Mexican War
In the fall of 1845, just before hostilities broke out between the United States and Mexico, Brevet Brig. Gen. Zachary Taylor organized the Regular Army forces that had gathered at Corpus Christi, Texas, numbering about 3,900 men, into three brigades, each consisting of two infantry regiments or their equivalent. The 2d Dragoons and Regular Army field artillery companies supported the brigades. With these forces Taylor fought and won the Battles of Palo Alto (8 May 1846) and Resaca de Palma (9 May 1846).[1]
After the declaration of war in the spring of 1846, Congress called for 50,000 volunteers. Individual states organized their volunteers into regiments, which the War Department initially planned to brigade, mixing foot and mounted infantry[2] in the same units. Two or more volunteer brigades, each consisting of three or more regiments, were to form a division. Under the wartime laws, a brigade was to be authorized at least 3,000 men and a division 6,000. Since Army Regulations called for no fixed staffs, the president was to appoint a quartermaster, commissary, and surgeon for each brigade. Each staff officer was to have an assistant. Congress further provided that the regimental officers of a brigade could employ a chaplain.[3]
In the late summer of 1846 Taylor organized his army into divisions for a campaign against Monterrey, Mexico. Using the three brigades he had organized in 1845, plus a new brigade, Taylor formed two Regular Army divisions of two brigades each. Each brigade had two infantry regiments; three brigades had a field artillery company attached; and one division had an additional field artillery company and a regiment of dragoons assigned. Because the volunteers did not deploy in any prearranged order, Taylor temporarily brigaded a portion of those who had joined him for instruction and camp service. Others he organized as a volunteer division of two brigades, each containing two 500-man infantry regiments. A regiment of mounted volunteers from Texas completed the division. With these forces Taylor captured Monterrey in September 1846.[4]
When Taylor took to the field after his victory at Monterrey, he had planned to continue to use divisional organizations. But, since the political leadership in Washington decided to shift the center of operations more directly toward Mexico City, the bulk of Taylor's troops were transferred to a new command under Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott and were replaced by green volunteers. With 5,000 mostly untrained troops, in February 1847 Taylor fought the Battle of Buena Vista, where his inexperienced troops performed well. Buena Vista was particularly a triumph for American artillery, whose mobility allowed it to counter enemy thrusts with intense firepower and close infantry support when and where needed. Infantry and artillery had formed a more effective combined arms team.[5]
Scott's command against Mexico City, a force of about 12,000 men, was initially organized into two Regular Army infantry brigades and a three-brigade volunteer division. Each brigade was supported by field artillery. After the siege of
- ↑ Justin H. Smith, The War With Mexico, 2 vols, (New York: Macmillan Co., 1919), 1:143–80 passim; Kreidberg and Henry, Mobilization, pp. 73–75.
- ↑ Mounted infantry men were dragoons who reached the battlefield on horse but as foot soldiers.
- ↑ Callan, Military Laws, pp. 367–69, 373, 375, and 380; Kreidberg and Henry, Mobilization, p. 73; Mexican War Correspondence (Washington, D.C.: Wendell and van Benthuysen, Printers, 1848), p. 458.
- ↑ Mexican War Correspondence, pp. 417–19, 498–500; Edward D. Mansfield, The Mexican War: A History of Its Origin (New York: A.S. Barnes and Co., 1850), p. 57.
- ↑ Mexican War Correspondence, pp. 513–14; John D, Eisenhower, So Far From God: The U.S. War with Mexico 1846–1848 (New York; Random House, 1989), pp. 178–91; Dastrup, Kings of Battle, pp. 71–78.
