Mexican War and Crimean
War
Lsn 9
ID & SIG:
• West Point, Delafield Commission, Scott,
turning movement, Cerro Gordo,
Sevastopol, limited war, rifle, Crimean
War, Mexican War, Nightingale
Agenda
• Mexican War (1846-1848)
– Causes
– Taylor
– Scott
– Vera Cruz to Mexico City
– Rehearsal for the Civil War?
• Crimean War (1854-1856)
– Causes
– Sevastopol
– Legacy
Manifest Destiny
• Settlers began flocking west in search of cheap land
• “(It is) ...our manifest destiny to over spread and to
possess the whole of the continent which Providence has
given us for the development of the great experiment of
liberty.”
– John O’Sullivan, editor of the “The Morning Post,” 1845
Mexican War
• Causes
– US foreign policy of
expansion (Manifest
Destiny) soon put it in
conflict with Mexico
– In 1836, Texas
declared
independence from
Mexico and in 1845
the US annexed Texas
in spite of Mexico’s Depiction of Davy Crockett
never relinquishing its at the Alamo by Mark
claim Churms
Overview
• Controversy
– Whigs argued that
US did not have a
valid claim
– Antislavery
advocates argued
that the war was
designed to spread
slavery and
therefore increase
the political power
of the south
The Army
• Because of this soft support
for the war, especially in the
northeast, Polk decided to
avoid large-scale use of the
militia
• Authorized raising of 50,000
volunteers, mostly from the
southern states
• Authorized Regular Army to
double its existing size to President James Polk
15,000 by filling units up to
full strength
Zachary Taylor
• “Old Rough and Ready”
• Little use for formal
strategy and tactics
• Dressed casually
• Popular with his troops
• In many aspects an
amateurish general
Zachary Taylor
• Led army into Texas
and then across the
Rio Grande
• Gained victories at
Palo Alto, Resaca de
la Palma, and Buena
Vista
• Taylor’s successes
made him a potential
political rival for Polk,
so Polk selected
Winfield Scott to lead
a second major
campaign in Mexico
Winfield Scott
• Served in War of 1812,
brevetted to major
general
• Studied European tactics
• Became general-in-chief
in 1841
• Epitomized the
professional officer
Winfield Scott
• Conducted an
amphibious landing
at Vera Cruz
• Then had to move by
land to Mexico City
along a predictable,
well-defended
avenue of approach
• Wanted to avoid
frontal assaults by
maneuver
Turning Movement
• Maneuver
– As both an element of combat power and a principle
of war, maneuver concentrates and disperses combat
power to place and keep the enemy at a
disadvantage
– Achieves results that would otherwise be more costly
– Keeps enemies off balance by making them confront
new problems and new dangers faster than they can
deal with them
• The form of maneuver that Scott relied on in
Mexico was the turning movement
Turning Movement
Cerro Gordo
• Santa Anna had assembled
a 25,000 man army to block
Scott’s advance
– Established a defense
at Cerro Gordo
• Scott realized a frontal
assault would be suicidal
• Sent Robert E. Lee on a
reconnaissance to find an
alternate route
• Became the first of Scott’s
series of turning
movements en route to
Mexico City
From Vera Cruz to Mexico City
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
(1848)
• Scott’s strategy
was successful in
capturing Mexico
City
• US won the war
and paid Mexico
$15 million for
Texas north of the
Rio Grande,
California, and
New Mexico
Rehearsal for the Civil War?
• Limited War
• Turning Movement
• Technology
• Junior Officers
Limited War: Objective
• Objective as a principal of war
– When undertaking any
mission, commanders
should have a clear
understanding of the
expected outcome and its
impact
– Commanders need to
appreciate political ends and
understand how the military
conditions they achieve
contribute to them.
• Winfield Scott saw Mexico as a
war of limited objectives, to be
waged by limited means
Limited War: Objective
• Based on this belief, Scott developed a
largely political strategy
• Believed that Mexican political life centered
around Mexico City so completely that
capturing the capital would paralyze the
country and oblige the Mexican government
to sue for peace in order to remain a
government at all
• Therefore his objective was to capture
Mexico City, not to destroy the Mexican army
Limited War: Treatment of Civilians
• Scott conducted his campaign with strict regard
for the rights of the Mexican citizens, making
every effort to confine bloodshed and suffering
to the Mexican army rather than the civilian
population.
• He scrupulously regulated his soldiers’ conduct
and interaction with Mexican civilians, reducing
contact to the minimum necessary for the
sustenance of his army and the morale of his
troops.
Limited War
• Scott will carry his ideas about limited war into
the Civil War with his Anaconda Plan
• Many Federals, such as George McClellan, will
advocate a strategy of conciliation toward the
Confederacy
• Such an approach will be rejected and the Civil
War will become increasingly total
– Pope’s General Orders
– Emancipation Proclamation
– Conscription
– Suspension of some civil liberties
– Sherman’s March to the Sea
Turning Movements and the Civil
War
• “The Mexican War created an informal,
unwritten tactical doctrine—to turn the
enemy.” (Archer Jones)
– Civil War battles and campaigns that involved
turning movements include the Peninsula
Campaign, Second Manassas, and Vicksburg
• Nonetheless the Civil War will also include
many costly frontal attacks such as
Fredericksburg and Pickett’s Charge
Technology: Rifles
• Two things that made
these frontal attacks
so costly were the
rifled musket and the
Minie Ball
– A few volunteer units
like the Mississippi
Rifles had rifles in
Mexico, but the
Regular Army At Buena Vista, Jefferson
stubbornly held to Davis commanded the
smoothbore muskets Mississippi Rifles to “Stand
Fast, Mississippians!”
Technology: Changing Times
• By the time of the Civil War,
the rifled musket and the
Minie ball will cause a change
in military tactics
– The defense will gain strength
relative to the offense
– Artillery will loose its ability to
safely advance close to the
enemy and breach holes in
defenses
– Close-order formations will
become dangerously vulnerable
Junior Officers: Rehearsal for the
Civil War
• Approximately 194 Federal
generals and 142
Confederate generals
previously served in Mexico
• Lee, Jackson, Hill, Pickett,
Longstreet, Beauregard,
Bragg, etc
• Meade, Grant, Kearney,
McClellan, Hooker, Pope,
McDowell, etc
Junior Officers: Impact of West
Pointers
• By the time of the Mexican War,
Sylvanus Thayer’s reforms at
West Point had produced a
generation of men who would
fill the junior officers’ ranks in
Mexico.
• These lieutenants and captains
stood in sharp contrast to the
older officers who had not
benefited from a systematic
military education and training. Sylvanus Thayer is known
• The impact of Thayer and West as the “Father of the Military
Point was readily apparent in Academy” for the reforms he
Mexico. initiated after becoming
superintendent in 1817
Junior Officers: Impact of West
Pointers
• Winfield Scott called his West Pointers his “little
cabinet”
• Scott was unwavering in his acknowledgement
of West Pointers declaring,
– “I give it as my fixed opinion that but for our graduated
cadets the war between the United States and Mexico
might, and probably would, have lasted some four or
five years, with, in its first half, more defeats than
victories falling to our share, whereas in two
campaigns we conquered a great country and a
peace without the loss of a single battle or skirmish.”
West Pointers in the Civil War
• West Pointers will play a key role in the
Civil War
– 151 Confederate and 294 Federal generals
were West Point graduates
– Of the Civil War’s 60 major battles, West
Pointers commanded both sides in 55
– A West Pointer commanded on one side in
the other five
Crimean War
Crimean War: Agenda
• Causes
• Sevastopol
• Legacy
Crimean War: Causes
• Competing national interests of Great Britain,
France, and the crumbling Ottoman Empire
collided with those of Russia to bring the first
war to Europe in nearly 40 years
• Russia sought to expand its influence in the
Balkans and occupied Moldavia and Wallachia
(part of the Ottoman Empire)
• The Ottomans, confident of British and French
support, declared war on Russia
Crimean War: Causes
• Austria and Prussia
joined France and
Britain in demanding
a Russian
withdrawal
• The Russians
complied which
removed the casus
belli and should have
led to an acceptable
peace, but it didn’t Russian cannonballs in
the Valley of Death
• The British and
French now wanted
to punish Russia
Crimean War: Sevastopol
• In September 1854, the British and French
landed on the Crimea and marched toward the
port of Sevastopol where the Russians had a
naval base
• The Allied naval superiority helped them cut
Sevastopol off from supplies
• The Russians that opposed the land advance
had the advantage of numbers and terrain but
relied on close-order drill and mass tactics
• The British and French were equipped with rifles
and they decimated the Russians with their
superior range
Crimean War: Sevastopol
• The Russians retreated to the
heavily fortified Sevastopol and
used the Allied delay in pursuit
to establish a defense that was
impregnable to assault
– One failed attempt was the
“Charge of the Light
Brigade” at Balachava on
October 25
• The Allies established a siege
and the Russians finally
withdrew from Sevastopol on
Sept 8, 1855
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Half a league, half a
league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of
Death Rode the six
hundred.
“Forward, the Light
Brigade!
“Charge for the guns!”
he said:
Into the valley of
Death Rode the six
hundred.
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro’ the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
Crimean War: Legacy
• In March 1855, the US sent
the “Delafield Commission” to
Europe to study the European
armies and the on-going
Crimean War
• The commission emphasized
the importance of professional
armies and methodical
warfare that relied on
engineering and artillery
– Missed the importance of the Future General-in-Chief of the
rifle, instead attributing the Federal Army George
horrific Russian casualties to McClellan was a member of
“too heavy and unwieldy the Delafield Commission as a
masses” captain
Crimean War: Legacy
• The French introduced ironclads during
the Crimean War
• The British established telegraphic links
between their headquarters and
subordinate commands, and indirectly
between their headquarters at Sevastopol
and the government in London
• It was the first war in which photographers
recorded daily aspects of soldier life
Crimean War: Legacy
• Medical care was
atrocious in spite of
efforts such as those of
Florence Nightingale
• Inspired the reforms of
the Sanitation
Commission during the
US Civil War
Nightingale discovered that as many as ten
times the number of soldiers were dying
from disease as from wounds
Crimean War: Legacy
• All in all, the Crimean War provided few
insights into the larger wars of the future
• It was a war fought for limited goals, and
none of the combatants was willing to
mobilize either the people or economic
resources necessary for total war
• The US Civil War would be an entirely
different enterprise
Crimean War: Legacy
• The Crimean War will greatly influence
some Civil War leaders
• George McClellan will ask his wife to send
him his books on Sevastopol as he
prepares for the siege of Yorktown during
the Peninsula Campaign
• William Lamb will use a book on the
Crimean War to help him design the
defenses at Fort Fisher, North Carolina
Next
• Writing Lab
• US Civil War