U.S.-Mexican War Veterans 1846-1848 Hood County, Texas

Hood County Texas Genealogical Society

U. S. - MEXICAN WAR VETERANS

1846 - 1848

HOOD COUNTY, TEXAS

~ Researched by Virginia Hale ~

Contributions by Floy Adkisson & Ray George

Updated 05/03/2002

Roja Cathedral

The Mexican-American War was the first major conflict driven by the idea of “Manifest Destiny” – the belief that America had a God-given right, or destiny, to expand the country’s borders. Most Americans enthusiastically supported the war.

The U. S. – Mexican War began on April 25, 1846 and ended nearly two years later with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848. Although the war was one of the most momentous conflicts of the nineteenth century, most Americans know little about it today. Frequently it is confused with the Texas Revolution (1835 – 1836), the Spanish-American War (1898) or the border skirmishes with Mexican revolutionaries that took place between 1913 and 1916.

The war was fought to defend the right of a free people, the citizens of the Republic of Texas, to determine their own destiny, to join the American union of states. This was a right that the government of Mexico sought to deny.

The War with Mexico is notable for a number of “firsts.”

The first foreign war of the United States.
The first war anywhere in the world to be photographed.
The first war in which steamboats played an important role.
The first war in which newspaper correspondents regularly reported from battles.
The first war in which graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point participated. Among these were a number of officers who would later face each other across the battlefields of the Civil War: Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, Braxton Bragg, Ulysses S. Grant, George Meade, George McClellan, and William T. Sherman, and others.

The majority of Americans who served in the war with Mexico were young men, in their late teens and early twenties. The patriots enlisted, in most cases, for glory and adventure, with no need for a draft. In some places, so many men flocked to recruiting stations that large numbers had to be turned away.

Approximately 75,000 men eagerly enlisted in volunteer regiments raised by nearly every state. Thousands more enlisted in the regular U.S. Army. Between 11,000 and 12,000 served in the U. S. Navy. 548 served in the Marines.

There is some difference of opinion on how many Americans served in the Mexican War. The issue is whether or not some early volunteer regiments, raised for three and six months, that never saw action, should be counted. These units, mustered into service immediately after the war began, were mustered out by August 1846 after Congress declared no regiment raised for less than 12 months could be kept in federal service. Some of these soldiers, after being released from service, went back home, having already had enough of the discomforts they had put up with while encamped on the Rio Grande. Others re-enlisted, either in the regulars or in one of the 12-month volunteer regiments.

The weapons used by soldiers in the Mexican War were generally muzzle-loading rifles or muskets. Muskets were preferred since they were quicker and easier to load, although their range and accuracy left something to be desired. Dragoons and Texas Rangers usually carried five or six-shot Colt revolvers, introduced into warfare for the first time during the U. S. – Mexican War. The Texas volunteers were especially notorious for arming themselves to the teeth with an assortment of pistols, knives, and revolvers tucked into boots, belts, and shirts.

The average Mexican infantryman carried an old flintlock musket, most of which were manufactured in Great Britain and sold as surplus to Mexico. Tending to use too much powder, many Mexican soldiers fired from the hip, rather than raising the rifle up to their shoulder where the kick could be especially painful. The result was their shots would often go over the heads of the Americans.

The uniforms of the regular U.S. Army were made of wool and were sky-blue for privates and a darker, Navy-blue for officers and non-commissioned officers. Both enlisted men and officers wore dark-blue forage caps, although generals often sported a fancy chapeau replete with feathers. Various insignia indicated whether a soldier was infantry, artillery or dragoon.

Volunteers wore a variety of uniforms, often modeled after the regular army. Some regiments went off to war wearing tall shakos, but soon abandoned them in favor of the lighter forage cap. The Mississippi Rifles, led by Colonel Jefferson Davis, sported the most distinctive of the volunteer uniforms: white duck trousers, bright red shirts, and broad-brimmed straw hats. The Texas volunteers were usually described as the least military in appearance, wearing a variety of buckskins, homespun pants, and shirts – and everything from forage caps to straw hats.

General Zachary Taylor, called “Old Rough and Ready” by his men and one of the most popular officers of the war, was one of the least military in appearance, preferring to wear a straw hat and linen duster with his uniform. More than one soldier commented that General Taylor looked more like an old farmer than a general. By contrast, Winfield Scott was nicknamed “Old Fuss and Feathers” for his impeccable military appearance and by-the-book approach.

The first battles of the war, Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, took place on Texas soil. Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site, located near Brownsville, Texas, is the only U. S. – Mexican War battlefield in the U. S. National Parks system. All subsequent battles were fought in Mexico, California, and New Mexico.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war, is still in force today. The treaty ffixed the Rio Grande as the boundary of Texas and required Mexico to cede to the U. S., in return for $15 million, all the territory which today includes the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. Mexico sold this land as an indemnity for the cost of waging a war the U. S. had not sought and because it had no money with which to pay either the indemnity or the millions of dollars in debts that it had owed to private U.S. citizens for years. The U. S. also agreed to assume responsibility for those debts.

NAME	DATE OF BIRTH	DATE OF DEATH	PLACE OF BURIAL
Abercrombie, Thomas J. *U. S. – Mexican War &* *CIVIL WAR*	1826	1908	Granbury Cemetery Hood County, Texas
Askins, __________ *U. S. – Mexican War*
Blevins, Richard *U. S. – Mexican War &* *CIVIL WAR*	05/07/1830	08/14/1897	Herring Cemetery Hood County, Texas
Cassity, Alvin *U. S. – Mexican War*	~1827 Kentucky	12/14/1909	Edna, Texas Jackson County, Texas
Green, W. A. *U. S. - Mexican War*
Hyde, Ruben Posey * *U. S. - Mexican War*			Duffau, Texas Erath County, Texas
Parks, Milton *U. S. - Mexican War*	01/04/1823	11/18/1905	Granbury Cemetery Hood County, Texas
Robertson, T. H. *U. S. - Mexican War*	01/03/1815	03/03/1897	Granbury Cemetery Hood County, Texas
Shannon, William R. *U. S. - Mexican War & CIVIL WAR*	01/15/1825 Lexington, Kentucky	Unknown	*Probably died in California*
Thomason, __________ *U. S. - Mexican War*			*Wife named Eliza*
Thomason, Jno. *U. S. - Mexican War*

* The Hyde, _______ that you have on your Mexican War page whose wife was Martha A. refers to Ruben Posey Hyde whose wife was Martha Ann Linn. They were both buried at Duffau in Erath County. Their daughter, Mary Jane Hyde Hightower, was buried in the cemetery in Thorp Spring in Hood County. She was the mother of Minnie Hightower Hale who married William Parker Hale. They were buried in the Granbury Cemetery in Hood County.

Floy Adkisson

Thanks to the Descendants of Mexican War Veterans for use of copyrighted historical information in the writing of the above background information.

If you have information regarding a Hood County veteran of the U. S. - Mexican War, please e-mail the Hood County Genealogical Society.

~ Web Page by Virginia Hale ~

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