Border War Wayside

Border War wayside provides a brief introduction to the U.S.-Mexican War.

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Location:

Brownsville, TX

Quote Text

It was a beautiful morning, the birds were signing, the sun was shining brightly…yet surrounded by all this loveliness were two Christian armies about to meet and kill each other. ~ Barna Upton, private

Main Text

Two young nations both claimed this sunburned, empty land. In 1845, the United States annexed Texas, declaring vast new territories now fell inside its boundaries. Mexico refused to go along, insisting that the lands to the north remained within its domain. Diplomacy failed. Both presidents refused to back down. One ordered an army southward; the other sent troops north. By May 1846, the time for talk was over. Here, on the prairie of Palo Alto, the shooting and the dying would begin.

Sub Text

Was Texas independent of Mexico and free to join the United States? Did the border of Texas lie on the Nueces River, or on the Rio Grande? The war to decide these issues first erupted here, then spread west to California and south to Mexico City.

Image descriptions

Center
Historical, post-Louisiana Purchase map of North America.

Bottom
Scene from the Battle of Palo Alto.