| What makes it historical? |
The Battle of Palo Alto sprang from a conflict over a strip of land between two rivers! After annexing Texas from Mexico in 1835, the USA drew the southern border of the Lone Star State at the Rio Grande. Mexico, on the other hand, put the end of Texas at the Nueces River! So conflict arose over just who owned this patch of land called the Nueces Strip. Nuts!
The US offered Mexico $30 million for this strip, New Mexico, and Alta California, but President José Joaquín Herrera declined. So, the US moved troops to the edge of the Rio Grande and waited, because President Polk didn’t want to make the unpopular decision to launch the US into another war with Mexico. So he held the troops there and waited for Mexico to react.
Sure enough, on May 1, 1846, General Mariano Arista ordered his troops across the Rio Grande to attack these invaders of Mexican territory. A week later, Mexican troops clashed with forces led by General Zachary Taylor along a supply road through Palo Alto! After a day of fierce fighting, the American troops pushed the Mexican army back to Resaca de la Palma and then back again across the Rio Grande! The US Army would then follow them across the river to capture Matamoros, Monterrey, Veracruz, and then Mexico City to end the war! |
