Download or read book Doniphan s Epic March written by Joseph G. Dawson and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1846-1847, a ragtag army of 800 American volunteers marched 3,500 miles across deserts and mountains, through Indian territory and into Mexico. There they handed the Mexican army one of its most demoralizing defeats and helped the United States win its first foreign war. Their leader Colonel Alexander Doniphan, also a volunteer, was a "natural soldier" of towering stature who became a national hero in the wake of his wartime exploits. Doniphan was a small-town Missouri lawyer untrained in military matters when he answered President Polk's call for volunteers in the war with Mexico. Working from a host of primary sources, Joseph Dawson focuses on Doniphan's extraordinary leadership and chronicles how the colonel and his 1st Missouri Mounted Regiment helped capture New Mexico and went on to invade Chihuahua. Contending with wildfires, sandstorms, poor provisions, and the threat of attack from Apaches, they eventually came face-to-face with the formidable cannon and cavalry of a much larger Mexican force. Yet, at the Battle of Sacramento, these hardy volunteers outflanked General Jose Heredia's army and claimed a stunning American victory on foreign soil. Dawson explores and analyzes the many facets of Doniphan's exploits, from the decision to proceed to Chihuahua in the wake of the Taos Revolt to the tactics that shaped his victory at Sacramento, describing that battle in heart-stopping detail. He tells how Doniphan's legal expertise enabled him to supervise America's first military government administering a conquered land at Santa Fe and highlights Doniphan's remarkable cooperation with U.S. Army officers at a time when antagonism typified relationships between volunteers and regulars. He also introduces readers to other key personalities of the campaign, from fellow officers Stephen W. Kearny and Meriwether L. Clark to James Kiker, the controversial scout whom Doniphan reluctantly trusted. Dawson's thorough account captures the expansionist mood of America in the mid-nineteenth century and helps us understand how American soldiers were motivated by the idea of Manifest Destiny. His portrait of Doniphan and his troops reinforces the importance of the citizen-soldier in American history and provides a new window on the war that changed forever the hopes and dreams of our border nations.
Download or read book A Campaign in New Mexico with Colonel Doniphan written by Frank S. Edwards and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Turmoil on the Rio Grande written by William S. Kiser and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mid-nineteenth century was a tumultuous yet formative time for the Mesilla Valley, home to present-day Las Cruces, New Mexico. With the coming of the U.S. Army to Mexican territory in 1846, the region became the site of a continent-shaping power struggle between two rival nations. When Mexican governor Manuel Armijo unexpectedly fled Santa Fe, he left the New Mexico territory undefended, and it fell to forces under Brigadier General Stephen Watts Kearny in a bloodless occupation. In the ensuing two decades, the southern portion of New Mexico's Rio Grande Valley played a prominent role in the conflict that overtook the infant American territory. In Turmoil on the Rio Grande, William S. Kiser has mined primary archives and secondary materials alike to tell the story of those rough-and-tumble years and to highlight the effect the region had in the developing U.S. empire of the West. Kiser carefully limns in the culture into which the U.S. soldiers inserted themselves before going on to describe the armed forces that arrived and the actions in which they were involved. From the thirty-minute Battle of Brazito—in which the greenhorn recruits of the 1st Regiment of Missouri Volunteers, led by Col. Alexander Doniphan, vanquished Mexican troops through superior technology—to the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the international boundary disputes, and the Confederate victory at Fort Fillmore, Kiser deftly describes the actions that made the Mesilla Valley important in American history.
Download or read book Tales from the Journey of the Dead written by Alan Boye and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Readers are taken on a trek through the beauty and violence of the forbidding American desert that exists south of Albuquerque, a region known as the Jornada del Muerto, the Journey of the Dead, capturing the history of the area from the perspective of the travelers and natives who knew it best.
Download or read book Confederate Generals in the Trans Mississippi Vol 1 written by Lawrence L. Hewitt and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 2013-04-30 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Until relatively recently, conventional wisdom held that the Trans-Mississippi Theater was a backwater of the American Civil War. Scholarship in recent decades has corrected this oversight, and a growing number of historians agree that the events west of the Mississippi River proved integral to the outcome of the war. Nevertheless, generals in the Trans-Mississippi have received little attention compared to their eastern counterparts, and many remain mere footnotes to Civil War history. This welcome volume features cutting-edge analyses of eight Southern generals in this most neglected theater—Thomas Hindman, Theophilus Holmes, Edmund Kirby Smith, Mosby Monroe Parsons, John Marmaduke, Thomas James Churchill, Thomas Green, and Joseph Orville Shelby—providing an enlightening new perspective on the Confederate high command. Although the Trans-Mississippi has long been considered a dumping ground for failed generals from other regions, the essays presented here demolish that myth, showing instead that, with a few notable exceptions, Confederate commanders west of the Mississippi were homegrown, not imported, and compared well with their more celebrated peers elsewhere. With its virtually nonexistent infrastructure, wildly unpredictable weather, and few opportunities for scavenging, the Trans-Mississippi proved a challenge for commanders on both sides of the conflict. As the contributors to this volume demonstrate, only the most creative minds could operate successfully in such an unforgiving environment. While some of these generals have been the subjects of larger studies, others, including Generals Holmes, Parsons, and Churchill, receive their first serious scholarly attention in these pages. Clearly demonstrating the independence of the Trans-Mississippi and the nuances of the military struggle there, while placing both the generals and the theater in the wider scope of the war, these eight essays offer valuable new insight into Confederate military leadership and the ever-vexing questions of how and why the South lost this most defining of American conflicts.
Download or read book A Companion to American Military History written by James C. Bradford and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-11-03 with total page 1136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With more than 60 essays, A Companion to American MilitaryHistory presents a comprehensive analysis of the historiographyof United States military history from the colonial era to thepresent. Covers the entire spectrum of US history from the Indian andimperial conflicts of the seventeenth century to the battles inAfghanistan and Iraq Features an unprecedented breadth of coverage from eminentmilitary historians and emerging scholars, including little studiedtopics such as the military and music, military ethics, care of thedead, and sports Surveys and evaluates the best scholarship on every importantera and topic Summarizes current debates and identifies areas whereconflicting interpretations are in need of further study
Download or read book Bulwark of the Republic written by Mary Ellen Rowe and published by Praeger. This book was released on 2003 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although a poor replacement for a professional military in wartime, the militia embodied a set of ideas that defined attitudes toward social order, civic responsibility, and the nature and relative powers of the government. It was the supreme expression of civic values in a traditional, communal, agrarian village society. Rowe argues that the antebellum militia should be seen as a social and political institution, rather than a military one, and contends that it is a key to understanding the political and social values of early 19th century America. Ultimately, changing social and political values, demographic change and mobility, and finally the dramatic expansion of federal power occasioned by the Civil War would destroy the traditional militia. Because the militia's functions, failures, and meanings were most clearly apparent in new settlements along the frontier, Rowe examines three case studies that represent successive leaps across the Appalachians (Kentucky), the Mississippi (Missouri), and the Great Plains (Washington Territory). The first generation of settlers in Kentucky deliberately built a formal militia organization, in part for self-defense, in part as an explicit ideological and political statement. Despite both pre-existing Franco-Spanish militia and federal attempts to use the Territory in militia reform, American settlers in Missouri created a traditional Anglo-American militia there. A generation later, settlers in Washington Territory attempted to do the same, but the effort dissolved in a bitter controversy over the territorial governor's declaration of martial law.
Download or read book The Mexican War written by David S. Heidler and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2005-11-30 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Victory over Mexico added vast western territories to America, but it also quickened the domestic slavery debate and crippled Mexico for decades, making the Mexican War one of our most ambiguous conflicts. Primary documents, biographical sketches and narrative chapters rounded out by twenty images and maps and a robust bibliography and index make this work by two of America's foremost Antebellum historians a must have to understand one of our most contentious episodes. The United States went to war with Mexico in the spring of 1846 and by the fall of 1847 American soldiers were walking in the streets of Mexico City. The following February, Mexico was forced to sign the Treaty fo Guadalupe Hidalgo that ceded what became the U.S. Southwest and Pacific Coast. Rather than an isolated episode, the war was the culmination of a series of events that began before Mexican independence and included treaty arrangements with Spain, the revolt of Mexico's northern province of Texas, and the growing discord over American reactions to Texan independence. The legacy of the war was dire for both countries. The victorious United States commenced a bitter argument over the fate of slavery in the territories acquired from Mexico that eventually culminated in southern secession and Civil War. Defeated Mexico coped for decades with a ruined economy and a broken political system while nursing a grudge against the Colossus of the North. This book examines these events from both the American and Mexican perspectives. Topics covered include succinct histories of the American and Mexican Republics from their colonial founding to their independence from European countries; The problems over Texas, including Anglo immigration, the Texas Revolution, and the controversies surrounding U.S. annexation of Texas; the crises instigated by American annexation of Texas brought on by the crossed purposes of American expansionist aims and domestic concerns over slavery; the northern campaigns of the war in California and New Mexico; Winfield Scott's amphibious landing and siege at Vera Cruz and his epic march to Mexico City and the collapse of the Mexican government; and finally the crafting of the peace treaty and the bitter legacies of the war for both the U.S. and Mexico. Biographical sketches of Valentin Gomez Farias, Jose Joaquin de Herrere, Sam Houston, Stephen Watts Kearny, President James Polk and other notable figures of the event provide firsthand glimpses into the motivations of the key players. Nine maps, eleven images, a detailed chronology, and a dozen vital annotated primary documents add considerable depth to the book. An extensive annotated biography and robust index complete this valuable new edition on one of Young America's most trying and contentious periods.
Download or read book Daily Life of U S Soldiers 3 volumes written by Christopher R. Mortenson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2019-06-14 with total page 1159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This ground-breaking work explores the lives of average soldiers from the American Revolution through the 21st-century conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. What was life really like for U.S. soldiers during America's wars? Were they conscripted or did they volunteer? What did they eat, wear, believe, think, and do for fun? Most important, how did they deal with the rigors of combat and coming home? This comprehensive book will answer all of those questions and much more, with separate chapters on the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II in Europe, World War II in the Pacific, the Cold War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, the Afghanistan War and War on Terror, and the Iraq War. Each chapter includes such topical sections as Conscription and Volunteers, Training, Religion, Pop Culture, Weaponry, Combat, Special Forces, Prisoners of War, Homefront, and Veteran Issues. This work also examines the role of minorities and women in each conflict as well as delves into the disciplinary problems in the military, including alcoholism, drugs, crimes, and desertion. Selected primary sources, bibliographies, and timelines complement the topical sections of each chapter.
Download or read book The Encyclopedia of the Mexican American War 3 volumes written by Spencer C. Tucker and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-10-09 with total page 1159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This user-friendly encyclopedia comprises a wide array of accessible yet detailed entries that address the military, social, political, cultural, and economic aspects of the Mexican-American War. The Encyclopedia of the Mexican-American War: A Political, Social, and Military History provides an in-depth examination of not only the military conflict itself, but also the impact of the war on both nations; and how this conflict was the first waged by Americans on foreign soil and served to establish critical U.S. military, political, and foreign policy precedents. The entries analyze the Mexican-American War from both the American and Mexican perspectives, in equal measure. In addition to discussing the various campaigns, battles, weapons systems, and other aspects of military history, the three-volume work also contextualizes the conflict within its social, cultural, political, and economic milieu, and places the Mexican-American War into its proper historical and historiographical contexts by covering the eras both before and after the war. This information is particularly critical for students of American history because the conflict fomented sectional conflict in the United States, which resulted in the U.S. Civil War.
Download or read book Missouri Folklore Society Journal written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Bound for Santa Fe written by Stephen Garrison Hyslop and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2001-12-31 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The political, military, and social importance of the Santa Fe trail is revealed in this lively historical account of one of the most important roads in American history.
Download or read book Salt Warriors Insurgency on the Rio Grande written by Paul Cool and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The El Paso Salt War of 1877 has gone down in history as the spontaneous action of a mindless rabble, but as author Paul Cool deftly demonstrates, the episode was actually an insurgency, the product of a deliberate, community-based decision squarely in the tradition of the American nation s original fight for self-government. The Pasenos (local Mexican Americans) had held common ownership of the immense salt lakes at the base of the Guadalupe Mountains since the time of Spanish rule. They believed their title was confirmed in the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. However, to the American businessmen who saw in the white expanse a cash crop that could make them rich in the years following the American Civil War, ownership appeared up for grabs. After years of struggle among Anglo politicians and speculators eager to seize the lakes, an Austin banker staked a legal claim in 1877, and his son-in-law, Charles Howard, started to enforce it. Cool chronicles the ensuing popular uprising that disrupted established governmental authority in El Paso for twelve weeks. Unique features of this pioneering book include the author s employment of previously untapped sources and the first thorough and systematic use of familiar ones, notably the government report El Paso Troubles in Texas, to create this detailed study of the war. First-person accounts from reports and newspaper items create a landmark day-by-day account of the San Elizario battle, including the location of the Texas Ranger positions. This fast-paced account not only corrects the record of this historical episode but will also resonate in the context of today s racial and ethnic tensions along the U.S.-Mexico border."
Download or read book Five Stars Missouri s Most Famous Generals written by James Muench and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2006-05 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although generations of readers of the Little House books are familiar with Laura Ingalls Wilder's early life up through her first years of marriage to Almanzo Wilder, few know about her adult years. Going beyond previous studies, Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder focuses upon Wilder's years in Missouri from 1894 to 1957. Utilizing her unpublished autobiography, letters, newspaper stories, and other documentary evidence, John E. Miller fills the gaps in Wilder's autobiographical novels and describes her sixty-three years of living in Mansfield, Missouri. As a result, the process of personal development that culminated in Wilder's writing of the novels that secured her reputation as one of America's most popular children's authors becomes evident. In addition to describing Wilder's apprenticeship as a farm newspaper columnist and occasional magazine writer before she began the production of her novels, Miller discusses Wilder's activities on her family's Rocky Ridge farm and as a vital citizen in Mansfield, Missouri. Playing out her many roles as wife, mother, chicken farmer, churchgoer, bridge player, seamstress, farm loan officer, and political candidate, Wilder led an active life for ninety years.
Download or read book Dictionary of Missouri Biography written by Lawrence O. Christensen and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 1999-10 with total page 860 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides short biographies on notable men and women from Missouri from a variety of areas including politics, business, agriculture, entertainment, sports, social reform, science and religion.
Download or read book The Vistas of American Military History 1800 1898 written by Dr Brian Holden-Reid and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-01-02 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A team of leading American military historians here investigate the factors that shaped the United States Army in the nineteenth century. Throwing new light on its history, this deeply researched book explores a mulitplicity of themes. These include the social structure, command system and relationship with civil power which are all important in assessing its efficiency and behaviour in war; and the way the army is depicted in military literature and cinema which affects its social portrait. Deliberately exploring neglected themes, this key work includes discussion on: * the roles of the many volunteer colonels in the Mexican War, 1846-48 * Robert Wettemann and the alleged 'isolation' of the US Army in the nineteenth century * John Ford's famous 'cavalry trilogy' of motion pictures. Containing so much food for thought, for students of US history and military history this is an entertaining as well as instructional book.
Download or read book The Battle of Carthage written by Hinze, David C. and published by Pelican Publishing. This book was released on 2010-09-23 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fought by pro-Confederate Missouri State guardsmen and Union volunteers more than two weeks before First Bull Run, it was the culmination of the first major land campaign of the Civil War.
