OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 42 ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 May 3, 2005 ************************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley Tid Bits -- Part 42. notes by S.Kelly ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Mexican-American War The Mexican American War began on April 25, 1846. It ended nearly two years later with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, On February 2, 1848. Although the war was one of the most momentous conflicts of the nineteeth century, most Americans seem to know little about it today. Frequently, they confuse it with the Texas Revolution (1835-1836 ), the Spanish-American War (1898 ),or the border skimishes with Mexican Revolutionaries that took place between 1913 and 1916. This situation is probably due in part to the overshadowing of the U.S.- Mexican War by the Civil War, a much larger and more protracted conflict. Many of the 10,000 people living in Cleveland in 1846, and citizens of northern Ohio generally, were not inclined to support the objectives of the U.S. in the War with Mexico or to volunteer for military service. Viewing the conflict as a pure and simple plot to extend slavery, they opposed both the war and its perceived objectives. It is not surprising, then, that the war's consequences were much more dramatic in the world of politics than military legend or economic effects. The war began with a skirmish between U.S. and Mexican army units in the disputed region between Nueces and the Rio Grande rivers in Texas in May 1846. Congress approved the resolution for war on May 13. Recruitment of volunteers for service proceeded very slowly in Cleveland, compared to other Ohio cities. A recruiting station and military depot was opened in late April; by earlyJune a contingent of volunteers had elected its officers. D.L. Wood, capt; Levi Rhodes, 1st lt; Charles Rhodes, 2nd lt. This unit expected to leave Cleveland for Camp Washington, near Cincinnati, via the canal on 12 June; but orders arrived from Columbus for the corps to remain in Cleveland. It had been organized too late to be accepted into the service of their company, and evidently it was soon disbanded. Meanwhile, Gen. Zachary Taylor led American troops into northern Mexican provinces and to victory at Buena Vista in Feb, 1847; another army moved into New Mexco, captured Santa Fe in Aug. 1846, and then marched to and occupied California. If Cleveland men participated in either campaign, it was as individuals, not as a Cleveland contingent. Some men recruited from Cleveland were sent to the 5th Infantry at Newport, Ky, and from there to mexico, but reliable information is lacking about their numbers or experiences. The city's organized militia companies, The Cleveland Greys, The Light Artillery, and the newly formed German Guards -- remained in the area. Their wartime activities extended no further than parades on the 4th of July and summer encampments at Camp Wayne, near Wooster, Ohio, in 1846 and in Chicago in 1847. The only organized unit formed from city volunteers was jointly raised in Cleveland and Cincinnati in the spring 1847, after Gen Winfield Scott had landed at Vera Cruz and begun his march inland toward Mexico City. On 21 April , Capt. John S. Perry led 84 men he had recruited into Co.H. 15th U.S.Infantry Regiment, to Cincinnati. Joined there by additional men, they eventually arrived in Mexico to become part of Scott's forces. Statistics are far from exact, but it appears that Co. H. rostered 103 privates in addition to its 4 officers, 12 sergeants and corporals, and a musician. There were 33 deaths recorded ( although only a few are identified as deaths in or from battle ) in these identified places; Chepultepec, Cherubusco, Cuanaraca, Mexico City, Perote, Pueblo, and Vera Cruz. Twelve men were discharged for medical disabilities; 2 were discharged for unrecorded reasons; 4 were listed as absent after being sick. Military activities virtually ended in Oct 1847. The peace treaty was signed 2 Feb 1848 at Guadalupe-Hidalgo; the U.S. ratified the treaty on 10 March. The men remaining with Co. H. returned to Ohio the following August. In marked contrast with the Civil War and the Spanish American War that followed, there was very limited city-based celebration of the participants or their exploits. Even before the outbreak of hostilities, during the time when annexation of Texas was a political issue, it was apparent that Cleveland and northern Ohio generally viewed expansion of the U.S. into Mexican claimed lands as conspiracy of slaveholding southerners to increase their territory and political power. When war came, most Democrats nominally supported Polk administration ( even if they did not enlist for service ) while the Whigs divided into 2 antiwar groups; one group believed that opposition to the war should not continue once war was declared, no matter how misguided the president might be. The more radical Whig group refused to support the war because of its immoral purposes. Led by such men as Congressman Joshua Giddings, they endorsed the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery in any territories gained as a result of the war. Giddings would find himself unable to support the Whig candidate for president in 1848 ( Gen Taylor, a slaveholder ) and moved to the Free-Soil party. A legacy of war was the permanent shift in political sentiment away from the Democrats and Whigs toward the Liberty, the Free-Soil and eventually the Republican parties. In 1848 the year the war ended, Cuyahoga County voted 1,776 for Whig party, Zachary Taylor, 2,368 for Democrat Lewis Cass, but... surpassing both in total votes 2,5494 for ex-president Martin Van Buren, the candidate of the Liberty and Free-Soil groups. ( simular returns were recorded for Astabula, Geauga, and Lorain Counties.) Politics was one arena for disputing the war and its aims. The city's religious groups provided another. On June 23, 1846, a large meeting of citizens at the Wesleymen chapel approved resolutions condeming the war with abhorrence and indignation and extending thanks to the 14 congresmen who voted against declaring war. Most outspoken in opposition to the war were the old school Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Unitanians, and Quakers. Unlike the war of 1812, which preceded this conflict,or the Civil War which followed, the Mexican War seemed to have only adverse economic consequences in Cleveland. The War was especially blamed for difficulties in securing financing for the Cleveland Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad. Government borrowing for war purposes was believed to have drained risk-capital funds that otherwise might have been attracted to the venture. With no apparent economic boom resulting from the war, with divided churches and political parties, it is not surprising that the Mexican War enters the annuals of the city's past in only minimal fashion. Cleveland residents viewed it as by far the least popular of the 19th century Wars. But in other places most Americans enthusiastically supported the war. Approximately 75,000 men eagerly enlisted in volunteer regiments raised by various states. Thousands more enlisted in the regular U.S. Army. There was no need for a draft. In some places, so many men flocked to recruiting stations that large numbers had to be turned away. Thousands of newly arrived Irish and German imigrants also heeded the call to arms. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo, which ended the war, is still in force today. It not only fixed the Rio Grande as the boundary of Texas but rquired Mexco to cede to the United States, in return for $15 milion, all the territory that today includes the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. Mexico sold this land as an indemnity for the cost of waging a war the U,S. had not sought and because it had no money with which to pay either the indemnity or the millions of dollars in debts that it owed to private U.S. citizens for years. The U.S. also agreed to resume the responsibility for those debts. Oftentimes, historians fail to point out that Mexico exercised very little actual control over the ceded territory and that it contained less than 1% of the country's population. And at that time, no one knew about the gold and other minerals that would be found later. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ to be continued in part 43.