POLK AND SCOTT REPLACE TAYLOR, TAKE HIS OFFICERS, MEN

(Following his taking of Monterrey, Gen. Zachary Taylor granted an amnesty to the defeated Mexican army to leave the city, a move condemned by President James Polk who wanted the force destroyed.  He and Gen. Winfield Scott removed the top officers and troops from Taylor's army and transferred them to a force commanded by Scott who would attack from Veracruz and march to Mexico City. Taylor was ordered to take a "defensive" posture in the north, a move which Taylor disregarded and disobeyed, subsequently defeating troops under Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista. In a letter from Scott to Taylor, he tries to placate Taylor's rage at being replaced, sidelined, and his best troops transferred to Scott.)

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

American History Central and

Taylor and His Generals 

(Silas Andrus and Sons, 1848)

Brigadier General Zachary Taylor scored two quick successes against Mexican forces at the Battle of Palo Alto (May 8, 1846) and the Battle of Resaca de la Palma (May 9, 1846). 

On May 13, 1846, Congress declared war against Mexico. 

Taylor’s successes made him a national hero and a potential presidential candidate in 1848. General Winfield Scott had his own designs on running for President. The Whig Party had considered nominating him as their presidential candidate in the election of 1840. 

Perhaps seeking to not let Taylor upstage him, Scott convinced a reluctant Democratic President James K. Polk to allow him to raise his own expeditionary force and launch an amphibious assault on Central Mexico. 

Scott wrote Taylor the following dated Nov. 25, 1846.

"My Dear General: I left Washington late in the day yesterday and expect to embark for New Orleans on the 30th inst. By the 12th of December I may be in that city, at Point Isabel on the 17th, and Camargo, say the 23rd, in order to be within easy correspondence from you...

"I am not coming, my dear general, to supersede you in the immediate command on the line of operations rendered illustrious by you and your gallant army. My proposed theater is different...

"But my dear general, I shall be obliged to take from you most of the gallant officers and men (regulars and volunteers) whom you have so long and so nobly commanded. I'm afraid that I shall, by imperious necessity – the approach of the yellow fever on the Gulf coast – reduce you, for a time, to stand on the defensive. This will be infinitely painful to you, and, for that reason, distressing to me.

"But I rely on your patriotism to submit to the temporary sacrifice with cheerfulness. No man can better afford to do so. Recent victories place you in that high eminence; and I even flatter myself that any benefit that may result to me, personally, from the unequal division of troops alluded to, will lessen the pain of your consequent inactivity."

Taylor, in turn, disgusted with the behind-the-scenes machinations of Polk and Scott, addressed his departing troops.

"It is with deep sensibility that the commanding general finds himself separated from the troops he so long commanded. To those corps, regular and volunteer, who had shared with him the active services of the field, he feels the attachments due to such associations, while those who are making their first campaign, he must express his regret that he cannot participate in events in its eventful scenes. 

To all, both officers and men, he extends his heartfelt wishes, for their continued success and happiness, confident that their performance on another theater will redound to the credit of their country and its arms."             

On March 9, 1847, Scott landed a force of 12,000 soldiers (many of whom Scott had commandeered from Taylor) near the port city of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico. Officers in Scott’s army included future Civil War notables Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, P.G.T. Beauregard, James Longstreet, Gideon PIlow, George B. McClelland, George G. Meade, and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.

Following a successful twenty-day siege that resulted in the city’s surrender, Scott started his drive toward Mexico City. After his successful assault against the Castle of Chapultepec (September 13, 1847), Scott triumphantly entered the Mexican capital on the following day.