CARD 35 - War with Mexico

 "But now, after reiterated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American Soil. She has proclaimed that hostilities have commenced, and that the two nations are at war."
President James K. Polk, May 11, 1846

Most Americans supported the war. Only a few Whig politicians, such as John Quincy Adams, were opposed to it. There was so much support that men had to be turned away from military recruiting stations. Over 80,000 men had enlisted in the military.

War Firsts:
  • The first photographed war in the world
  • The first US foreign war
  • The first war where newspapers regularly reported from the location of the war
  • The first war in which U.S. Military Academy at West Point graduates participated, including Robert E. Lee, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, George Meade, George McClellan, and William T. Sherman. Some of these men would later face each other on opposite sides of the battlefield in the US Civil War.
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