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The Battle for Monterrey, Mexico, 1846
University of Oklahoma Press
October 2010
On Sale: October 1, 2010
344 pages ISBN: 0806141409 EAN: 9780806141404 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction History
For three days in the fall of 1846, U.S. and Mexican
soldiers fought fiercely in the picturesque city of
Monterrey, turning the northern Mexican town, known for its
towering mountains and luxurious gardens, into one of the
nineteenth century's most gruesome battlefields. Led by
Brigadier General Zachary Taylor, graduates of the U.S.
Military Academy encountered a city almost perfectly
protected by mountains, a river, and a vast plain.
Monterrey's ideal defensive position inspired more than one
U.S. soldier to call the city a perfect Gibraltar. The first
day of fighting was deadly for the Americans, especially the
newly graduated West Point cadets. But they soon adjusted
their tactics and began fighting building to building. Chris D. Dishman conveys in a vivid narrative the intensity
and drama of the Battle of Monterrey, which marked the first
time U.S. troops engaged in prolonged urban combat. Future
Civil War generals and West Point graduates fought
desperately alongside rough Texan, Mississippian, and
Tennessean volunteers. General Taylor engineered one of the
army s first wars of maneuver at Monterrey by sending the
bulk of his troops against the weakest part of the city, and
embedded press reporters wrote eyewitness accounts of the
action for readers back in the States. Dishman interweaves
descriptions of troop maneuvers and clashes between units
using pistols and rifles with accounts of hand-to-hand
combat involving edged weapons, stones, clubs, and bare
hands. He brings regular soldiers and citizen volunteers to
life in personal vignettes that draw on firsthand accounts
from letters, diaries, and reports written by men on both
sides. An epilogue carries the narrative thread to the
conclusion of the war. Dishman has canvassed a wide range of Mexican and American
sources and walked Monterrey's streets and battlefields.
Accompanied by maps and period illustrations, this
skillfully written history will interest scholars, history
enthusiasts, and everyone who enjoys a true war story well
told.
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