Manifest Destiny
John O’Sullivan was the first person to coin the term Manifest Destiny, and towards the end of Hamilton’s term that was the growing belief in the states. It was a belief that Hamilton and the rest of the federalists were going to exploit. This time around it was the Whig Candidate of Martin Van Buren, who previously was a Democrat and vice president under Jackson, who would attempt to challenge the Federalist stranglehold on politics. The election still wouldn’t be even close with Van Buren only winning 8 of the states. Hamilton would keep his cabinet and vice president the same.
Hamilton, Polk, and Secretary of War Harrison had made plans for an invasion of Mexico ever since they had threatened the US with war over Texas. In the first term he had commissioned 4 new more heavy steam warships to be created and stationed in New Orleans. These steam ships were designed off of a borrowed French design and proved that the age of sail was ending. Along with the creation of a whole new army for the western United States, named unoriginally the Army of the West and the Marines would be up to 15,000 strong. All signs were pointing to the US declaring war, but first they would need to bring Texas into the union.
Secretary of State Clay would meet with the President of the Lone Star Republic, Samuel Houston, on the 2nd of February, 1844. Houston would accept the offer. The Texans under Houston had focused heavily on fortifying the Nueces river and they had the occasional skirmish with small groups of Mexican soldiers. With Texas joining the US, the Mexican President Arista moved one army north to the Rio Grande river and made the ultimatum of release Texas by the end of the March or their would be war between the two nations. Hamilton would be recorded in the history books to say, “Arista, the damned fool” and rip up the letter.
Hamilton would place General Winfield Scott in charge of the Army of the South and move them to the Nueces river, and in the Army of the West he placed Zachary Taylor as the General and moved them to the disputed land in Northern Texas. It was on March 31st, Hamilton would give his answer to Arista. Scott’s Southern Army would cross the Nueces River and surprise the Mexican army with a large cannon barrage on their camp. The Battle of the Rio Grande would be a decisive American victory with the 10,000 man Mexican army being forced to route and sustaining 1,424 killed and 3,654 wounded. Taylor’s army would make a push for Sante Fe and it would fall after a short siege. The surprise assault on both fronts would catch Arista with his pants down and he was forced to call up an additional 5,000 men from the Yucatan to try and stem the tide of Americans that were bound to push past the Rio Grande.
Hamilton planned for a quick war which would see Mexico cede most of its northern territory which was deemed America’s by right. He was going to us Scott to push south and bog down any true Mexican army while Taylor would be used to march west and seize the important regions of Sante Fe and Pueblo de Los Angeles. He built in an additional plan for if naval supremacy was established a Marine Landing would be used to expedite the surrender.
Naval Supremacy wouldn’t be that hard, the Mexican Navy was small and lacked good heavy ships that the US had been building. Commodore Conner was tasked with hunting down the Mexican fleet, with the U.S.S Colombia, one of the new steam ships, as his flagship along with three first rate frigates, and seven smaller frigates. Conner would find the fledgling fleet as they were moving supplies from Veracruz to Fort Matamoros.Their fleet would consist of four small frigates and ten sloops along with the five cargo ships. The battle would begin just as sun was rising, and the Colombia would open up on the lead frigate and it would sink within the hour. The other ships would make an attempt to halt the American fleet and they would put up a valiant fight with even one lucky round striking the Colombia’s powder magazine sending her along with Commodore Conner to an early grave. His second in command, Matthew Perry would see that the Mexican fleet become a new reef in the gulf. While technically a strategic victory for the Americans, the loss of the flagship and Commodore would be disheartening.
With the Fort Matamoros lacking supplies, Hamilton saw it fit to take the fort and split the force under General Scott into two forces. He had granted the second army unto Brigadier General Alexander Pulaski, grandson of the Hero of Savannah Casimir Pulaski, and order him to take Matamoros. He would begin to lay siege within the week, the Mexican force was outnumbered five to one and had only enough supplies to last for maybe three days if they rationed severely. The captain of Matamoros, Joaquin Rea, would lead a daring charge to try to break the siege quickly and caught the right flank by surprise and almost succeeded if it wasn’t for an engineer by the name of Robert Lee rallying troops long enough for reserves to push them back. The next morning Pulaski promoted Lee to lieutenant for his actions and attacked Matamoros forcing Rea to surrender.
Back to Taylor’s force, they had maintained their push west encountering little resistance aside from the occasional militia force that was scattered with one cannon barrage. They joked “The damn Mexican’s talk a good fight, yet they run with their tail between their legs when ever we try”. Within three months, Taylor’s army had entered California, and finally began encountering true resistance, granted nothing more than light infantry it was still an upgrade for the rowdy soldiers. They arrived at San Diego and found a small contingent of the Mexican army, the Battle of San Diego would last for two days and they too would fail to stop them. After the fall of San Diego, a rebellion would start up in San Francisco and Pueblo de Los Angeles and they would establish their own state, called the California Republic. Taylor would meet up with the new Republic and his job would be finished.
Scott’s army, after receiving the supplies they needed after the Battle of the Rio Grande, would push south towards Monterrey where they would yet again encounter the main body of the Mexican force. The Battle of Monterrey would quickly turn into the worst battle of the Mexican-American war with the casualty numbers proving a pyrrhic victory for the Mexican force. Scott had been struck with a musket ball as he tried to organize the retreat, which would turn to a full route after his passing. Pulaski’s force would move quick to Sierra de Picachos mountains to try and regroup with the survivors of Scott’s army. They would fortify the mountains and the Mexican Army that was in pursuit of the retreating Americans that thought they found the remnants of Scott’s army, charged without scouting the area. Pulaski’s force would quickly prove them wrong, and destroyed the Mexican army.
Following the defeat at Monterrey, Hamilton was enraged after reading the telegram report of Monterrey, would move to have General Joe Johnston and his Marines prepare for the landing at Veracruz to be held on January 2nd, of 1846. His marine force would land and fight a battle against a hastily put together Mexican force to try and stop them but the Marines due to superior training and supplies would create a large enough landing zone that the Mexican force fled back to Mexico City. General Johnston would receive the nickname “Shootin’ Joe” for his insistence on being in the front line, he joked “Well, how in the hell am I supposed to lead an army from the back?” They would spend no time and quickly push to Mexico City, and it would be placed under siege. The people in the city had grown quickly upset with Arista and the siege with rationing of supplies drove them to the point of rebellion. Arista would be lynched and an emergency election would be held, with a the head of the army Vicente Filisola. He would quickly surrender to Johnston, and Secretary of State Clay would meet with Filisola on the U.S.S Liberty to sign the peace treaty. The Treaty of Veracruz would cede the northern half of the Mexican nation, release the Yucatan as it’s own independent state, and finally see the Mexican army number only 10,000 men.
The American armies would return home heroes and Hamilton would be praised as one of the greatest presidents in American history to that point. The nation had seen its largest expansion since the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory under Burr. A senator from Pennsylvania, David Wilmot a huge Abolitionist, moved to ban slavery in the newly acquired Mexican territory, but it would be quickly denied after the Gag rule which was put in place. It would still annoy enough of the Southern senators that they moved to have Wilmot replaced but it wouldn’t happen. The divide between the north and south would be growing exponentially after every election, the Mexican-American war united the country for a while but it quickly proved to do more harm then good. The next election would prove to be one of the most important elections yet.