The year was 1846 and James K. Polk was president. You may remember from high school history that he was a firm believer in the Manifest Destiny, the right of the United States to continue spreading westward from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. Texas, which had belonged to Mexico until it won its independence in 1836, had only recently joined the union, a process that took a decade because it was a southern state with pro-slavery values, and its statehood was opposed by the northern states. Mexico still controlled what is now California and most of the Southwest. However, some of the boundary lines between the United States and Mexico were not fully drawn. The U.S. believed that they owned a slice of land between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River; Mexico claimed the same territory. In the summer of 1845, even before Texas became a state, the president sent U.S. troops into the disputed area, starting a ball rolling that would lead to all-out war.
Eventually, Congress authorized the president to call for 50,000 volunteers, who joined regular Army and Navy soldiers to invade and occupy Mexico. The war that resulted led to Mexico selling almost all of what is today's Southwest to the U.S., but it came at a heavy price. Although many died in battle, far more suffered from the horrible conditions of military camp life in the profound heat. Dysentery, typhoid, yellow fever, and heatstroke claimed more men than did battle wounds.
Lest you think that your ancestors were not involved in this war, you might want to reconsider. As it turns out, soldiers came from everywhere. Almost half of the troops fighting with General Zachary Taylor were foreign-born. They were mostly Irish and German immigrants, but almost all states and nationalities were represented. Volunteers signed up to fight for six-month or one-year enlistments, although, according to many reports, they were not well disciplined, frequently committing terrible acts of violence. About 116,000 men served in this war, and any man born in the first part of the 1800s could have been among them.
Where are the Records?
There are several places online where you can get information on men who served in the war with Mexico. If you had Missouri ancestors, you will want to head for the Secretary of State’s website and search the soldiers’ records section of the Missouri Digital Heritage project at https://s1.sos.mo.gov/records/archives/archivesdb/soldiers/Default.aspx. This is just an index, but it will give you an idea of the unit in which your soldier served.
For other soldiers, and again, just an index, try the National Park Service’s “U.S. Mexican War Soldiers and Sailors Database,” which contains almost 90,000 records. You can find this index at https://www.nps.gov/paal/learn/historyculture/search-usmexwar.htm#sort=Title%20asc
For a comprehensive list of links to indexes, records, and information, you will want to look at the FamilySearch wiki page, "United States, Mexican War Index and Service Records," at https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/United_States,_Mexican_War_Index_and_Service_Records_-_FamilySearch_Historical_Records.
For more on this chapter of American history:
“A Continent Divided: The U.S.-Mexican War,” Center for Greater Southwestern Studies, Utah Arlington Library Special Collections, University of Texas, Arlington, c. 2022, https://library.uta.edu/usmexicowar/
“List of United States Military and Volunteer Units in the Mexican-American War,” Wikipedia, 15 November 2021, (Long list of links to data), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_military_and_volunteer_units_in_the_Mexican–American_War
“Military Resources: Mexican War, 1846–1848, National Archives Library Information Center (ALIC), 22 July 2019, https://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/military/mexican-war.html
“St. Louis Legion––Mexican War Veterans,” StLGS, 2016, https://stlgs.org/research-2/government/military/st-louis-legion-mexican-war-veterans
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