Colonel Alexander Doniphan’s Epic March in Mexico, 1846-1847
Alexander William Doniphan is well known among Mormons for his saving Joseph Smith from certain death in the 1838 Mormon War, but his Mexican-American War expedition covering swaths of the Southwest was hailed at the time as a military achievement. In the fall of 1846 Doniphan, an attorney-turned-colonel in the expansionist war, led the 1st Regiment of Mounted Missouri Volunteers out of occupied Santa Fe, New Mexico, into hostile lands of the Navajo and northern Mexican states including Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Nuevo Leon.
Read MoreThe White House “Mystery” Meeting: Santa Anna meets Andrew Jackson, 1836-1837
The Texas Revolution beginning in the fall of 1835 achieved its goal of independence after defeating General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto April 21, 1836.
Read MoreThe Mier Expedition’s “Bloody” Black-Bean Lottery of 1843 and Journey of John C.C. Hill
In September of 1842 Texans and Mexicans engaged in a series of skirmishes near San Antonio resulting in the deaths of three dozen Texans. In response, that November the Texans organized a retaliatory expedition of several hundred soldiers and pushed through Laredo towards Ciudad Mier – located on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.
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