The United States' War With Mexico

American troops entered Monterrey, Mexico On September 23, 1846, the Americans moved within one block of Main Plaza in house-to-house fighting. The streets leading to the plaza were raked with cannon fire so the soldiers punched holes in the walls of buildings and, using ladders and pick axes, moved from house to house toward the plaza. Illustration from General Taylor’s Rough and Ready Almanac, 1848 by David Young. Courtesy of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, Texas.

The United States started the Mexican War after the annexation of Texas.

In June 1845, a large part of the US Army was gathered at Fort Jessup in western Louisiana near the Sabine River in anticipation of a war with Mexico.1 The US Army commander, General Edmund Gaines, was instructed to move his troops to the disputed Texas border in advance of February 19, 1846, when the state would be formally annexed to the US.2 By the time the Texas Constitutional Convention accepted the bill annexing Texas to the United States, US General Zachery Taylor was moving his army to New Orleans to take ships to Texas. On July 31, 1845, General Taylor’s army arrived at Corpus Christi Bay on the Texas coast and camped on the Nueces River for the next nine months3 waiting for the Mexicans to initiate war.4

One reason Texas sought annexation to the United States was the expectation that the US Army would assume the expense of defending the frontier.5 Jack Hays unsuccessfully approached General Taylor in an attempt to integrate his ranging company into the US Army.6 Although his offer was initially refused, after 1845, Texas ranging companies were usually attached to Federal troops and paid by the US government.

The Rio Grande del Norte was the border claimed by the Republic of Texas;7 US President Polk had campaigned for election on a promise to occupy the Nueces Strip.8 Accordingly, on March 8, 1846, General Taylor began to move his army from the Nueces River to the Rio Grande. On March 27, the American troops arrived at the north bank of the Rio Grande and constructed Fort Texas (later renamed Fort Brown) opposite the Mexican town of Matamoros.9 It was this advance from the Nueces River to the Rio Grande that finally provoked the start of the Mexican war.

On April 24, 1846, General Mariano Arista, in command at Matamoros, announced that hostilities had begun.10 In a letter to Governor Henderson on April 26, 1846, General Taylor stated that “hostilities have actually commenced” and requested that four regiments of Texas volunteers be called into service. Two regiments were to be mounted, and two were to be infantry.11

In May 1846, Mexican and American troops clashed at Palo Alto Prairie between the US Army’s supply base at Port Isabel and Fort Brown. After the Battle of Resaca de la Palma the following day, the Mexican army retreated to Matamoros, and Taylor followed them as far as Fort Brown.12 During this campaign, a company of US Army Dragoons was captured while on a scout, and Samuel Walker’s company of Texas mounted irregulars proved valuable as scouts and messengers.13 The combination of events convinced General Taylor to accept Texas Rangers into Federal service. Reporters from American newspapers accompanied the troops, and their stories about Walker’s company contributed to the growing mythology of the Texas Rangers.14

Tom Rife enlisted in the First Texas Mounted Rifles.

On May 4, 1846, even before General Taylor called for volunteers, Jack Hays visited Austin to ask permission to recruit a regiment of volunteers for the war.15 Texas Governor James Pinckney Henderson approved and Hays, with Samuel Walker, left for Washington-on-the-Brazos to recruit men who had experience as rangers, their preferred recruits. While in Brenham, Washington County, Hays and Walker called for volunteers at a public meeting sponsored by John B. Wilkins, Sr., a local merchant. The gathering concluded with a barbeque and dance. The next day the two men proceeded east to visit other towns.16 Between May 15 and May 19, 1846, as a result of Hays’ visit, sixty-four men in Brenham enrolled in a company headed by Frank S. Early.17 Among the men who enrolled was 23-year-old Thomas Rife.18

Thanks in part to the “Narrative of the Texan Santa Fé Expedition” written by George W Kendall of the New Orleans Picayune newspaper,19 the response to the call for volunteers was overwhelming.20 Volunteers from the States, as well as Texas, responded in large numbers.21 Colonel George Wood was appointed by the Governor to lead a regiment of mounted troops from east Texas.22 General Albert Sydney Johnston commanded a regiment of infantry, and Governor James Henderson, with the Legislature’s permission,23 commanded the two other Texas regiments.24 All of the Texas troops were riflemen.25

In June 1846, the headquarters of Colonel Jack Hays’ Regiment of First Texas Mounted Rifles was located at Point Isabel (near the mouth of the Rio Grande). This headquarters was the rendezvous for the four Texas regiments.26 Most of these men enlisted for six months.27 On June 7, 1846, Thomas Rife mustered into Company F as a 2nd Corporal, indicating that he must have had previous military experience. Company F, commanded by Captain Frank S. Early, was assigned to the 1st Regiment, Texas Mounted Rifles, commanded by Colonel Jack Hays.28

On June 11, 1846, Rife was still with Frank Early’s Company F29at Point Isabel, but on July 11 he was detached from Company F and assigned to Captain Samuel L. S. Ballowe’s Company D.30 He remained on the roll of Company F as absent on detached service.31 Both Companies were stationed around Point Isabel. Samuel Ballowe’s Company D was recruited in Brazoria and Matagorda counties32 with only twenty-five men when they arrived at the rendezvous at Point Isabel on June 19. They were finally mustered into service on July 14 33 but only after inducing men, such as Tom Rife, to transfer in from other companies.

Some of Hay’s former rangers traveled long distances to sign up for service. The Texas captains selected their recruits carefully and rejected those who did not meet their standards.34 As a result, the regiment spent the entire month of June getting the required ten companies organized and staffed.35 Regimental officers were elected on June 22.36 Jack Hays was elected colonel, Samuel Walker was elected lieutenant colonel, and Michael H. Chevallie was elected major. The men were issued army wagons and camp equipage, but they refused army uniforms.37 The Texans dressed as they did in civilian life with woolen shirts dyed with hickory nuts, buckskin leather pants, slouch hats, moccasins and knives, and pistols in their belts.38 Many sported full beards and handlebar mustaches.39

The US Army invaded Mexico in 1846.

In July and August 1846, General Taylor marched one brigade of infantry with artillery and cavalry along the south side of the Rio Grande through Reynosa40 and on to Camargo City in the State of Tamaulipas. The remaining infantry was carried between Point Isabel and Camargo City in chartered steamboats41 operated by Captain Richard King.42

The eight Texas mounted companies were sent out to locate the Mexican army43 and to occupy towns and villages along the army’s intended route.44 They found the Mexican Army concentrated at Monterrey. A reporter from the New Orleans Picayune accompanied Hay’s command and dispatched colorful stories of their exploits.45

In preparation for the advance on Monterrey, General Taylor organized his army into the 1st Division, 2nd Division, and Texas Divisions. Two thousand men were left at Camargo, and the remainder formed into three columns. They left Camargo, marched through Mier, and were brought together at Cerralvo, sixty miles from Monterrey46on September 9.47 On September 13, the army arrived at Papagayo farm48, where Ballowe’s Company D had been camped since August 31.49

On September 19, the 4,000 US regular and volunteer troops of Taylor’s army reached the outskirts of Monterrey and camped at Santo Domingo, where the Americans established a base camp they called Walnut Springs.50 The Texas volunteers were sent out to forage, and rain began to fall during the night.51

Thomas Rife participated in the Battle of Monterrey.

On September 20, 1846, the Battle of Monterrey began. The Texans left their bedding and cooking utensils in camp because they thought that they would return to their camp that night, but they were not able to return for four days after the city surrendered. They were forced to eat roasted green corn stolen from nearby fields52 and to sleep on the ground in their shirtsleeves.53

Two hundred and fifty men of Hays’ Regiment were chosen and assigned to Brigadier General Worth’s 2nd Division and were ordered to attack the city from the west. Colonel Hays accompanied these men into battle.54 The 2nd Division and the men of Hays’ Regiment left their camp at Walnut Springs and were close to the Saltillo Road by six o’clock in the evening. Ballowe’s company, to which Rife was attached, was involved in a skirmish at sundown that was stopped by heavy rain. That night the Texans bedded down in the barnyard of the San Jerónimo ranch west of the city.55

Early on the morning of September 21, Texas troops moved toward the Saltillo Road56, where they dismounted and, shortly after daylight, skirmished with a company of Mexican lancers.57 On this second day of battle, Ballowe’s Company helped capture a pair of batteries located across the Arroyo Topa from the city.58 In the early morning hours of the third day of battle, dismounted cavalry, including Rife’s unit,59 scaled a steep slope and captured a battery on the hill above the old Bishop’s Palace.60 They then captured the Bishop’s Palace itself that had been fortified by the Mexican army.61

On the following day, September 23, American troops entered Monterrey and moved to within one block of Main Plaza from both the west and east in house-to-house fighting.62 The American soldiers dared not show themselves in the streets leading to the plaza because of the deadly cannon fire from the plaza. By punching holes in the walls of the buildings and, using ladders and pick-axes,63 they moved from house to house towards Main Plaza.64

The city surrendered on September 24, and the Mexican troops were allowed to leave for San Luis Potosí, Linares, and points south. General Don Pedro Ampudia and his army retreated to San Luis Potosí, and that city became the headquarters of the Mexican army in the north.65

Following the capture of Monterrey, all Texas volunteer troops were mustered out of Federal service and returned home to Texas.66 General Taylor began to muster out the Texas troops on September 30 67, and Tom Rife was mustered out on October 2, as a sergeant.68 He was paid for his four-months of service, given a clothing allowance69 and returned to Washington County where his uncle Nathaniel Chambliss lived. It is not known if he traveled overland or by steamer from Camargo City. Rife’s first company commander, Captain Frank Early, traveled by steamer. He died in the Tremont Hotel in Galveston from an illness that he contracted in Mexico while on his way home.70

Rife reenlisted before the Battle of Buena Vista.

On February 1, 1847, Walter P. Lane (who had served as a lieutenant in Hays’ first regiment) and his friend Governor Nelson traveled from San Antonio to Fayette County to recruit a company of rangers for the duration of the war. Few men were willing to make such an indefinite commitment.71 Rife, on the other hand, did not hesitate. He enrolled in Lane’s Company that same day and was enlisted for three months or the duration of the war.72

On February 13, 1847, Lane’s company gathered at San Antonio, the announced rendezvous. The company included 12 men who had served in Jack Hays’s regiment at the battle at Monterrey, four former Mier prisoners and fifteen volunteers from Mississippi. It was grouped with two other companies to form a battalion commanded by Mike Chevallié,73, a stalwart of Jack Hay’s rangers during the 1840s. Rife mustered in as 3rd Sergeant.74

In the meantime, the war in Mexico continued. On February 15, 1847, General Winfield Scott, with most of General Taylor’s regular troops, sailed from Brazos de Santiago for Tampico to begin the Mexico City campaign.75 On February 23, 1847, General Taylor’s remaining force met and defeated a much larger force of Mexicans south of Saltillo in what became known as the Battle of Buena Vista.76

The 1st Battalion was assigned to General Taylor’s army in northern Mexico. Its ranging district was to be Saltillo to Camargo.77 The volunteers provided their mounts, and at the time of Rife’s enlistment, his horse was an eight-year-old sorrel gelding measuring 14½ hands(58”), valued at $35.78

Chevallie’s Battalion of 300 men left San Antonio on March 8, 1847, and reached Camargo City on March 23, 1847. The day after Chevallie’s Battalion left San Antonio, General Winfield Scott’s army landed near Vera Cruz and launched the campaign that ended with the capture of Mexico City.79 Two days after arriving in Camargo, the three companies of Chevallie’s Battalion officially organized as a battalion and elected Chevallie, its commander, with the rank of major. The men remained in the vicinity of Camargo for a few weeks and then started for Monterrey to join General Taylor’s army.80

On April 4, 1847, Chevallie’s command left Camargo and arrived at China, Mexico, on April 9 and camped on the outskirts of the town for a week. On April 15, 1847, the men with the Battalion’s best and healthiest horses were selected to continue up the south fork of the San Juan River to Montemorelos, a town in the foothills about 55 miles south of China. The rest of the Battalion, led by Lt. G.H. Nelson, escorted a regiment of Virginia infantry and its supply train to Monterrey along the main road.

The detachment commanded by Major Chevallie proceeded to Montemorelos through a densely populated valley where forage and food were abundant. Local officials appeared to be friendly towards the Americans and reported that Mexican General Urrea had retreated towards San Luis Potosí.81 The month of April 1847 was spent guarding foraging trains and scouting the countryside.82

Rife’s unit was stationed at Monterrey in 1847.

On April 30, 1847, Rife’s unit was stationed at Monterrey.83 The Battalion of Major Mike Chevallie (later commanded by Major Walter Lane) did service fighting the “guerrilleros” who attacked supply wagons traveling the Camargo-Monterrey road. Chief among their opponents was General Canales84 and a man known to the Texans as Juan Flores from Cerralvo, a town 71 miles north of Monterrey on the road to Mier.85

On May 27, 1847, Lane’s company was sent to Cerralvo by General Taylor to find Juan Flores, whose real name was José Nicolás Garcia. Two Mexican ranchers betrayed Garcia’s location, and the Texans arrested Garcia at his home while he was in bed. The next day he was tried and sentenced to execution by firing squad. His execution was scheduled for the following day at noon in the plaza of Cerralvo. The Texas soldiers already had a reputation for atrocious behavior toward Mexican civilians, and a group of passing American soldiers opposed the execution of Garcia.86 Colonel Alexander Doniphan’s Missouri regiment recently discharged and, on the way home, entered the town just before the execution, and many of them protested, suspecting that Garcia was a victim of some injustice. The Missourian’s protests were ignored.

In June, about two months after Chevallie’s Battalion arrived in Mexico, General Taylor, from his headquarters in Monterrey, dispatched Chevallié’s command to Linares.87 After three days of travel, Chevallie’s Battalion and an observer, Lt. George T Shackleford of the US Sixth Infantry, reached Linares, 85 miles south of Monterrey, after nightfall. Believing that Mexican General José Urrea was camped in the city with a large Mexican force, Captain Lane dispatched three squads of ten men each to search the streets leading to the central plaza. The squad under 2nd Lt. Henry Earl encountered a mounted civilian, José María Arsipe, and ordered him to stop. According to the Texans, he refused, and Private John J. Glanton chased him down, shot, and killed him. The Alcalde, Guillermo Morales, protested Arsipe’s murder88 but, as commanded, sent provisions and forage for the 300 Americans who camped at a ranch two miles from the city. The Texans remained at the ranch near Linares three or four days and then returned to Monterrey, having found no armed Mexicans there.89

Rife’s unit transferred to Saltillo in late 1847.

After Lane’s company returned to Monterrey, General Taylor ordered John Glanton arrested for killing the civilian in Linares. Glanton’s unit commander, Captain Lane, rather than arresting him, warned Glanton to flee.90 Later, John Glanton became a notorious murderer and subsequently killed many other Texans, Mexicans, and Apaches in West Texas.91 For this infraction, Lane was placed under arrest for a few days and then released.92

As a result of the trouble at Linares, Chevallie’s Battalion transferred to General John E. Wool’s command in Saltillo. The Texans were placed in a forward position called La Encantada, some fifteen miles south of Saltillo at the southern end of the valley where American and Mexican forces had fought the battle of Buena Vista the previous February.93 Rife’s unit remained at La Encantada (now called Agua Nueva) until February 29, 1848.94

While Rife’s unit performed garrison duties in northern Mexico, Texas volunteers joined the US expeditionary force to fight in the Mexico City campaign. Colonel Hays raised a new regiment (also called 1st Regiment Texas Mounted Volunteers) that mustered in at San Antonio on July 10, 1847,95 On August 12, five companies of the regiment marched to Brazos de Santiago (now Point Isabel) where they were transported to Vera Cruz to join General Scott’s army.96 They arrived at the port of Vera Cruz in October, one month after the surrender of Mexico City.97 They ranged between Veracruz and Mexico City and operated under the personal orders of Brigadier General J. Lane.98

While the Texas military organizations along the Mexico City-Veracruz road were guarding the supply line between Mexico City and Vera Cruz and earning fame while fighting off last-ditch efforts by Mexican partisans, Chevallie’s Battalion continued to depredate on the civilian population around Saltillo. On July 21, 1847, five Texans attempted to rob a Mexican civilian on the road between La Encantada and Buena Vista. On August 16, 1847, General Wool learned that Texans had killed cattle and sheep in a ranch near San Juan de la Vaquería, southwest of Saltillo. General Wool issued General Order Number 405, warning that he would discharge the entire company if the perpetrators could not be identified.99

Walter P. Lane took command of the Battalion.

On August 31, 1847, Major Chevallie resigned his commission after an altercation with General Wool and relinquished command of the Battalion to Walter P. Lane.100 On September 27, 1847, an election was held by Companies A, B, and C to select a new battalion commander to replace Chevallie.101 Of the 191 men who voted, 186 (including Thomas Rife) voted for Lane, who was promoted to Major.102 On September 1, 1847, while Walter P. Lane was still the company commander, Thomas Rife was promoted to the second sergeant of Company A.103

Fighting continued after US troops captured Mexico City in September 1847. Jack Hays commanded a regiment at Perote castle near Puebla,104 When General Santa Anna attacked the US supply line to Veracruz after the fall of Mexico City, Samuel Walker, a former ranger captain, pursued Santa Anna’s troops and fought one of the last battles of the war at Huamantla.105

Meanwhile, Rife’s unit continued its duties as an occupying force. In early September 1847, before Walter P. Lane was elected to command the Battalion, Captain Lane’s company made a scout to Parras, about ninety miles west of Saltillo in the State of Coahuila.106 On October 16, Captain Taylor sent Lt. Simeon Nunelee to arrest the Alcalde of Yerba Buena. Unfortunately, the Texans killed four men while arresting the Alcalde. On November 25, 1847, an Irish civilian shot and killed Otto Peltz of Company A, and one of the rangers responded by blowing the man’s brains out. Then the Texans “got on a spree and killed a few jackasses and bulldogs, and two Mexicans who had managed to get mixed up in the business.” 107

G. K. Lewis, elected from the ranks on October 19, 1847, to succeed Walter Lane as Captain of Company A,108 was no better at controlling his men than was Lane. Between April and September 1847, thirteen rangers were dishonorably discharged for stealing, killing, or being “worthless” and thirty others deserted, including thirteen who left La Encantada. It appears that the Texans were not well suited to garrison duty.109

Finally, the advent of the Comanche raiding season gave the bored men something interesting to do. At 8 o’clock on the morning of November 21, 1847, pickets came to the battalion headquarters at La Encantada to report that a body of Comanche Indians had attacked a nearby village (possibly Carneros or Gómez Farias, about 20 miles south of Encantada or Agua Buena.)110 Lane mounted those of his men who had good horses and gave pursuit. During the pursuit, many of the Texan’s horses gave out, and they fell behind the main body. After riding hard for three hours, the remaining 60 to 80 rangers caught the Indians at a place called Los Muchachos, about fifteen miles west of Saltillo. Both groups formed a line of battle. The rangers charged the 120 to 300 Comanche warriors. After a running battle ranging over two miles, the Indians dismounted and fled into the mountains.111 One ranger was killed and 14 wounded, with 30 to 40 Indians killed and wounded. The rangers captured 300 mules and horses and six Mexican children kidnapped by the Indians earlier.112 Lane and his men returned to La Encantada but left the next day with the entire Battalion to pursue Indians near Parras.113 Lane’s letter to Captain Nelson in Saltillo was printed in the Monterrey Gazette and widely reprinted in other newspapers.114 Rife was listed as “Lost in Action” on November 21 115, but he eventually returned to camp. He later stated that he was in the fight that day at Agua Buena.116

On December 15, 1847, a squad of Captain Lewis’ Company of sixteen men, including Thomas Rife, were on a scout about 50 miles from Encantada at the Castañuela ranch (now La Rosa). They were eating a lunch of tortillas and coffee when they were alerted to the presence of some Comanche Indians nearby. They quickly emptied their quart-size cups of hot coffee and, accompanied by eight or nine Mexican men armed with lances, went out to meet the Indians. Both groups charged the other. The Indians had a few rifles, but the soldier’s carbines outshot the arrows of the Indians who fled the field, leaving their dead behind. Captain Lewis was shot through the foot, and one Texan was killed in the encounter.117

On February 2, 1848, US and Mexican diplomats signed a treaty in a suburb of Mexico City called Guadalupe Hidalgo and agreed to an armistice to begin March 5.118 Jacks Hay’s regiment of Texas volunteers was mustered out at Vera Cruz and were on hand to watch ex-President Santa Anna depart Mexico for exile in Jamaica in April.119 On June 12, 1848, the last US troops left Mexico City.120

Rife’s unit was detailed to occupy the road to Zacatecas in February 1848.

The armistice did not require American forces to evacuate Mexico, and the occupation of northern Mexico continued. On February 28, 1848, Companies D and E of Lane’s Battalion and the 2nd Mississippi Regiment were sent to the town of Mazapil some 95 miles south of Saltillo, located in the northern part of the State of Zacatecas in the Chihuahuan Desert.121 The Americans arrived March 7 and established their headquarters at Cedras, just west of Mazapil on the old Zacatecas-Saltillo road.122 During March and April 1848, Rife’s unit (Company A) was stationed at the market town of Gruñidora about 60 miles south of Mazapil on the road to Zacatecas city.123 Company B remained at the Battalion’s old camp near Buena Vista, and Company C, commanded by Captain George Adams, was stationed at Parras.124

On March 12, 1848, Major Lane, Captain John Pope of the US Army Topographical Engineers, and fourteen rangers (Walter Lane remembered 40 rangers)125 departed Mazapil on a reconnaissance across cactus and mesquite country toward Matehuala in the State of San Luis Potosí, some 90 miles to the southeast of Mazapil. The soldiers stopped at the farming village of Salado and entered the small town of Cedral (five miles north of Matehuala) on the morning of March 14. In Cedral, they stopped in empty army barracks for a few hours to eat and rest.126 Hostile Mexican civilians soon surrounded the building, but the Americans bluffed their way out of town without having to use their firearms. The scout returned to Mazapil on March 16, having traveled 225 miles in four days.127

On May 2, 1848, Lt. William H. Francis, John E. Dusenberry, and nine other rangers left their station at Concepción del Oro (five miles east of Mazapil) and returned to the village of Salado to exhume the remains of the seventeen prisoners of the Mier Expedition who were executed there in 1843. This action was undertaken at the initiative of the rangers involved. Dusenberry (and a private in his company) later escorted the remains to La Grange in Fayette County, Texas, where residents buried them on a bluff overlooking the Colorado River.128 In later years the State of Texas constructed a monument over the remains. A newspaper in San Antonio reported that Rife was one of the men who exhumed the bones, but there is no other evidence to support this.129 The unit commander, Walter P. Lane, made a similar, unsupported claim that he too was personally involved in recovering the bones.130

Rife’s unit disbanded in June 1848.

On June 12, 1848, General Wool announced to his troops that the war was over; the US Army began preparations to withdraw from northern Mexico.131 The soldiers stationed in Saltillo and points west returned to Monterrey, General Wool’s headquarters. Lane’s Battalion camped at Walnut Springs, two miles distant from the town132 in the same place that they had camped before the Battle of Monterrey in 1846. Most of the soldiers were given leave to visit the city. When the US Army of Occupation left Monterrey for Camargo, Lane’s Battalion formed the rearguard, considered as a position of honor.133

On June 30, 1848, the army disbanded at Camargo City134, and the men mustered out of Federal service.135 Clay Davis, the owner of the growing town of Rio Grande City (across the river from Camargo city), invited Major Lane and his discharged rangers to attend a July 4 public dinner at the Rio Grande Hotel.136 Most of the volunteer infantry then went to Matamoros, where vessels waited to take them to New Orleans or Galveston while the Texas mounted troops returned to Texas on horseback.137

  1. Florence Johnson Scott, Old Rough and Ready on the Rio Grande, 35; Justin Harvey Smith, The War with Mexico, (New York: The MacMillian Company, 1919), 169 ↩︎

  2. Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 118 ↩︎

  3. Brooks, A Complete History of the Mexican War, 1846-1848, 59; Webb, The Texas Rangers, 91 ↩︎

  4. Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 126 ↩︎

  5. Ivey, The Texas Rangers, 74 ↩︎

  6. Capt. John C. Hays’ Company of Rangers on Northwestern and Southwestern Frontier (August 12, 1845), Republic of Texas Militia military rolls, Republic of Texas military rolls, Military rolls, Texas Adjutant General’s Department, ARIS-TSLAC; Webb, The Texas Rangers, 91; Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 118 ↩︎

  7. Brooks, A Complete History of the Mexican War, 1846-1848, 64; Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 118 ↩︎

  8. McDonald, Jose Antonio Navarro, 220; Green, Samuel Maverick, Texan, 294; De Shields, Border Wars of Texas, 365 ↩︎

  9. Brooks, A Complete History of the Mexican War, 1846-1848, 89; Ivey, The Texas Rangers, 59 ↩︎

  10. Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 126 ↩︎

  11. Democratic Telegraph and Texas Register (Houston), June 3 1846; Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 118, 126; Smith, The War with Mexico, 526 ↩︎

  12. Webb, The Texas Rangers, 94; Brooks, A Complete History of the Mexican War, 1846-1848, 138 ↩︎

  13. Wharton, Texas Under Many Flags, 8 ↩︎

  14. Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 156 ↩︎

  15. The Texas Democrat (Austin, Texas), May 6, 1846; James Kimmins Greer, Texas Ranger, Jack Hays in the Frontier Southwest, (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1993), 126 ↩︎

  16. Greer, Texas Ranger, Jack Hays in the Frontier Southwest, 127; Mike Cox, The Texas Rangers, Vol. 1, Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900, (New York: A Tom Doherty Associates Book, 2008), 104-5; Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 126 ↩︎

  17. Charles D Spurlin, Compiler,Texas Veterans in the Mexican War, (Victoria, TX: C.D. Spurlin, 1984), 26 ↩︎

  18. Francis R. Pryor, “Tom Rife, An 1890’s Custodian of the Alamo”, STIRPES 35, No. 3, (September 1995), 44; (148) Mexican War pension records, Thomas Rife File, Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library at the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas; (435) Thomas Rife’s Record, Early’s Company, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles, CMSR of Volunteer soldiers who served during the Mexican War in organizations from the State of Texas, 1845-1848, M278, Roll 1, Records of the United States Army Adjutant General’s Office, 1780-1917, RG 94 ↩︎

  19. Dobie, The Flavor of Texas, 127 ↩︎

  20. Smith, The War with Mexico, 227; (558) Smithwick, The Evolution of a State, 284 ↩︎

  21. Mrs. Viele, Following the Drum: A Glimpse of Frontier Life, (Austin: Steck-Vaughn Company, 1968), 228 ↩︎

  22. Webb, The Texas Rangers, 94 ↩︎

  23. Greer, Texas Ranger, Jack Hays in the Frontier Southwest, 127 ↩︎

  24. Scott, Old Rough and Ready on the Rio Grande, 78; Smith, The War with Mexico, 564 ↩︎

  25. Smith, The War with Mexico, 583 ↩︎

  26. Smith, The War with Mexico, 221 ↩︎

  27. Smith, The War with Mexico, 235, 563 ↩︎

  28. San Antonio Light, February 23, 1887; Thomas Rife Record, Early’s Company, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles ↩︎

  29. Pryor, “Tom Rife, An 1890’s Custodian of the Alamo,” 44 ↩︎

  30. Thomas Rife Record, Early’s Company, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles; Spurlin, Texas Veterans in the Mexican War, 23 ↩︎

  31. Austin Genealogical Society, “Texas Volunteer Units in the Mexican War 1846-1848-Part 4, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles,” Austin Genealogical Society Quarterly 20, No. 3, (September 1979), 94; Pryor, “Tom Rife, An 1890’s Custodian of the Alamo”, 44 ↩︎

  32. Samuel Ballowe, United States Eighth Census (1860), Brazoria, Texas, M653 ↩︎

  33. Greer, Texas Ranger, Jack Hays in the Frontier Southwest, 32 ↩︎

  34. Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 128-9 ↩︎

  35. Record of Events, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles A-S, CMSR of Volunteer soldiers who served during the Mexican War in organizations from the State of Texas, 1845-1848, M278, Roll 1, Records of the United States Army Adjutant General’s Office, 1780-1916, RG 94 ↩︎

  36. Greer, Texas Ranger, Jack Hays in the Frontier Southwest, 33 ↩︎

  37. Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 129 ↩︎

  38. Richardson, Beyond the Mississippi, 178 ↩︎

  39. Webb, The Texas Rangers, 100; Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 137, 152 ↩︎

  40. Webb, The Texas Rangers, 98 ↩︎

  41. Scott, Old Rough and Ready on the Rio Grande, 81, 164 ↩︎

  42. Jerry Thompson, Editor, Texas and New Mexico on the Eve of the Civil War: The Mansfield and Johnston Inspections, 1859-1861, (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2001), 222 ↩︎

  43. James K. Greer, ed., Buck Barry Texas Ranger and Frontiersman, (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1978), 33 ↩︎

  44. Pryor, “Tom Rife, An 1890’s Custodian of the Alamo,” 45 ↩︎

  45. Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 130 ↩︎

  46. Scott, Old Rough and Ready on the Rio Grande, 82 ↩︎

  47. Brooks, A Complete History of the Mexican War, 1846-1848, 168 ↩︎

  48. F. J. Dow & Co., Creator, Complete History of the Late Mexican War by Eye-Witness, (New York: F J Dow & Co, 1850), 169 ↩︎

  49. Pryor, “Tom Rife, An 1890’s Custodian of the Alamo”, 45; Record of Events, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles; Record of Events, Ballowe’s Company, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles, CMSR of Volunteer soldiers who served during the Mexican War in organizations from the State of Texas, 1845-1848, M278, Roll 1, Records of the United States Army Adjutant General’s Office, 1780-1917, RG 94 ↩︎

  50. Brooks, A Complete History of the Mexican War, 1846-1848, 172; Scott, Old Rough and Ready on the Rio Grande, 82; (638) Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 135 ↩︎

  51. Samuel C. Reid Jr., The Scouting Expeditions of McCulloch’s Texas Rangers or the Summer and Fall Campaign of the Army of the U.S.A. in Mexico-1846 etc., (Philadelphia: Pub G. B. Zieber and Co., 1847), 144 ↩︎

  52. Greer, Buck Barry Texas Ranger and Frontiersman, 38 ↩︎

  53. Reid Jr., The Scouting Expeditions of McCulloch’s Texas Rangers, 155 ↩︎

  54. Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 137 ↩︎

  55. Reid Jr., The Scouting Expeditions of McCulloch’s Texas Rangers, 155; Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 138 ↩︎

  56. Brooks, A Complete History of the Mexican War, 1846-1848, 176 ↩︎

  57. Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 139 ↩︎

  58. Brooks, A Complete History of the Mexican War, 1846-1848, 182 ↩︎

  59. Reid Jr., The Scouting Expeditions of McCulloch’s Texas Rangers, 181 ↩︎

  60. Brooks, A Complete History of the Mexican War, 1846-1848, 185; Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 143 ↩︎

  61. Greer, Buck Barry Texas Ranger and Frontiersman, 37; Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 145 ↩︎

  62. Brooks, A Complete History of the Mexican War, 1846-1848, 186 ↩︎

  63. Dow, Complete History of the Late Mexican War by Eye-Witness, 41 ↩︎

  64. Greer, Buck Barry Texas Ranger and Frontiersman, 38; Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 149 ↩︎

  65. Brooks, A Complete History of the Mexican War, 1846-1848, 189, 191 ↩︎

  66. Webb, The Texas Rangers, 110; Wharton, Texas Under Many Flags, 8; (156) Ivey, The Texas Rangers, 62 ↩︎

  67. Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 153 ↩︎

  68. Spurlin, Texas Veterans in the Mexican War, 25; Thomas Rife’s Record, Early’s Company, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles ↩︎

  69. Thomas Rife Records, Ballowe’s Company, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles, CMSR of Volunteer soldiers who served during the Mexican War in organizations from the State of Texas, 1845-1848, M278, Roll 1, Records of the United States Army Adjutant General’s Office, 1780-1917, RG 94 ↩︎

  70. James K. Holland, “Dairy of a Texan Volunteer in the Mexican War,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. 30, (July 1926): 33 ↩︎

  71. Bryan, Jr., More Zeal Than Discretion, 59 ↩︎

  72. Declaration of Survivor for Pension, Records of the Bureau of Pensions, Mexican War Pension Application Files, 1887-1926, Department of Veteran’s Affairs, RG 15; Pryor, “Tom Rife, An 1890’s Custodian of the Alamo”, 45 ↩︎

  73. Bryan, Jr.,More Zeal Than Discretion, 60; Ivey, The Texas Rangers, 68; (76) Spurlin, Texas Veterans in the Mexican War, 151 ↩︎

  74. Mexican War pension records, Thomas Rife File, DRT Library at the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas; Thomas Rife Record, Lane/Lewis’ Company, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles, CMSR of Volunteer soldiers who served during the Mexican War in organizations from the State of Texas, 1845-1848, M278, Roll 1, Records of the United States Army Adjutant General’s Office, 1780-1917, RG 94 ↩︎

  75. Scott, Old Rough and Ready on the Rio Grande, 154 . ↩︎

  76. Webb, The Texas Rangers, 113 ↩︎

  77. Ivey, The Texas Rangers, 63-4 ↩︎

  78. Thomas Rife Record, Lane/Lewis’ Company, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles, CMSR of Volunteer soldiers who served during the Mexican War in organizations from the State of Texas, 1845-1848, M278, Roll 1, RG 94 ↩︎

  79. Bryan, Jr., More Zeal Than Discretion, 60 ↩︎

  80. Walter P. Lane, The Adventures and Recollections of General Walter P Lane: A San Jacinto Veteran containing sketches of the Texan, Mexican and Late Wars, (Marshall, TX: News Messenger Pub. Co, 1928), 52 ↩︎

  81. Record of Events, Chevallie’s Battalion, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles, RG 94 ↩︎

  82. Record of Events, Chevallie’s Battalion, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles, RG 94 ↩︎

  83. Mexican War pension records, Thomas Rife File, DRT Library at the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas ↩︎

  84. Viele, Following the Drum, 209 ↩︎

  85. Ivey, The Texas Rangers, 63 ↩︎

  86. Bryan, Jr., More Zeal Than Discretion, 63-4; Lane, The Adventures and Recollections of General Walter P Lane, 55 ↩︎

  87. Lane, The Adventures and Recollections of General Walter P Lane, 56 ↩︎

  88. Bryan, Jr., More Zeal Than Discretion, 65 ↩︎

  89. Record of Events, Chevallie’s Battalion, 1st Texas Mounted [Rifles; Lane, The Adventures and Recollections of General Walter P Lane, 57 ↩︎

  90. Bryan, Jr., More Zeal Than Discretion, 66 ↩︎

  91. Clayton Williams, Never Again, Texas 1848-1861 Volume 3, (San Antonio: The Naylor Co., 1969), 20-1; Greer, Colonel Jack Hays, 237 ↩︎

  92. Lane, The Adventures and Recollections of General Walter P Lane, 59 ↩︎

  93. Bryan, Jr.,More Zeal Than Discretion, 66 ↩︎

  94. Mexican War pension records, Thomas Rife File, DRT Library at the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas; (89) Pryor, “Tom Rife, An 1890’s Custodian of the Alamo”, 45; (437) Record of Events, Chevallie’s Battalion, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles; W. P. Lane and G. K. Lewis Record, Chevallie’s Battalion, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles, CMSR of Volunteer soldiers who served during the Mexican War in organizations from the State of Texas, 1845-1848, M278, Roll 14 ↩︎

  95. Ivey, The Texas Rangers, 70 ↩︎

  96. Wharton, Texas Under Many Flags, 13; Oates, Rip Ford’s Texas, 61 ↩︎

  97. Ivey, The Texas Rangers, 64; Webb, The Texas Rangers, 114 ↩︎

  98. Ivey, The Texas Rangers, 71 ↩︎

  99. Record of Events, Chevallie’s Battalion, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles; Bryan, Jr., More Zeal Than Discretion, 66-7 ↩︎

  100. Utley, Lone Star Justice, 78 ↩︎

  101. Bryan, Jr.,More Zeal Than Discretion, 67 ↩︎

  102. Ivey, The Texas Rangers, 68; W. P. Lane and G. K. Lewis Record, Chevallie’s Battalion, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles ↩︎

  103. Spurlin, Texas Veterans in the Mexican War, 151 ↩︎

  104. Webb, The Texas Rangers, 118 ↩︎

  105. Wharton, Texas Under Many Flags, 13; Brooks, A Complete History of the Mexican War, 1846-1848, 500 ↩︎

  106. Record of Events, Chevallie’s Battalion, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles ↩︎

  107. Bryan, Jr.,More Zeal Than Discretion, 67-8 ↩︎

  108. W. P. Lane and G. K. Lewis Record, Chevallie’s Battalion, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles ↩︎

  109. Webb, The Texas Rangers, 98, 110 ↩︎

  110. Declaration of Survivor for Pension, Records of the Bureau of Pensions ↩︎

  111. Democratic Telegraph and Texas Register (Houston), December 30, 1847 ↩︎

  112. Lane, The Adventures and Recollections of General Walter P Lane, 61- 2 ↩︎

  113. Democratic Telegraph and Texas Register (Houston), December 30, 1847 ↩︎

  114. Bryan, Jr., More Zeal Than Discretion, 70 ↩︎

  115. Thomas Rife Record, Lane/Lewis’ Company, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles ↩︎

  116. Declaration of Survivor for Pension, Records of the Bureau of Pensions ↩︎

  117. Record of Events, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles; The Northern Standard (Clarksville, Texas), February 12, 1848 ↩︎

  118. Bryan, Jr., More Zeal Than Discretion, 73 ↩︎

  119. Webb, The Texas Rangers, 123; Ivey, The Texas Rangers, 65 ↩︎

  120. Brooks, A Complete History of the Mexican War, 1846-1848, 523 ↩︎

  121. Tamayo, Geografia moderna de Mexico, 160 ↩︎

  122. Bryan, Jr., More Zeal Than Discretion, 71 ↩︎

  123. Mexican War pension records, Thomas Rife File, DRT Library at the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas; Pryor, “Tom Rife, An 1890’s Custodian of the Alamo”, 45; W. P. Lane and G. K. Lewis Record, Chevallie’s Battalion, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles ↩︎

  124. Record of Events, Chevallie’s Battalion, 1st Texas Mounted Rifles ↩︎

  125. Lane, The Adventures and Recollections of General Walter P Lane, 64 ↩︎

  126. Lane, The Adventures and Recollections of General Walter P Lane, 66 ↩︎

  127. Bryan, Jr.,More Zeal Than Discretion, 72 ↩︎

  128. Bryan, Jr., More Zeal Than Discretion, 73 ↩︎

  129. Galveston Daily News, September 10, 1885 ↩︎

  130. Bryan, Jr.,More Zeal Than Discretion, 176 ↩︎

  131. Bryan, Jr., More Zeal Than Discretion, 73; Oates, Rip Ford’s Texas, 262 ↩︎

  132. Lane, The Adventures and Recollections of General Walter P Lane, 69, 70 ↩︎

  133. Lane, The Adventures and Recollections of General Walter P Lane, 72-3 ↩︎

  134. Pryor, “Tom Rife, An 1890’s Custodian of the Alamo”, 44; Statement of Service, Records of the Bureau of Pensions, Mexican War Pension Application Files, 1887-1926, Department of Veteran’s Affairs, RG 15 ↩︎

  135. Mexican War pension records, Thomas Rife File, DRT Library at the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas; Spurlin, Veterans in the Mexican War, 151 ↩︎

  136. Bryan, Jr., More Zeal Than Discretion, 75 ↩︎

  137. Lane, The Adventures and Recollections of General Walter P Lane, 74 ↩︎