping them off their horses and dragging them to their deaths, or stabbed them with their lances. Of the 150 U.S. soldiers engaged about 18 were killed and 13 others wounded, including General Kearny. The Battle of San Pascual was a disaster for the Americans (Bauer, 188), but did little more than delay the U.S. re-conquest of California.

On November 16, 1846, another battle took place at the Rancho La Natividad (near present day Salinas Valley). The Californios under Joaquin de la Torre had captured the American consul Thomas Oliver Larkin and were holding him as a prisoner of war. Some 100 of Fremont's men, led by Bluford "Hell Roaring" Thompson and Charles Burroughs met a contingent of 130 Californios led by Commandante Manuel de Jesus Casto and Joaquin de la Torre. A battle ensued lasting 20 minutes in which the Californio force killed 5 Americans, including Captain Burroughs, and wounded several more.

Upon arriving in southern California, Stockton united with naval reinforcements and won the Battle of Rio San Gabriel and the La Mesa, taking control of San Diego and Los Angeles. The Treaty of Cahuenga was signed on January 13, 1847 between John Charles Fremont and General Andrés Pico to end the conflict in California and secure that territory for the United States.

The defeats at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma caused political turmoil in Mexico, turmoil which Antonio López de Santa Anna used to revive his political career and return from self-imposed exile in Cuba. He promised the Americans that if allowed to pass through their blockade, he would negotiate a peaceful conclusion to the war and sell the New Mexico and California territories to the United States. Once he arrived in Mexico, however, he reneged and offered his military skills to the Mexican government. After he had been appointed general, he reneged again, this time to his own government, and seized the presidency.

2,300 Americans led by Taylor crossed the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo) after some initial difficulties in obtaining river transport. He occupied the city of Matamoros, then Camargo (where while waiting the soldiery suffered the first of many problems with disease) and then proceeded south and besieged the city of Monterrey. This Battle of Monterrey was a hard fought battle during which both sides suffered serious losses. The Americans light artillery was ineffective against the stone fortifications of the city. The Mexican forces were under General Pedro de Ampudia. An American infantry division and the Texas Rangers captured four hills to the west of the town and with them heavy cannon. That lent the Americans the strength to storm the city from the west and east. Once in the city, Americans fought house to house: each was cleared by throwing lighted shells, which worked like grenades. Eventually, these actions drove and trapped Ampudia's men into the city's central plaza, where howitzer shelling forced Ampudia to negotiate. Taylor agreed to allow the Mexican Army to evacuate and to an 8-week armistice in return for the surrender of the city. Under pressure from Washington, Taylor broke the armistice and occupied the city of Saltillo, south of Monterrey. Santa Anna blamed the loss of Monterrey and Saltillo on Ampudia and demoted him to command a small artillery battalion.

On February 22, 1847, Santa Anna personally marched north to fight Taylor with 20,000 men. Taylor with 4,600 men had entrenched at a mountain pass called Buena Vista with 4,600 men. Santa Anna suffered desertions on the way north and arrived with 15,000 men in a tired state. He demanded and was refused surrender of the Americans; he attacked the next morning. Santa Anna flanked the American positions by sending his cavalry and some of his infantry up the steep terrain that made up one side of the pass, while a division of infantry attacked frontally along the road leading to Buena Vista. Furious fighting ensued during which the Americans were almost routed, but were saved by artillery fire against a Mexican advance at close range by Captain Braxton Bragg, and a charge by the mounted Mississippi Riflemen under Jefferson Davis. Having suffered discouraging losses, Santa Anna withdrew that night, leaving Taylor in control of Northern Mexico. Polk distrusted Taylor, who he felt had shown incompetence in the Battle of Monterrey by agreeing to the armistice, and may have considered him a political rival for the White House. Taylor later used the Battle of Buena Vista as the centerpiece of his successful 1848 presidential campaign.

Meanwhile, rather than reinforce Taylor's army for a continued advance, President Polk sent a second army under General Winfield Scott, which was transported to the port of Veracruz by sea, to begin an invasion of the Mexican heartland. Scott performed the first major amphibious landing in the history of the United States in preparation for the Siege of Veracruz. A group of 12,000 volunteer and regular soldiers successfully offloaded supplies, weapons and horses near the walled city. Included in the group were Robert E. Lee and George Meade. The city was defended by Mexican general Juan Morales with 3,400 men. Mortars and naval guns (under Commodore Matthew C. Perry) were used to reduce the city walls and harass defenders. The city replied as best it could with its own artillery. The effect of the extended barrage destroyed the will of the Mexican side to fight against a numerically superior foe, and they surrendered the city after 12 days under siege. Americans suffered 80 casualties, while the Mexican side had around 180 killed and wounded, about half of whom were civilian. During the siege, the American side began to fall victim to Yellow Fever.

Scott then marched westward toward Mexico City with 8,500 healthy troops, while Santa Anna set up a defensive position in a canyon around the main road at the halfway mark to Mexico city, near the hamlet of Cerro Gordo. Santa Anna had entrenched with 12,000 troops and artillery that were trained on the road, along which he expected Scott to appear. However, Scott had sent 2,600 mounted dragoons ahead and the Mexican artillery prematurely fired on them and revealed their positions. Instead of taking the main road, Scott's troops trekked through the rough terrain to the north, setting up his artillery on the high ground and quietly flanking the Mexicans. Although by then aware of the American positions, Santa Anna and his troops were unprepared for the onslaught that followed. The Mexican army was routed. The Americans suffered 400 casualties, while the Mexicans suffered over 1,000 casualties and 3,000 were taken prisoner.

In May, Scott pushed on to Puebla, the second largest city in Mexico. Because of the citizens' hostility to Santa Anna, the city capitulated without resistance on May 15. Mexico City was laid open in the Battle of Chapultepec and subsequently occupied.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the war and gave the U.S undisputed control of Texas as well as California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming. In return, Mexico received $18,250,000, the equivalent of $627,500,000 in mid-2000s dollars. Mexicans living in the conquered lands could choose to return to Mexico or stay and become American citizens. Article X was struck from the treaty before it was ratified by the U.S. Senate. These articles promised that the United States would recognize Mexican and Spanish land grants.

About 13,000 American soldiers died during the course of the Mexican War, only about 1,700 were killed in combat. 90% died of disease, such as yellow fever. Mexican casualties are estimated at 25,000.

One of the contributing factors to loss of the war by Mexico was the inferiority of their weapons. The Mexican army was using British Muskets from the Napoleonic War, while American troops had the latest American manufactured Rifles. Furthermore, Mexican troops were trained to fire with their musket held loosely at hip-level, while Americans used the much more accurate method of butting the rifle up to the shoulder and taking aim along the barrel.

The Saint Patrick's Battalion (San Patricios), was a group of several hundred Irish immigrant soldiers who deserted the U.S. Army and joined the Mexican army. Most were killed in the Battle of Churubusco; about 100 were captured and hanged as deserters. The last surviving U.S. veteran of the conflict, Owen Thomas Edgar, died on September 3, 1929 at the age of 98.

Mexico lost more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 square km) of land, almost half of its territory. The annexed territories contained about 1,000 Mexican families in California and 7,000 in New Mexico. A few moved back to Mexico; the great majority remained and became U.S. citizens.

A month before the end of the war, Polk was criticized in a House of Representatives amendment to a bill praising Maj. General Zachary Taylor for "a war unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the President of the United States." This criticism, in which Congressman Abraham Lincoln played an important role, followed congressional scrutiny of the war's beginnings, including factual challenges to claims made by President Polk^{[3] [4]}. The vote followed party lines, with all Whigs supporting the amendment. Lincoln's attack damaged his political career in Illinois, where the war was popular, and he did not run for re-election.

In much of the United States, victory and the acquisition of new land brought a surge of patriotism (the country had also acquired the southern half of the Oregon Country in 1846 through a treaty with Great Britain). Victory seemed to fulfill citizens' belief in their country's Manifest Destiny. While Whig Ralph Waldo Emerson rejected war "as a means of achieving America's destiny," he accepted that "most of the great results of history are brought about by discreditable means." Although the Whigs had opposed the war, they made Zachary Taylor their presidential candidate in the election of 1848, praising his military performance while muting their criticism of the war itself.

The war had been widely supported by Democrats, and opposed by Whigs. Many Northern abolitionists attacked the war as an attempt by slave-owners to expand slavery and assure their continued influence in the Federal government. Henry David Thoreau wrote his essay Civil Disobedience and refused to pay taxes to support the war. Former president John Quincy Adams also expressed his belief that the war was an effort to expand slavery. In 1846, Democratic Congressman David Wilmot introduced the Wilmot Proviso to prohibit slavery in any new territory acquired from Mexico. Wilmot's proposal did not pass, but it sparked further hostility between the factions.

In the 1880s, Ulysses S. Grant, who had served under Scott's command, called the conflict an evil war that had brought God's punishment on the United States in the form of the American Civil War:

The Southern rebellion was largely the outgrowth of the Mexican war. Nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions. We got our punishment in the most sanguinary and expensive war of modern times. [3]

Many of the generals of the latter war had fought in the former, including Grant, George B. McClellan, Ambrose Burnside, Stonewall Jackson, James Longstreet, George Meade, and Robert E. Lee, as well as the future Confederate president, Jefferson Davis.

In Mexico City's Chapultepec Park, the Monument to the Heroic Cadets commemorates the heroic sacrifice of six teenage military cadets who fought to their deaths rather than surrender to American invaders during the Battle of Chapultepec Castle on September 18, 1847. The monument is an important patriotic site in Mexico. On March 5, 1947, nearly a hundred years after the battle, U.S. President Harry S. Truman placed a wreath at the monument and stood for a moment of silence.

• Battles of the Mexican-American War
• History of Mexico
• List of Mexican-American War Veterans
• Reconquista (Mexico)

• Polk, James. Polk: The Diary of a President, 1845-1849, Covering the Mexican War, the Acquisition of Oregon, and the Conquest of California and the Southwest. edited by Allan Nevins (1929)
• Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant from Project Gutenberg

• Bauer K. Jack. The Mexican War, 1846-1848. Macmillan, 1974.
• Crawford, Mark; Heidler, Jeanne T.; Heidler, David Stephen , eds. Encyclopedia of the Mexican-American War (1999) (ISBN 157607059X)
• De Voto, Bernard, Year of Decision 1846 (1942)
• Mayers, David; Fernández Bravo, Sergio A., "La Guerra Con Mexico Y Los Disidentes Estadunidenses, 1846-1848" [The War with Mexico and US Dissenters, 1846-48]. Secuencia [Mexico] 2004 (59): 32-70. Issn: 0186-0348
• Meed, Douglas. The Mexican War, 1846-1848 (2003). A short survey.
• Rodríguez Díaz, María Del Rosario. "Mexico's Vision of Manifest Destiny During the 1847 War" Journal of Popular Culture 2001 35(2): 41-50. Issn: 0022-3840
• Smith, Justin Harvey. The War with Mexico. 2 vol (1919). Pulitzer Prize winner.

• Bauer K. Jack. Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest. Louisiana State University Press, 1985.
• Eisenhower, John. So Far From God: The U.S. War with Mexico, Random House (New York; 1989)
• Frazier, Donald S. The U.S. and Mexico at War, Macmillan (1998)
• Hamilton, Holman, Zachary Taylor: Soldier of the Republic , (1941)
• Johnson, Timothy D. Winfield Scott: The Quest for Military Glory, University Press of Kansas (1998)
• Foos, Paul. A Short, Offhand, Killing Affair: Soldiers and Social Conflict during the Mexican-American War (2002)
• Lewis, Lloyd. Captain Sam Grant (1950)
• Winders, Richard Price. Mr. Polk's Army Texas A&M Press (College Station, 1997)

• Albert J. Beveridge; Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1858. Volume: 1. 1928.
• Brack, Gene M. Mexico Views Manifest Destiny, 1821-1846: An Essay on the Origins of the Mexican War (1975).
• Fowler, Will. Tornel and Santa Anna: The Writer and the Caudillo, Mexico, 1795-1853 (2000)
• Gleijeses, Piero. "A Brush with Mexico" Diplomatic History 2005 29(2): 223-254. Issn: 0145-2096 debates in Washington before war
• Graebner, Norman A. Empire on the Pacific: A Study in American Continental Expansion. New York: Ronald Press, 1955.
• Graebner, Norman A. "Lessons of the Mexican War." Pacific Historical Review 47 (1978): 325-42.
• Graebner, Norman A. "The Mexican War: A Study in Causation." Pacific Historical Review 49 (1980): 405-26.
• Krauze, Enrique. Mexico: Biography of Power, Harpers: 1997
• Pletcher David M. The Diplomacy of Annexation: Texas, Oregon, and the Mexican War. University of Missouri Press, 1973.
• Price, Glenn W. Origins of the War with Mexico: The Polk-Stockton Intrigue. University of Texas Press, 1967.
• Robinson, Cecil, The View From Chapultepec: Mexican Writers on the Mexican-American War, University of Arizona Press (Tucson, 1989)
• Ruiz, Ramon Eduardo. Triumph and Tragedy: A History of the Mexican People, Norton 1992
• Schroeder John H. Mr. Polk's War: American Opposition and Dissent, 1846-1848. University of Wisconsin Press, 1973.
• Sellers Charles G. James K. Polk: Continentalist, 1843-1846 Princeton University Press, 1966.
• Smith, Justin Harvey. The War with Mexico. 2 vol (1919). Pulitzer Prize winner.
• Weinberg Albert K. Manifest Destiny: A Study of Nationalist Expansionism in American History Johns Hopkins University Press, 1935.
• Yanez, Agustin. Santa Anna: Espectro de una sociedad (1996)

• Guerra de Intervención Norteamericana, an account of the war (in Spanish) from the Spanish Wikipedia.
• The Handbook of Texas Online: Mexican War
• The Mexican War
• Mexican-American War Resources
• Lone Star Internet
• PBS site of US-Mexican war program
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and related resources at the U.S. Library of Congress
• Smithsonian teaching aids for "Establishing Borders: The Expansion of the United States, 1846-48"
• Franklin Pierce's Journal on the March from Vera Cruz

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