Mixed Blessing The Role Of The Texas Rangers In The Mexican War 1846 1848

Author : Major Ian B. Lyles
Publisher : Pickle Partners Publishing
Page : 94 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2015-11-06
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781782899532

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Mixed Blessing: The Role Of The Texas Rangers In The Mexican War, 1846-1848 by Major Ian B. Lyles Pdf

The Texas Rangers assumed many roles during the Mexican War (1846-1848), fighting in both the northern and central theaters. Along with frontier knowledge and combat experience, they also brought prejudices and they earned a reputation for ill-discipline. Thus, the central research question is whether the Texas Rangers contributed to the success of conventional army forces or did they materially hinder Generals Taylor and Scott more than they helped? Analysis begins by discussing the Mexican War, the Texas Rangers, and the concept of Compound Warfare (CW) (conventional and unconventional forces employed simultaneously to gain a synergistic advantage). CW theory is used to evaluate the Rangers’ contributions. Ranger actions in support of Taylor’s first battles and his movement to and conquest of Monterey, followed by the Battle of Buena Vista are described and evaluated. The Rangers’ counter-guerilla operations in both theaters are evaluated next. The conclusion is that the Texas Rangers did contribute positively overall to the success of American commanders throughout the war despite some problems and atrocities. The final chapter also discusses the work’s current relevance and suggests way for today’s commanders to avoid problems when integrating irregular forces from differing cultures into the laws of war.

Author : Ian Lyles
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2014-09-24
Category : Mexican War, 1846-1848
ISBN : 1500937053

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Mixed Blessing: the Role of the Texas Rangers in the Mexican War, 1846-1848 by Ian Lyles Pdf

"The Texas Rangers assumed many roles during the Mexican War (1846-1848), fighting in both the northern and central theaters. Along with frontier knowledge and combat experience, they also brought prejudices and they earned a reputation for ill discipline. Thus, the central research question is whether the Texas Rangers contributed to the success of conventional army forces or did they materially hinder Generals Taylor and Scott more than they helped? Analysis begins by discussing the Mexican War, the Texas Rangers, and the concept of Compound Warfare (CW) (conventional and unconventional forces employed simultaneously to gain a synergistic advantage). CW theory is used to evaluate the Rangers contributions. Ranger actions in support of Taylor's first battles and his movement to and conquest of Monterey, followed by the Battle of Buena Vista are described and evaluated. The Rangers counter-guerilla operations in both theaters are evaluated next. The conclusion is that the Texas Rangers did contribute positively overall to the success of American commanders throughout the war despite some problems and atrocities. The final chapter also discusses the works current relevance and suggests way for today's commanders to avoid problems when integrating irregular forces from differing cultures into the laws of war."--Abstract.

Author : William Nelson Fox
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
Page : 144 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2023-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781467153867

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Texas Rangers in the Mexican-American War by William Nelson Fox Pdf

For the Texas Rangers, the Mexican-American War was an opportunity for vengeance. When the United States declared war on Mexico in 1846, the Texas Rangers were eager to settle scores with their familiar foe and quickly became the eyes and ears of the US army. Commanded by established legends like Samuel H. Walker, Benjamin McCulloch, and John Jack Coffee Hays, Texas Rangers led the American charge at Monterrey and saved General Taylor's army at Buena Vista. However, their depredations on Mexican citizenry were often excessive, and their behavior, along with other volunteers, sparked Mexican resistance. However crucial they were to US victory, it is also indisputable that they earned a reputation for brutality even in a vicious war.. Author William Nelson Fox follows these larger than life figures into stories of heroism and villainy at the heart of the Mexican-American War.

Author : Darren L. Ivey
Publisher : University of North Texas Press
Page : 672 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2017-10-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781574417012

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The Ranger Ideal Volume 1 by Darren L. Ivey Pdf

Established in Waco in 1968, the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum honors the iconic Texas Rangers, a service which has existed, in one form or another, since 1823. They have become legendary symbols of Texas and the American West. Thirty-one Rangers, with lives spanning more than two centuries, have been enshrined in the Hall of Fame. In The Ranger Ideal Volume 1: Texas Rangers in the Hall of Fame, 1823-1861, Darren L. Ivey presents capsule biographies of the seven inductees who served Texas before the Civil War. He begins with Stephen F. Austin, “the Father of Texas,” who laid the foundations of the Ranger service, and then covers John C. Hays, Ben McCulloch, Samuel H. Walker, William A. A. “Bigfoot” Wallace, John S. Ford, and Lawrence Sul Ross. Using primary records and reliable secondary sources, and rejecting apocryphal tales, The Ranger Ideal presents the true stories of these intrepid men who fought to tame a land with gallantry, grit, and guns. This Volume 1 is the first of a planned three-volume series covering all of the Texas Rangers inducted in the Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco, Texas.

Author : Benjamin J Swenson
Publisher : Pen and Sword Military
Page : 234 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2024-01-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9781399053730

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The Dawn of Guerrilla Warfare by Benjamin J Swenson Pdf

While one military empire in Europe lay in ruins, another awakened in North America. During the Peninsular War (1808-1814) the Spanish launched an unprecedented guerrilla insurgency undermining Napoleon’s grip on that state and ultimately hastening the destruction of the French Army in Europe. The advent of this novel “system” of warfare ushered in an era of military studies on the use of unconventional strategies in military campaigns and changed the modern rules of war. A generation later during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), Winfield Scott and Henry Halleck used the knowledge from the Peninsular War to implement an innovative counterinsurgency program designed to conciliate Mexicans living in areas controlled by the U.S. Army, which set the standard informing a growing international consensus on the proper conduct for occupation. In this first transnational history of the Mexican-American War, historian Benjamin J. Swenson chronicles the emergence of guerrilla warfare in the Atlantic World. He demonstrates how the Napoleonic War in Spain informed the U.S. Army’s 1847 campaign in the heart of Mexico, romantic perceptions of the war among both Americans and Mexicans, the disparate resistance to invasion and occupation, foreign influence on the war from monarchists intent on bringing Mexico back into the European orbit, and the danger of disastrous imperial overreach exemplified by the French in Spain.

Author : Nathan A. Jennings
Publisher : University of North Texas Press
Page : 455 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2016-02-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781574416350

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Riding for the Lone Star by Nathan A. Jennings Pdf

The idea of Texas was forged in the crucible of frontier warfare between 1822 and 1865, when Anglo-Americans adapted to mounted combat north of the Rio Grande. This cavalry-centric arena, which had long been the domain of Plains Indians and the Spanish Empire, compelled an adaptive martial tradition that shaped early Lone Star society. Beginning with initial tactical innovation in Spanish Tejas and culminating with massive mobilization for the Civil War, Texas society developed a distinctive way of war defined by armed horsemanship, volunteer militancy, and short-term mobilization as it grappled with both tribal and international opponents. Drawing upon military reports, participants' memoirs, and government documents, cavalry officer Nathan A. Jennings analyzes the evolution of Texan militarism from tribal clashes of colonial Tejas, territorial wars of the Texas Republic, the Mexican-American War, border conflicts of antebellum Texas, and the cataclysmic Civil War. In each conflict Texan volunteers answered the call to arms with marked enthusiasm for mounted combat. Riding for the Lone Star explores this societal passion--with emphasis on the historic rise of the Texas Rangers--through unflinching examination of territorial competition with Comanches, Mexicans, and Unionists. Even as statesmen Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston emerged as influential strategic leaders, captains like Edward Burleson, John Coffee Hays, and John Salmon Ford attained fame for tactical success.

Author : Dan Lee
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 285 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2012-08-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9780786471300

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Thomas J. Wood by Dan Lee Pdf

Thomas J. Wood, Kentuckian, graduated fifth in his West Point class in 1846 and joined the staff of General Zachary Taylor. The Mexican War was just beginning and Wood fought in several battles after which he served under General Winfield Scott in Mexico City. In 1861, Wood became a brigadier general of volunteers and began his Civil War service with the Army of the Cumberland, with whom he fought in every campaign and most of its major battles. Wood has never before been the subject of a full length biography but is well known for a notorious lapse of judgment resulting in a Confederate breakthrough at Chickamauga that shattered the Union right flank and threatened the survival of the Army of the Cumberland. It is a moment in the war still argued about. Wood learned from his mistake, became a better general from that time on (notably at Missionary Ridge and Nashville), and redeemed himself in the eyes of his fellow officers and his civilian superiors.

Author : Steven J. Ramold
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 678 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : History
ISBN : UOM:39076002844327

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Baring the Iron Hand by Steven J. Ramold Pdf

During antebellum wars the Regular Army preserved the peace, suppressed the Indians, and bore the brunt of the fighting. The Civil War, however, brought an influx of volunteers who overwhelmed the number of army Regulars, forcing a clash between traditional military discipline and the expectations of citizens. Baring the Iron Hand provides an extraordinarily in-depth examination of this internal conflict and the issue of discipline in the Union Army. Ramold tells the story of the volunteers, who, unaccustomed to such military necessities as obeying officers, accepting punishment, and suppressing individuality, rebelled at the traditional discipline expected by the standing army. Unwilling to fully surrender their perceived rights as American citizens, soldiers both openly and covertly defied the rules. They challenged the right of their officers to lead them and established their own policies on military offenses, proper conduct, and battlefield behavior. Citizen soldiers also denied the army the right to punish them for offenses like desertion, insubordination, and mutiny that had no counterpart in civilian life. Ramold demonstrates that the clash between Regulars and volunteers caused a reinterpretation of the traditional expectations of discipline. The officers of the Regular Army had to contend with independent-minded soldiers who resisted the spit-and-polish discipline that made the army so efficient, but also alienated the volunteers' sense of individuality and manhood. Unable to prosecute the vast number of soldiers who committed offenses, professional officers reached a form of populist accommodation with their volunteer soldiers. Unable to eradicate or prevent certain offenses, the army tried simply to manage them or to just ignore them. Instead of applying traditionally harsh punishments for specific crimes as they had done in the antebellum period, the army instead mollified its men by extending amnesty, modifying sentences, and granting liberal leniency to many soldiers who otherwise deserved the harshest of penalties. Ramold's fascinating look into the lives of these misbehaving soldiers will interest both Civil War historians and enthusiasts.

Author : Stephen A. Carney
Publisher : U.S. Government Printing Office
Page : 35 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2005-03
Category : History
ISBN : 0160723744

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Gateway South by Stephen A. Carney Pdf

CMH Pub 73-1. The U.S. Army Campaigns of the Mexican War. At head of title on cover: The U.S. Army Campaigns of the Mexican War. One of a series of eight brochures about the Mexican War. Discusses Brig. General Zachary Taylor's campaign for Monterrey, Mexico

Author : Justin Harvey Smith
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Page : 608 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 1919
Category : History
ISBN : UTEXAS:059171201019073

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The War with Mexico by Justin Harvey Smith Pdf

As every one understands, our conflict with Mexico has been almost entirely eclipsed by the greater wars following it. But in the field of thought mere size does not count for much; and while the number of troops and the lists of casualties give the present subject little comparative importance, it has ample grounds for claiming attention. As a territorial stake New Mexico, Arizona and California were of immense value. National honor was involved, and not a few of the Mexicans thought their national existence imperilled. Some of the diplomatic questions were of the utmost difficulty and interest. The clash of North and South, American and Mexican, produced extraordinary lights and shades, and in both countries the politics that lay behind the military operations made a dramatic and continual by-play. The military conduct of the governments-especially our own-and the behavior of our troops on foreign soil afforded instruction worthy to be pondered.

Author : M. I. McCreight
Publisher : Pickle Partners Publishing
Page : 134 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2017-01-12
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781787209077

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Firewater and Forked Tongues by M. I. McCreight Pdf

As a dedicated Native American advocate since the age of 20, author Major Israel McCreight saw the sad plight of the Indians in the period following the Custer Fight and the Battle of Wounded Kane. This book, first published in 1947, is the account of the versions of U.S. history according to the old Sioux Chief, FLYING HAWK. Flying Hawk, who was a nephew of Sitting Bull and fought with Crazy Horse at Little Big Horn, dictated his narrative to McCreight, thus making this an account not from the perspective of “the white man”—but as it really happened... A fascinating read!

Author : Army Center of Military History
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 436 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2016-06-05
Category : History
ISBN : 1944961402

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American Military History Volume 1 by Army Center of Military History Pdf

American Military History provides the United States Army-in particular, its young officers, NCOs, and cadets-with a comprehensive but brief account of its past. The Center of Military History first published this work in 1956 as a textbook for senior ROTC courses. Since then it has gone through a number of updates and revisions, but the primary intent has remained the same. Support for military history education has always been a principal mission of the Center, and this new edition of an invaluable history furthers that purpose. The history of an active organization tends to expand rapidly as the organization grows larger and more complex. The period since the Vietnam War, at which point the most recent edition ended, has been a significant one for the Army, a busy period of expanding roles and missions and of fundamental organizational changes. In particular, the explosion of missions and deployments since 11 September 2001 has necessitated the creation of additional, open-ended chapters in the story of the U.S. Army in action. This first volume covers the Army's history from its birth in 1775 to the eve of World War I. By 1917, the United States was already a world power. The Army had sent large expeditionary forces beyond the American hemisphere, and at the beginning of the new century Secretary of War Elihu Root had proposed changes and reforms that within a generation would shape the Army of the future. But world war-global war-was still to come. The second volume of this new edition will take up that story and extend it into the twenty-first century and the early years of the war on terrorism and includes an analysis of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq up to January 2009.

Author : Robert K. Wright
Publisher : Washington, D.C. : Center of Military History, United States Army
Page : 476 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 1983
Category : History
ISBN : UCR:31210006490294

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The Continental Army by Robert K. Wright Pdf

A narrative analysis of the complex evolution of the Continental Army, with the lineages of the 177 individual units that comprised the Army, and fourteen charts depicting regimental organization.

Author : Frederick Law Olmsted
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 570 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 1857
Category : Frontier and pioneer life
ISBN : HARVARD:RSLFKI

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A Journey Through Texas by Frederick Law Olmsted Pdf

Author : Donald P., Donald Wright, Ph. D.,Ph D Donald P Wright
Publisher : CreateSpace
Page : 218 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2013-12
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1494407159

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16 Cases of Mission Command by Donald P., Donald Wright, Ph. D.,Ph D Donald P Wright Pdf

For the US Army to succeed in the 21st Century, Soldiers of all ranks must understand and use Mission Command. Mission Command empowers leaders at all levels, allowing them to synchronize all warfighting functions and information systems to seize, retain, and exploit the initiative against a range of adversaries. This collection of historical vignettes seeks to sharpen our understanding of Mission Command philosophy and practice by providing examples from the past in which Mission Command principles played a decisive role. Some vignettes show junior officers following their commander's intent and exercising disciplined initiative in very chaotic combat operations. Others recount how field grade officers built cohesive teams that relied on mutual trust to achieve key operational objectives. Each historical account is complemented by an annotated explanation of how the six Mission Command principles shaped the action. For this reason, the collection is ideal for leader development in the Army school system as well as for unit and individual professional development. Mission Command places great responsibility on our Soldiers.