of opinion among the
American people. Polk's election by the Democrats in 1844 had turned
mainly upon the question of annexing Texas. Just before he came into
office the annexation was made.

Texas claimed as her western boundary the Rio Grande. Mexico held that
the western limit was the Nueces. Between the two rivers there was a
large area of disputed territory. The Texan claim was opposed by many
American statesmen and publicists, and by some was denounced--as the
annexation of Texas had been--as an aggressive move against Mexico. But
the United States Government supported the cause of Texas. General
Zachary Taylor, who had served in the War of 1812, and afterward in
several Indian wars, took command of the army in Texas in 1845. In
January, 1846, he was ordered to occupy positions on or near the left
bank of the Rio Grande del Norte. This order and its execution have been
held by some writers to constitute an act of war, but war was not
formally declared by the United States till May 11th. Taylor, with a
small force, had several slight encounters with Mexican troops, after
which he won the battle of Palo Alto (May 8, 1846), near the southern
extremity of Texas; and that of Resaca de la Palma (May 9th), also in
Texas, four miles north of Matamoros, Mexico. He took possession of
Matamoros May 18th. With six thousand men, against about ten thousand
Mexicans under Ampudia, Taylor captured Monterey, Mexico (September
24th), and at Buena Vista, February 22-23, 1847, with five thousand
troops, he defeated fifteen thousand Mexicans under Santa Anna, then
President of Mexico and commander of her army.

The war was now transferred to the district between Vera Cruz and the
City of Mexico, the capital, and was henceforth conducted for the United
States by General Winfield Scott, whose previous military career had
been much the same as General Taylor's. Scott had been made
Major-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Army in 1841. His first
operation in Mexico was the taking of Vera Cruz, the principal Mexican
seaport, on the Gulf of Mexico. With the aid of a fleet he besieged the
city in March, 1847, and on the 27th received its surrender. At Cerro
Gordo (April 17th and 18th) he won an important victory that opened his
way through the mountains toward his objective, the city of Mexico.
Reenforcements gradually reached him, and by the first of August he was
ready to move on the valley of Mexico with about eleven thousand men.
Fr