308 Chapter 11 Westward Expansion
headed by Captain John C. Frémont, leader of an
American exploring party that happened to be in the
area, clashed with the Mexican authorities around
Monterey, California, and then joined with the
Sonoma rebels. A naval squadron under Commodore
John D. Sloat captured Monterey and San Francisco
in July 1846, and a squadron of cavalry joined the
other American units in mopping-up operations
around San Diego and Los Angeles. By February
1847 the United States had won control of nearly all
of Mexico north of the capital city.
The campaign against Mexico City was the
most difficult of the war. Fearful of Taylor’s grow-
ing popularity and entertaining certain honest mis-
givings about his ability to oversee a complicated
campaign, Polk put Winfield Scott in charge of the
offensive. He tried to persuade Congress to make
Thomas Hart Benton a lieutenant general so as to
have a Democrat in nominal control, but the
Senate had the good sense to vote down this
absurd proposal.
About Scott’s competence no one entertained a
doubt. But he seemed even more of a threat to the
Democrats than Taylor, because he had political
ambitions as well as military ability. In 1840 the
Whigs had considered him for president. Scion of an
old Virginia family, Scott was nearly six and a half
feet tall; in uniform his presence was commanding.
He was intelligent, even-tempered, and cultivated, if
somewhat pompous. After a sound but not spectacu-
lar record in the War of 1812, he had added to his
reputation by helping modernize military adminis-
tration and strengthen the professional training of
officers. On the record, and despite the politics of
the situation, Polk had little choice but to give him
this command.
Scott landed his army south of Veracruz,
Mexico, on March 9, 1847, laid siege to the city,
and obtained its surrender in less than three weeks
with the loss of only a handful of his 10,000 men.
Marching westward through hostile country, he
maintained effective discipline, avoiding atrocities
that might have inflamed the countryside against
him. Finding his way blocked by well-placed
artillery and a large army at Cerro Gordo, where
the National Road rose steeply toward the central
highlands, Scott outflanked the Mexican position
and then carried it by storm, capturing more than
3,000 prisoners and much equipment. By mid-May
he had advanced to Puebla, only eighty miles south-
east of Mexico City.
After delaying until August for the arrival of
reinforcements, he pressed on, won two hard-fought
victories at the outskirts of the capital, and on
September 14 hammered his way into the city. In
every engagement the American troops had been
outnumbered, yet they always exacted a far heavier
toll from the defenders than they themselves were
forced to pay. In the fighting on the edge of Mexico
City, for example, Scott’s army sustained about
1,000 casualties, for the Mexicans defended their
capital bravely. But 4,000 Mexicans were killed or
wounded in the engagements, and 3,000 (including
eight generals, two of them former presidents of the
republic) were taken prisoner. No less an authority
than the Duke of Wellington, the conqueror of
Napoleon, called Scott’s campaign the most brilliant
of modern times.
Thomas Corwin, Against the Mexican War
atwww.myhistorylab.comThe Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Following the fall of Mexico City, the Mexican gov-
ernment was in turmoil. Polk had authorized pay-
ment of $30 million for New Mexico, upper and
lower California, and the right of transit across
Mexico’s narrow isthmus of Tehuantepec. Now,
observing the disorganized state of Mexican affairs,
he began to consider demanding more territory andReadtheDocumentThis shows Winfield Scott at the Battle of Buena Vista (1847).
Timothy Dwight Johnson, a biographer, wrote that Scott’s
“ambition fed his arrogance and, in turn, his arrogance fed
his ambition.” Indisputably, Scott was well fed.