National Park Service to open first site dedicated to U.S.-Mexico War

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- A cactus-dotted stretch of land that lay forgotten for more than a century is where the National Park Service decided to put its first site dedicated to the U.S.-Mexican War.

Appropriately, the 3,400-acre Palo Alto Battlefield is where U.S. and Mexican soldiers began a fight that led to Mexico losing half its territory and the United States gaining claim to the Southwest.

However, the visitor's center, which officially opens Saturday, will feature displays reflecting both U.S. and Mexican perspectives on the war -- in English and Spanish -- in hopes of attracting visitors from both sides of the border.

"What we're trying to do is look at the historical process and honor the soldiers of both countries," said Douglas Murphy, the National Park Service historian responsible for organizing the exhibits.

Still, it took a lot of negotiating by the park service to get Mexican historians to share what few documents they have from the period, Murphy said. The Mexican government gave no official support.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry and other dignitaries are scheduled to officially open the park site, which also has a scenic overlook. Future plans include a network of trails through the battlefield.

U.S. and Mexican high school color guards will attend the ceremony, and both national anthems will be played. Mexican dignitaries have been invited, Murphy said, but he was not confident they would show.

The battlefield was long forgotten after the war. For more than a century, it was owned by a succession of private ranchers. Locals speak of childhood scouting missions yielding buttons from uniforms or shards of ammunition.

In the 1970s, then U.S. Rep. Kika de la Garza began a campaign to acquire the land and have it dedicated as a historic landmark. U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz continued the efforts in the 1980s. President George H. Bush signed the authorizing legislation in 1991, allocating $1.9 million to begin acquiring the land.

The battlefield, located nine miles east of the Rio Grande, saw the first real action in the U.S.-Mexican War, also known as "Mr. Polk's War," after then-Pres. James K. Polk.

"Polk was hell-bent on starting a war in order to get his political goals accomplished to stretch the boundaries of the United States," said Gilberto Hinojosa, dean at University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio.

And stretch them he did: the more than half a million square miles of territory acquired by war comprise what is today California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, as well as parts of Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming.

U.S. forces led by Gen. Zachary Taylor spent the hot afternoon of May 8, 1846, trading cannon shots with Mexican soldiers led by Gen. Mariano Arista.

Taylor's men were outnumbered by more than a third, but they had the advantage of newer, lighter artillery, including cannon balls filled with shrapnel. Arista reported 252 men killed, Taylor nine. Nightfall ended the battle.

The war continued with Taylor's army pushing into the Mexican interior and Mexico City. It ended with Mexico giving up 529,017 square miles of territory under the Feb. 2, 1848, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Texas-Mexico border was moved from the Nueces River near Corpus Christi about 200 miles south to the Rio Grande.

Kind of like Dessert Storm. It took a second shot to march into Baghdad. We should have taken the whole enchilada at that time.

Try studying your history more closely. Gen. Scott and his forces landed at Vera Cruz, defeated a much larger Mexican army marched overland to Mexico City, defeating forces on the way that combined could have overwhelmed him at more than 10 to one odds, then after the Battle of Chapultepec, marched into Mexico City with an American flag flying over their government buildings. The Mexican forces under Santa Anna were driven away.

Gen Scott was offered the military dictatorship of Mexico by the remaining Mexican government after their surrender. He was offered the "whole enchilada." He turned them down cold because he was an honorable man and also knew that was not the kind of victory a nation like America would pursue.

We not only kicked their ass, but paid them as well.

After annexing Texas, the US began negotiations for the purchase of the western territories that became New Mexico, Arizona, and California. The price tag was a little over 30 million. Part of the deal was to get an agreement on the Texas border. The treaty that established the Republic of Texas at the Rio Grande, the Mexican government was insisting it was now Neuces. The Mexican government changed after a revolution, the Slidell deal was off, new Mexican nationalism led to the new government declaring a defensive war against the US.

Not long after, Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande, killed Texan settlers, and engaged US troops in the area. Polk then asked Congress for a declaration of war.

After the US forces defeated the Mexican army in Mexico City, Santa Anna was on the run and fled the country. The new Mexican president began negotiating with Trist, who had been recalled by Polk but remained anyway to continue negotiations. The first treaty efforts were derailed by Polk's reaction to Trist's disobedience and the MExican government's stubbornness and pride. Trist's further negotiations resulted in the final treaty.

Lower California and Arizona were not part of the peace treaty. That treaty formally recognized the borders of Texas, and gave the areas of New Mexico, part of Colorado, and upper California to the US. The original demands for the ceded territories was over thirty million. Negotiations stuck at 15 million. At this point, Polk acceded to public pressure in an election year with an electorate tired of war and casualties. He submitted the treaty to Congress as it met his demands for the new border and he begrudgingly recognized that the new Mexican government needed funds to rebuild and that further war would have torn the US apart. Fifteen million was a small price to pay to rebuild two countries.

It wasn't the best treaty and Polk knew it. He also knew that the cause of the war had been settled with the treaty defined borders, the attacks on America had been repaid and further attacks were not going to come, and a lasting good peace was possible. Overall, as Truman once said, "Polk was a great President. He said what he was going to do and did it." Polk said he would settle the issue of war with Mexico for good, and he did it. No Americans suffered from war with Mexico since.

Presidents Polk and Bush share the same pitiful lack of gravitus. Americans then and now are paying dearly for that immense character flaw.

Pres. G.H.W. Bush on the other hand, was handicapped by different circumstances. No Arab nation was going to open their borders to US only forces and we couldn't mount a successful large-scale amphibious invasion without ground support. So an alliance had to be formed to satisfy all demands whether European or Arab, and the iron promise of repelling the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and not removing Saddam had to be given - otherwise, not only would we have no bases in Saudi Arabia but we would be facing wider war with the other Arab nations.

Even though it was the right thing to do to go after Saddam then and even though Bush knew it was a terrible mistake to leave him alone, it was the only way to free Kuwait. To go after Saddam anyway would have broken our word, dishonorable and fatal to any further progress in the Arab world.

Keeping that word, even though it led to further problems, gave the US opportunities and even some support after 9/11. Deliberately making the mistake then set the stage to make the invasion of Iraq a possibility now.

G. H. W. Bush made mistakes in his presidency, most of them domestic and trusting the Democrats, but stopping short after Kuwait was one he promised to make. Keeping your word is a large part of gravitas - even if that word is a Left buzzword.

No Americans suffered from war with Mexico since.

See: http://web.nmsu.edu/~publhist/colhist.htm

"Columbus, New Mexico, in the early spring of 1916 was a sleepy little border town. As the Mexican Revolution raged to the south, most Americans perceived little threat from this conflict, including many of Columbus' citizens, who felt safe in their village. To add to this feeling of security, a detachment of approximately 350 U.S. Army soldiers from the 13th Calvary stationed at Camp Furlong on the outskirts of Columbus stood between Mexico and the town.

In the middle of the night on March 9, 1916, life in Columbus changed dramatically. At 1:00 A.M., between 500 and 600 Mexican revolutionaries, led by General Francisco "Pancho" Villa, crossed the border into the United States. Villa divided his troops and attacked Columbus from the southwest at approximately 4:20 am. This attack caught the entire town, as well as the army camp, by surprise.

The Villistas concerned themselves more with raiding than killing, otherwise the town might have been erased. That morning majority of the destruction of the town came from the burning and pillaging of the business district. Surprisingly, the army camp and stables received little damage, even though the horses and armaments must have been attractive to the raiders. Alerted by the gunfire and burning buildings, many Columbus residents fled to the desert, or sought refuge in the school house, the Hoover Hotel, or private homes. The noise and fire sealed the fate of the raiding Mexican Army. U.S. Army officers and soldiers, awakened by the commotion, set up a Benet-Mercier machine gun in front of the Hoover Hotel and produced a murderous rain of bullets. Another machine gun set up on East Boundary Street fired north and caught anyone in the intersection of Broadway and East Boundary in a deadly crossfire. The raid lasted until dawn, or approximately one and a half hours. By this time, the death toll totaled 70 to 75 Villistas. In addition, during the attack on Columbus, eighteen Americans, mostly civilians, died."

Winfield Scott is the most underrated US General in history.

I agree that he is by modern historians. Scott was a living legend in his own times, Hero of 1812, promoted to General in Chief of the armies, returned to great fanfare after the war with Mexico, awarded a special medal by Congress, and then promoted to Lt. Gen., the first since Washington. Sadly, he was a man grown too old for his job when the Civil War broke out, and he knew it but still tried to serve his President. It's a shame he was set aside like he was.

However, there is one lasting and reverent tribute to the great general - the uniforms of the cadet corps of West Point are fashioned after the uniforms of Scott's troops in the War of 1812.

When Scott cut off his lines of communications and went to Mexico City while outnumbered, Wellington (victor of Waterloo) commented that "Scott is lost."

Yep, and after Scott took Mexico City, the Duke of Wellington said, "His campaign was unsurpassed in military annals. He is the greatest living soldier."

The advance to Mexico City by Scott was ballsier than anything Robert E. Lee or Patton ever did.

Very true. Yet, many historians have theorized that it influenced Grant when he made the decision to cut off his own lines of communication and supply and face a combined strength that outnumbered his forces in the Vicksburg campaign. A younger Lt. Grant was part of the march to Mexico City.

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