The Mexican-American War Experiences of Twelve Civil War Generals

Timothy D. Johnson, T. Michael Parrish

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9780807183281
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

Long overshadowed by the American Civil War, the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) has received significantly less attention from historians partly because of its questionable origin and controversial outcome. Rather than treat the conflict with a form of historical amnesia, the contributors to this volume argue that the Mexican-American War was a formative experience for the more than three hundred future Civil War generals who served in it as lower-grade officers. The Mexican War was the first combat experience for many of them, a laboratory that equipped a generation of young officers with practical lessons in strategy, tactics, logistics, and interpersonal relationships that they would use later to command forces during the Civil War.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Maps
• INTRODUCTION
• GREAT ADVANTAGE TO ME AFTERWARD: Ulysses S. Grant, the Mexican War, and Lessons Learned
• LOFTY EXPECTATIONS: Don Carlos Buell’s Mexican-American War Education
• PLAYING GAMES: Joseph Hooker and the Politics of Command
• A STEPPING STONE TO SOME FUTURE AND GREATER WAR: George B. McClellan’s Mexican War Apprenticeship
• NINETEEN MONTHS IN MEXICO: George Gordon Meade Develops His Philosophy of War, 1845–1847
• WHEN A LITTLE SLOW MATTERED MOST: George H. Thomas in Mexico
• LEARNING FROM THE BEST AND WORST OF WINFIELD SCOTT’S EXAMPLE: Robert E. Lee in the Mexican-American War
• THE QUEST FOR RECOGNITION AND GLORY: P. G. T. Beauregard in Mexico
• SOUR GRAPES: Braxton Bragg and the Lessons of the War with Mexico
• THE TRAINING OF LEE’S FUTURE LIEUTENANT: Thomas J. Jackson’s Mexican War
• MY FAIR FAME AS A SOLDIER AND A MAN: Joseph E. Johnston in the Mexican-American War
• MAKING THE ASSAULT WITH THE DETERMINATION TO SUCCEED: James Longstreet’s Attack on Fort Sanders
• Contributors
• Index