THE MARINES IN MEXICO

The period between the War of 1812 and the Civil War could be called the “doldrums” of US Marine Corps history, suffering as they did from insufficient manning and even scantier funding.  The end of June 1820 saw only 19 officers and 552 enlisted Marines left, including the Commandant, LCOL Archibald Henderson.  And despite their gallant service aboard ship during the Revolutionary War, by 1812 the Marines were being used increasingly to supplement Army ground forces.  In fact, after that war the Marines were brought under the jurisdiction of Army regulations, and by December of 1829 President Andrew Jackson recommended to Congress, “that the Marine Corps be merged in the [Army] artillery or infantry…, there being no peculiar training required for it.”

Bitterly resisting the dissolution of the Marines was the irascible, yet capable Commandant Henderson.  By deploying Marines in a series of actions during this period–against Caribbean pirates, at Kuala Battoo, in western Africa, and against rebellious Seminoles in Florida–Henderson was able to preserve their separate role.  With the outbreak of the 1846-48 war with Mexico, Marines of the Pacific Squadron performed notable actions in California, Mazatlan, Guaymas, and San Jose del Cabo.  But ever the politician, Henderson also wished to have a role in the strategic push to final victory, the campaign against Mexico City.  This campaign began with the landing of GEN Winfield Scott’s army of 8,600 on 9 March 1847 at Veracruz, on the eastern Mexican coast.  Itself no small logistic feat, the landing was followed by a successful siege of Veracruz.  Scott then paused for reinforcements, hoping to amass an Army large enough to move inland against the Mexican capital before the onset of the coastal yellow fever season.

Henderson, in Washington, convinced President James K. Polk that a Marine battalion could be more hastily recruited to reinforce Scott than an Army unit.  Three companies totaling 22 officers and 324 men were quickly mustered and set sail three days later from New York.  Veteran Marines from shipboard companies of the Pacific and Home Squadrons were reassigned to this battalion in the hopes of hastily imbuing war-readiness into the raw recruits.  Brevet LCOL Samuel E. Watson was pulled from CDORE Matthew Perry’s blockading squadron for overall command, and on 1 July 1847, the battalion arrived at Veracruz.  Here, they were incorporated into the Army division under (future President) BGEN Franklin Pierce.  On this day, Watson’s battalion stepped off toward Mexico City.  Few could have anticipated then how successful this green battalion would become in capturing the “Halls of Montezuma” two months later, nor how much their actions would echo through USMC history.

See related stories 13-14 September 2023

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Bauer, K. Jack.  The Mexican War  1846-1848.  Lincoln, NB: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1974, pp. 273-74.

Heinl, Robert Debs, Jr.  Soldiers of the Sea:  The United States Marine Corps, 1775-1962.  Baltimore, MD: Nautical & Aviation Pub., 1991, p. 49.

Millett, Allan R.  Semper Fidelis:  The History of the United States Marine Corps.  New York, NY: Macmillan Pub Co., 1980, pp. 76-77.

Simmons, Edwin H.  The United States Marines, 1775-1975.  New York, NY: Viking Press, 1976, pp. 28-42.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Watson was initially disappointed to be assigned to Pierce’s division–the force Winfield Scott had detailed to the inglorious task of guarding his supply trains.  After leaving the coast the battalion fought only six skirmishes with Mexican forces on its journey to Puebla, the staging area for the assault on Mexico City.  However, events in the battle of Molina del Rey, 6-7 September, outside Mexico City, would propel Watson’s battalion to the fore in the assault on Chapultepec Castle, the “Halls of Montezuma.”

The post The Marines in Mexico appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                       “FROM THE HALLS OF MONTEZUMA…” (cont.)

Meanwhile, a diversion created by Quitman’s troops allowed a second Army division under MGEN Gideon J. Pillow to carry the lower walls of Chapultepec from the west.  And, to the south, Quitman’s follow-up forces overtook the Marine’s position, struggling through small breaches in the castle walls.  Watson’s Marines joined the rush to the castle, from whence the overwhelmed defenders now ran.

Noting the incipient rout, a Marine company commanded by CPT George H. Terret, who had no intention of stopping at the castle, broke from their position to charge after the fleeing Mexicans.  Joined in the confusion by a small Army unit under LT Ulysses S. Grant, Terret’s men rushed up the causeway leading to the San Cosme Gate.  Here Terret’s unit fell into a heated action with the defenders of a Mexican barricade just outside that gate.  Additional Army units converged on the site, and after further fierce fighting, the gate was taken.

As the fighting at San Cosme progressed, Watson’s remaining Marines regrouped at the castle.  They captured the cannon of one of the last functioning Mexican batteries then rejoined Quitman’s main force in the rush for the Belen Gate.  The defenders here fell back more easily, allowing Quitman’s men to enter the city.  Watson’s Marines secured the buildings around the gate and successfully fended-off several sharp counter attacks.

In total seven Marines were killed and 24 wounded in the fighting this day.  The following morning Quitman’s fatigued division marched into the center of Mexico City where Marine 2^nd LT A.S. Nicholson was given the honor of raising the American flag.  Quitman next detailed the Marines to secure snipers and looters from the Palacio Nacional, a building the Marines mistakenly thought had originally been the site of Aztec emperor Montezuma’s throne.  Here, the high shakos and crossed white chest belts of the Marine uniform caught the eye of occupied and occupier alike.

The Marines remained in Mexico City until January 1848, and upon their return home, Marine Corps Commandant LCOL Archibald Henderson was presented with a set of colors by the citizens of Washington, DC.  Upon these were emblazoned, “From Tripoli to the Halls of Montezumas.”  Returning Marines applied this phrase to a bar tune they had sung in Mexico, giving birth to The Marine’s Hymn.  LCOL Henderson, ever willing to bolster Marine Corps honor, canvassed those returning for examples of heroism.  He was thus able to convince himself that Terret’s men at the San Cosme Gate had been the first Americans to enter Mexico City, undoubtedly fostered in part by reports of his son, 2^nd LT Charles A. Henderson, an officer in Terret’s unit.  The myth persists today.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  21 SEP 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Bauer, K. Jack.  The Mexican War  1846-1848.  Lincoln, NB: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1974, pp. 308-23.

Heinl, Robert Debs, Jr.  Soldiers of the Sea:  The United States Marine Corps, 1775-1962.  Baltimore, MD: Nautical & Aviation Pub., 1991, pp. 50-52.

Millett, Allan R.  Semper Fidelis:  The History of the United States Marine Corps.  New York, NY: Macmillan Pub Co., 1980, pp. 77-81.

Simmons, Edwin H.  The United States Marines, 1775-1975.  New York, NY: Viking Press, 1976, pp. 38-40.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Prior to 1848 the Marine Corps colors bore their official motto:

                                           “To the shores of Tripoli.”

The inscription on the new colors presented to LCOL Henderson above expanded that older motto.  (The current motto of the Marine Corps is, “Semper Fidelis”–Ever Faithful). 

Thirteen of 23 Marine officers received brevet (frocked) promotions as a result of actions around Mexico City this month.

Gideon J. Pillow went on to serve as a General Officer in the Confederate Army of the Civil War, fighting in Tennessee and Kentucky.  John Quitman did not live to see the Civil War.  He died of “National Hotel Disease” in 1858–an outbreak of severe dysentery that claimed the lives of 400 guests of the National Hotel in Washington, DC–guests who were attending President James Buchanan’s inauguration.

The capture of Mexico City ended the fighting in the Mexican War.  The Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo on 2 February 1848 ceded the land that would eventually become the States of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, and portions of Utah and Colorado to the United States.  Baja California, in US hands at the end of the war, was vacated by US Navy occupation forces and remains today part of Mexico.  (Texas had previously won her independence from Mexico at the Battle of San Jacinto in April 1836).  Curiously, years later, Germany would tempt Mexico into entering World War I on the side of the Central Powers by promising the return of these ceded lands.

The post “From the Halls of Montezuma…” (cont.) appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                            “FROM THE HALLS OF MONTEZUMA…”

By this date in the 17-month-old war with Mexico, the United States had gained control of California from San Francisco to Los Cabos in southern Baja.  But complete victory in the war required nothing less than the capture of the Mexican capital, Mexico City.  Toward that end, in March 1847 GEN Winfield Scott was landed with a sizeable US Army at Veracruz on the Mexican Gulf coast.  By late August his troops had fought their way inland toward Mexico City.  With Scott’s Army was a 357-man US Marine Battalion under brevet LCOL Samuel E. Watson that was serving as part of the Army corps under MGEN John A. Quitman.

Mexico City’s 32,000 defenders had a significant ally in the physical situation of city.  Nestled amid protective wetlands, the city was accessible only by four elevated causeways, each built across impassable marshes.  Each gated causeway could be swept by fire from strategically placed permanent defensive bastions.  Mexican GEN Antonio López de Santa Anna deployed his forces to block Scott’s approach from the south, causing Scott to shift his attack to the southwest, across the causeways that led to the Belen and San Cosme gates.  This approach was guarded by Castillo de Chapultepec, a large fortress-like edifice that our Marines mistook to be Aztec Emperor Montezuma’s former castle.  In 1847 it served as Mexico’s Colegio Militar.  The impressive castle stood on a 200-foot hill, and behind its double walls waited nearly 1000 Mexican troops and cadets.

Scott’s initial attentions, however, were distracted toward El Molina del Rey, a group of out-buildings adjoining Chapultepec where intelligence reports (later proven faulty) indicated the Mexicans were melting down church bells to recast as cannon.  On September 8^th, Scott sent his best division under BGEN William J. Worth against Molina, whose defenses proved more formidable than expected.  The attack succeeded however Worth’s division was badly mauled.  Quitman’s men, who had been relegated to guarding the supply train, were called to the front.

In the assault on Chapultepec itself, carried out this day, Quitman’s division drew the difficult task of storming the castle’s steep southern facade.  Quitman’s detailed his Marine Battalion to spearhead the assault in four advance parties.  The first, led by Marine CPT Levi Twiggs and a second were to approach in concert, providing cover for a third party of “pioneers” with scaling ladders and fascines.  Watson’s remaining men established a firing line short of the walls as the stormers worked.  However, while still 200 yards from the castle, these units came under heavy crossfire.  They were forced to ground, unable to advance.  Twiggs, rallying his Marines, was struck in the chest and killed.  Watson, saw the casualties and confusion that had befallen his parties, and held his position awaiting ammunition and further instructions.

Continued tomorrow…

Bauer, K. Jack.  The Mexican War  1846-1848.  Lincoln, NB: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1974, pp. 308-23.

Heinl, Robert Debs, Jr.  Soldiers of the Sea:  The United States Marine Corps, 1775-1962.  Baltimore, MD: Nautical & Aviation Pub., 1991, pp. 50-52.

Millett, Allan R.  Semper Fidelis:  The History of the United States Marine Corps.  New York, NY: Macmillan Pub Co., 1980, pp. 77-81.

Simmons, Edwin H.  The United States Marines, 1775-1975.  New York, NY: Viking Press, 1976, pp. 38-40.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin, referred to later by Europeans as “Montezuma II,” was the ninth emperor of the Aztec Empire, reigning from 1502-03 to 1520.  Under his rule the Aztec Empire reached its greatest extent and influence.  He was emperor at the Aztec’s first contact with Spanish conquistadors, and Montezuma was killed on 29 June 1520 at the hands of Hernàn Cortés.  Montezuma’s name was still widely known in 1847.

Two US Navy destroyers honor CPT Twiggs, the WWI-era Wickes-class DD-127, and the WWII Fletcher-class DD-591.

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