Santa Anna’s Invitation to American Soldiers

I recently discovered an interesting document in our archival collections, and in conducting research about the context in which it was created I learned something new and fascinating about the Mexican War (1846-1848).

Santa Anna's broadside from August 15, 1847, urging American troops to desert.

The document is an English-language broadside issued by Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna – who regained and lost power several times following his surrender at San Jacinto in 1836 – on August 15, 1847. In it, the Mexican leader urges American soldiers to desert the United States army and promises them a reward of “rich fields and large tracts of land, which being cultivated by your industry, shall crown you with happiness and convenience.” Santa Anna penned this broadside from El Peñon, a high hill approximately seven miles east-southeast of the center of Mexico City. His troops faced Gen. Winfield Scott’s army, which had reached the outskirts of Mexico City; within a month U.S. troops entered the capital and raised the American flag over the National Palace. The capture of Mexico City marked the end of the major military operations of the war, although politicians and diplomats negotiated until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in February 1848.

Santa Anna’s leaflet was part of a larger propaganda mechanism during the Mexican War that endeavored to promote desertion among American forces. According to historian Robert Ryal Miller in Shamrock and Sword, several reasons drove men to desert from the army, including “brutal military discipline, which seemed unjust to some soldiers; hatred of military life or unsuitability for it; sickness and disease, which may have disoriented some men; harassment or discrimination against foreign-born soldiers by their native-born officers; religious sentiments and ideological beliefs; the lure of women; and drunkenness, which sometimes led to their capture by the enemy” (150). As demonstrated in the above handbill, Santa Anna further encouraged American soldiers to desert by promising enticements of cash prizes, rank promotions, and land bonuses.

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (SC01.001)

Other propaganda pieces employed different strategies to encourage desertion. For example, a supplement to Santa Anna’s broadside of April 1847 – published in the Mexican newspaper Diario del Gobierno on September 10, 1847, and reprinted in the New York Herald on October 17 of that same year – targeted Irish Catholic soldiers:

Irishmen! Listen to the words of your brothers, hear the accents of a Catholic people…Is religion no longer the strongest of human bonds?…Can you fight by the side of those who put fire to your temples in Boston and Philadelphia? Did you witness such dreadful crimes and sacrileges without making a solemn vow to our Lord? If you are Catholic, the same as we, if you follow the doctrines of Our Saviour, why are you seen sword in hand murdering your brethren? Why are you antagonistic to those who defend their country and your own God?

Are Catholic Irishmen to be the destroyers of Catholic temples, the murderers of Catholic priests, and the founders of heretical rites in this pious nation?…

Come over to us; you will be received under the laws of that truly Christian hospitality and good faith which Irish guests are entitled to expect and obtain from a Catholic nation…

May Mexicans and Irishmen, united by the sacred tie of religion and benevolence, form only one people!

Using Catholicism to realign and redefine Irish soldiers’ allegiance made sense given that, according to Richard Bruce Winders in Mr. Polk’s Army, “one former enlisted man estimated that, during the 1830s, two-thirds of the soldiers” in the American army were foreign-born, specifically in countries such as Germany, Ireland, and Great Britain (60). Moreover, foreign-born soldiers faced bullying in the army due to their nationality and religion, circumstances that mirrored rising nativist sentiments in the United States more broadly. Indeed, approximately 39 percent of the soldiers in the famous San Patricio battalion were born in Ireland and 13 percent were natives of Germany (21 percent were born in the United States).

Henry Schenck Tanner's 1847 map of Mexico, which includes the dates of significant battles of the Mexican War and shows the movement of American forces. Tanner's maps were the most detailed and accurate maps of Mexico available in the United States at that time. (This digital image is from the David Rumsey Map Collection.)

From the point of view of American government officials and military commanders, desertion was a significant problem. Various historians calculate different desertion rates ranging from under 7 percent to 8.3 percent of a total American force ranging from approximately 112,000 to 116,000 soldiers. On one hand, this was a marked improvement over desertion rates in the peacetime army prior to the Mexican War, which some years reached twenty percent. Historian James M. McCaffrey also asserts that George Washington “lost as many as one-fourth of his army through desertion, and during the Civil War losses were correspondingly high” (110-111). On the other hand, historian Robert Ryal Miller asserts that desertion rates in the Mexican War were high compared to America’s other foreign wars, namely the Spanish-American War (1.6 percent), World War I (1.3 percent), World War II (5.3 percent), the Korean War (1.9 percent), and the Vietnam War (4.1 percent) (174).

References and further reading:

The United States and Mexico at War (encyclopedia) edited by Donald S. Frazier

Army of Manifest Destiny: The American Soldier in the Mexican War, 1846-1848 by James M. McCaffrey

Shamrock and Sword: The Saint Patrick’s Battalion in the U.S.-Mexican War by Robert Ryal Miller

Crisis in the Southwest: The United States, Mexico, and the Struggle Over Texas by Richard Bruce Winders

Mr. Polk’s Army: The American Military Experience in the Mexican War by Richard Bruce Winders

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“To Dissolve the Union Between the State of Texas and the…United States of America”

In February 1861, Texans put themselves on a path of separating from the United States and aligning their state with the Confederacy.

A broadside publicizing the February 1 ordinance declaring that Texas "is a sovereign State and that her citizens and people are absolved from all allegiance to the United States or the Government thereof."

While Texas shared many characteristics of other Southern states, historian Dale Baum writes in The Shattering of Texas Unionism that “the Lone Star State…was also distinctive [as] only Southern state with an international boundary, an extensive western frontier, and a sizable population of Mexicans and Germans” (1).

Additionally, asserts Ralph A. Wooster in the Handbook of Texas Online, “while most Texans had a strong attachment to the Union that they worked so hard to join in 1845, they expressed increasing concern over the attacks upon Southern institutions by Northern political leaders.” Specifically, even though “only one Texas family in four owned slaves, most Texans opposed any interference with the institution of slavery, which they believed necessary for the continued growth of the state.”

"Here I take my stand!" Governor Sam Houston declared soon after Lincoln's election. "So long as the Constitution is maintained by 'Federal authority' and Texas is not made the victim of 'Federal wrong,' I am for the Union as it is."

The Confederate States of America, writes James M. McPherson in Battle Cry of Freedom, “organized itself, drafted a constitution, and set up shop in Montgomery, Alabama, within three months of Lincoln’s election.” (By comparison, the second Continental Congress “deliberated fourteen months before declaring American independence in 1776,” and two additional years were needed to write the Constitution and create a new government.) The South “moved so swiftly” because “secession proceeded on a state-by-state basis rather than by collective action” (234). Indeed, following Abraham Lincoln’s election in November 1860, six states in the Deep South left the Union: South Carolina on December 20; Mississippi on January 9, Florida on January 10, Alabama on January 11, Georgia on January 19, and Louisiana on January 26.

In his March 16 broadside "to the people of Texas," governor Houston protested the actions of the secession convention. Its members removed him from office that same day.

These events caused the move towards secession in Texas to gain momentum. When Texas governor Sam Houston refused to call the legislature into special session, secessionist leaders formed a special convention and, on February 1, 1861, approved a secession ordinance by a vote of 166 to 8. Texas voters approved the ordinance by a better than three to one majority (46,153 votes to 14,747 votes) on February 23. The following month, the convention formally joined the Confederate States of America. Texas was the seventh state to secede, and the last to secede before Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4 and the firing on Fort Sumter on April 12-13.

References and Further Reading

The Shattering of Texas Unionism: Politics in the Lone Star State During the Civil War Era by Dale Baum.

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson.

Journal of the Secession Convention of Texas, 1861 edited by Ernest William Winkler; also available online here through the University of Texas at Austin.

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Alamo Premiere Weekend

Today is the 48^th anniversary of the world premiere of the John Wayne classic, The Alamo. The film premiered in San Antonio, and the city threw a weekend-long celebration to honor the movie and its stars.

On Saturday, the 22^nd, the city welcomed guests, including Wayne, at an airport reception. That was followed by a press reception, a symphony concert featuring the film’s score, and a San Antonio Press Club Gridiron Show. Also, according to the San Antonio Light, Frankie Avalon (pre-Annette) made an appearance at the Trinity-McMurray football fame. In the film, Avalon played “Smitty,” a fictional character.

Sunday, the 23^rd, was marked by other receptions and a special Night in Old San Antonio in the evening. Like NIOSAs during Fiesta, the event took place at La Villita and featured a wide variety of food and entertainment. The San Antonio Light reported that about 8,000 people attended. Below is a broadside advertising the event.

Broadside for the special NIOSA during the premiere.

Monday, the 24^th, began with a breakfast held at Alamo Plaza and ceremony honoring the Alamo defenders. This was followed by a luncheon at the Menger Hotel. Then, that evening, the highly anticipated premiere occurred at the Woodlawn Theatre.

The library has several copies of an official program created by the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce for the weekend. Below is the schedule of official events from that program. Because of the document’s 18 inch by 12.5 inch size, a few words were cut off from the scan. The broadside featured above and the program reside in the library’s Ephemera Collection. Click on the images for larger views.

A list of events for October 22nd from the Chamber of Commerce's program.

The program's list of events for October 23rd and 24th.

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