Thornton's Luck: How America Almost Lost the Mexican-American War

by Lamont Wood

Overview

In April 1846, tensions between the U.S. and Mexico along the disputed border were high. About half of the U.S. Army, then tiny, was camped outside of Matamoros, Mexico, and rumors were flying that the much larger and better outfitted Mexican army was about to undertake efforts to remove the troops from their territory. Captain Seth Brett Thornton led his 2nd mounted dragoons on an expedition to try to confirm those rumors and gain intelligence about the military’s plans. He rode his command—which included about thirty percent of the Army’s mounted troops—straight into an ambush and lost his entire command. His ill luck both exposed the position of the Mexican army and escalated the events that would become known as the Mexican-American War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493025558
Publisher:	Lone Star Books
Publication date:	04/01/2017
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Lamont Wood has written about the Trans-Nueces War for Armchair General Magazine, and has written eight books under his own name and has ghost-written several others. He has also written hundreds of articles for scores of magazines, including Scientific American, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, InformationWeek, Computerworld, Network World, Datamation, LiveScience.com, the old Byte and Omni, and magazines in Canada, England, Holland, Belgium, Germany, and Hong Kong. History magazines he has written for include World at War, Strategy & Tactics, Armchair General, and True West.

Table of Contents

Preface v

Chapter 1 The Upriver Reconnaissance 1

Chapter 2 Stranger to Luck 18

Chapter 3 Advance to Contact 39

Chapter 4 The Thornton Affair 50

Chapter 5 The Reports 58

Chapter 6 The Two-Week Trans-Nueces War 71

Chapter 7 The After-Affair in Court 80

Chapter 8 Thornton's Final Luck 89

Chapter 9 Thornton's Echo 98

Chapter 10 The Bigger Echo 106

Chapter 11 What If 108

Chapter 12 The Affair's Location 113

Appendix A The US Army in Early 1846 121

Appendix B El Ejército Mexicano en 1846 123

Appendix C Order of Battle US, and Mexican Forces, Trans-Nueces War 125

Appendix D Transcript, Court of Inquiry, Capt. W. J. Hardee, Matamoros, Mexico, May 1846 128

Appendix E Transcript, Court-Martial of Capt. Seth B. Thornton, Matamoros, Mexico, July 1846 163

Notes 193

Bibliography 197

Index 201

About the Author 209