The Mexican Engineer Corps was commanded by a brigadier general, with
ten senior officers, forty junior officers, a Sapper Battalion of six hundred men
in six companies. Each company consisted of three officers, five noncoms,
two drummers, a fifer and seventy-eight sappers. Two of the companies were
miners and pontoniers, with three buglers per company instead of the drummers
and fifers. [121]
The engineers and sappers had the job of clearing obstacles from the
army's path, repairing or opening up roads, building bridges, setting mines,
constructing fortifications and conducting seige operations. In battle, the senior
engineer officers served with the commanding general's staff, helping to lead
columns, establish strong points, reconnoiter the terrain, and direct the attack or
defense of garrisons. [122]
Lack of proper equipment, such as a pontoon train, limited the capabilities
of these troops. [123]
The main contribution of the Engineer Corps was in planning and
constructing the numerous fortifications during the war. Notably, they laid some
mines at El Penal Pass and at Chapultepec, although they did not have a
chance to explode them. [124]
Mostly the sapper battalion was used as infantry, a waste of their special
abilities. This battalion was a good unit, and seems to have had an excellent
battle record. As with the artillery, the engineer officers were more professional.
The Military Academy of Chapultepec was under the jurisdiction of the Engineer
Corps, and many officers graduated from this institution. The enlisted men
seemed to be of better quality and have higher training. [125]
The Engineer Corps wore basically the same uniforms as the other troops,
but with special engineer insignia (crossed ax and mallet) on the left upper
sleeve. The tail of the officer's coat had four vertical wavy cords and sixteen
buttons on the back. [126]
According to Tradition magazine, the sappers wore a single-breasted tailcoat,
a white leather apron, and a black bearskin with red cords. [127]
Since Joseph Hefter states that the sapper battalion wore shakos, this
description possibly refers to the pioneer squad of each infantry regiment. [128]
[1] Otis Singletary, The Mexican War (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1960), p. 21.
Footnotes
[2] Philip R.N. Katcher, The Mexican-American War, 1846-1848, Men-at-Arms Series (London: Osprey Publishing Ltd., 1976), p. 19.
[3] Angelina Nieto, John N. Brown, and Joseph Hefter, eds. El Doldado Mexicano, 1837-1847 (Mexico: Nieto, Brown and Hefter, 1958), p. 65.
[4] Justin Smith, The War with Mexico, I (New York: Macmillan, 1919), 462, in. 2.
[5] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 65.
[6] George gives, The United States and Mexico, 1821-1848, 11 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913), p. 148; Holman Hamilton, Zachary Taylor (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1941), p. 182; Manuel Ballbontin, La Invasion Americana, 1846 a 1848 (Mexico: Gonzalo A. Esteva, 1883), p. 77.
[7] Balbontin, La Invasion, p. 77; John Scott, Encarnation Prisoners (Louisville: Prentice & Weissanger, 1848), p. 52.
[8] John Fuller, "Slaveholders Opposed Conquest of Mexico", The Mexican War. Was It Manifest Destiny ed. Ramon Eduardo Ruiz (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1966), p. 148.
[9] Balbontin, La Invasion, p. 77.
[10] Balbontin, La Invasion, p. 77; Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 52.
[11] Scott, p. 5 2.
[12] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 51.
[13] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, pp. 62-63.
[14] Balbontin, La Invasion, p. 77.
[15] Fuller, p. 163.
[16] Jose Roa Barcena, Recuerdos de la Invasion Norte-Americana, 1846-1848, 111 (Mexico: La Liberia Madrilena de Juan Buxo y Ca., 1883), 573, In. 1.
[17] Hubert H. Bancroft, The History ofMexico, Vol. V in The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft (San Francisco: A.L. Bancroft, 1885), pp. 414-15.
[18] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 78.
[19] Smith, 1, 10.
[20] Smith, 1, 494, in. 11.
[21] Ripley, 1, 443.
[22] Ripley, 1, 87; Smith, 11, 311.
[23] Smith, 1, 10.
[24] Justo Sierra, The Political Evolution of the Mexican People, trans. Charles Ramsdell (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1969), pp. 241-42.
[25] Ulysses S. Grant, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, ed. John Y. Simon, I (Carbondale and
Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967), 168-69.
[26] Smith, 11, 509, fn. 4.
[27] Bancroft, Vol. V, p. 355.
[28] Jose Fernando Ramirez, Mexico During the War with the United States, ed. Walter Scholes, trans. Elliott Scherr (Columbia: University of Missouri, 1950), p. 135.
[29] Antono Lopez de Santa Anna, Detaildelas Operaciones Ocurridasenla Defensadela Capital de la Republica, Atacada por el Ejercito de ins Estados Unidos del Norte, Ano de 1847, trans. 1. Hefter (1848; ript. Mexico: Quesada Brandi, 1961), p. 7.
[30] Fairfax Downey, Texas and the War with Mexico, (New York: American Heritage, 1961), pp. 98-99.
[31] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 63.
[32] See Appendix A, p.
[33] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 36, 58.
[34] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 518.
[35] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 72.
[36] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 40; Miguel Sanches, Breve Historia del Batallon Activo Guarda Coasta de San Blas (Mexico: Editorial Militar Mexicana, 1964), Plate IV.
[37] Downey, Texas, Back end sheet; Sanchez, Plate IV; Katcher, Plate c-3; Martin Windrow, Military Dress of North America, 1665-1970 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973), p. 78.
[38] Downey, Texas, p. 133.
[39] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 68.
[40] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 53; Katcher, p. 24; Balbontin, La Invasion, p. 78; David Lavender, Climax at Buena Vista (Philadelphia: I.B. Lippincott, 1966), p. 225.
[41] Vincent Esposito, ed., A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1968), p. xi.
[42] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, pp. 53-54; Katcher, p. 24
[43] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 62.
[44] Downey, Texas, p. 138,144.
[45] Ramon Alcaraz and others, eds. The Other Side: Notes for the History of the War between Mexico and the United States, trans. Albert C. Ramsey (1850: rpt. New York: Burt Franklin, 1970), p. 201.
[46] Roa Barcena, III, 14.
[47] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, pp. 69-70.
[48] Sanchez, p. 47.
[49] Smith, I, 462, in. 1.
[50] Sanchez, pp. 38, 46.
[51] Baltontin, La Invasion, p. 78; Raphael Semmes, Service Afloat and Ashore during the Mexican War (Cincinnati: William H. Moore, 1851), p. 38.
[52] Semmes, p. 39.
[53] Manuel Balbontin, Estado Militar de la Republica Mexicanan en 1846 (Mexico: Ignacio Pombo, 1891), p. 15.
[54] Smith, 1, 9.
[55] Fuller, p. 48.
[56] Singletary, p. 2.
[57] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 56; gives, II, 148.
[58] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 69.
[59] Baltontin, La invasion, p. 55; Callcott, p. 244.
[60] Alcaraz and others, p. 262.
[61] Alcaraz and others, p. 47.
[62] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 69.
[63] Alcaraz and others, pp. 85, 124; Balbontin, La Invasion, p. 62.
[64] Bernard De Voto, The Year of Decision - 1846 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950), p. 191.
[65] Balbontin, La Invasion, pp. 55-56.
[66] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 57.
[67] Ripley, I, 88; De Voto, p. 191.
[68] Katcher, p. 24.
[69] Alcaraz and others, p. 294.
[70] Smith, 1, 157; Department of the Army, American Military History, 1607-1953 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1956), p. 166; Lavender, p.47.
[71] Jack Bauer, The Mexican War, 1846-1848 (New York: Macmillan, 1974), pp. 96, 297.
[72] Bayer, p. 298.
[73] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 79.
[74] Balbontin, La Invasion, p. 61.
[75] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 60.
[76] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, pp. 67-68.
[77] Balbontin, La Invasion, p. 78.
[78] Ibid.
[79] Balbontin, Estado, p. 16.
[80] Balbontin, La Invasion, p. 78.
[81] Alcaraz and others, p. 147; Bauer, p. 54.
[82] Balbontin, Estado, pp. 16-17.
[83] Ripley, 1, 86.
[84] Smith, 1, 461, fn. 1.
[85] Bancroft, Vol. V, p. 360.
[86] Russell Weigley, History of the United States Army (New York: Macmillan, 1967), p. 184
[87] Balbontin, La Invasion, p. 93.
[88] Balbontin, La Invasion, p. 55.
[89] Bauer, p. 42.
[90] Sister Blanche Marie, American Catholics in the War with Mexico (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University, 1932), pp. 80-81.
[91] Sister Blanche Marie, p. 80; Lavender, p. 164.
[92] Bauer, p. 42.
[93] Katcher, p. 30.
[94] Singletary, p. 21; Department of the Army, p. 168; Semmes, p. 441.
[95] Alcaraz and others, p. 134.
[96] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, pp. 56, 64.
[97] Smith, 1, 462, fn. 1; Balbontin, La Invasion, p. 78; Ripley, 1, 88.
[98] Balbontin, La Invasion, p. 78.
[99] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 56.
[100] Arthur Woodward, "Lances at San Pascual", California Historical Society Quarterly, XXVI (December 1946), 39-41.
[101] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, pp. 63-79.
[102] Nieto, Brown and Hefter, p. 62.
[103] Edward Nichols, Zach Tay/or's Little Army (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1963), p. 85.
[104] "The Mexican Army", Daily American Star, December 2,1847, p. 1; Brantz Mayer, History of the War between Mexico and the United States, I (New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1848), 14.
[105] Mayer, 1, 14.
[106] Mayer, 1, 15; Albert J. Brackett, History of the United States Cavalry (1865; rpt: New York: Greenwood Press, 1968) p. 92.
[107] Smith, 1, 157; Brackett, p. 92.
[108] Downey, Texas, p. 72.
[109] Ralph Bieber, ed., Marching with the Army of the West, 1846-1848 (Glendale, Ca.: Arthur H. Clark, 1936), p. 175.
[110] Bieber, pp. 174-75.
[111] Smith, 11, 170.
[112] Smith, 11, 171.
[113] James Cutts, The Conquest of California and New Mexico (Philadelphia: Cary & Hart, 1847), p. 44; Frank Edwards, A Campaign in New Mexico (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1966) .p. 56.