The Battle of Palo Alto Therefore, Congress Declares War (January 1846), (May 1846)
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The Battle of Palo Alto was a very dominating battle by the Americans. First, President Polk sent 4,000 troops to the United State's southernmost city of Corpus Christi. These troops were under the command of General Zachary "Old Rough" Taylor. Taylor and his troops completely surprised the 12,000 Mexican troops stationed there. That's saying something considering that the Mexicans had 3 times the amount of troops that the Americans had. Now, because the Americans have not seen the Mexicans fight before, they did not know what to expect. However the United States were lucky. The Mexicans' tactics were ancient, and ineffective. Obviously, with the better (almost everything), the Americans demolished Mexico. Therefore, the Mexican troops ran across the Rio Grande, running so fast that some of them drowned in the river. In the end, The United States had 200 casualties (mostly injured), and Mexico had 600+ dead.
Because of this tension between America and Mexico, the political parties picked sides to declare war. Many Whigs opposed the war, while many Democrats supported the war. Soon enough, Congress did approve Polk's call for war. |