Winfield Scott

The British had begun to shift soldiers to North America after Napoleon's abdication following the March 1814 Battle of Paris.

Under General George Izard and General Jacob Brown, the U.S. launches another invasion of Canada in mid-1814.

Despite an American victory at the Battle of Chippawa on July 5, the invasion will stall once again.

Generals Duncan Clinch, Edmund Gaines and Winfield Scott, as well as territorial governor Richard Keith Call, have led large numbers of troops in futile pursuits of the Seminoles over the past few months.

Meanwhile, the Seminoles have struck throughout the state, attacking isolated farms, settlements, plantations, and Army forts, even burning the Cape Florida lighthouse.

Supply problems and a high rate of illness during the summer cause the Army to abandon several forts.

Representative Smith of Maine, during Congressional debates in Washington concerning the current U.S.-Canada conflict on March 2, 1839, outlines the events and the various communications that had been sent and received since 1825, and declares that the primary responsibility of the Federal Government is to protect and defend its own territory and citizens but if the Government chooses to not live up to its obligations, Maine will defend its territory alone.

In response, Congress authorizes a force of fifty thousand men and appropriates ten million dollars to meet the emergency.

Maine commits somewhere between three thousand and ten thousand militia to the conflict.

General Winfield Scott, recently removed as commander of the Cherokee relocation, is assigned to the conflict area, arriving in Boston in early March.

Maine issues General Orders to recall the militia in May and June 1839, on General Winfield Scott's advice; they are replaced with regular U.S. Army troops.

Scott had been a Prisoner of War under the supervision of Sir John Harvey during the War of 1812, and that relationship is seen as a point of mutual respect.

The permanent structures of Fort Fairfield and Fort Kent are begun later this summer.

Major R. M. Kirby becomes commander of the post and three companies of the U.S. 1st Artillery Regiment.

Four companies of the British 11th Regiment march to the area from Quebec City to represent Canada.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick arms every tributary of the St. John River that flows from the Aroostook Territory with regular and militia soldiers.

The idea of incorporating Texas into the United States has gained support both in Texas and in the United States Congress since Texas attained its independence from Mexico.

Definitive action on the measure has been delayed for several years, however, because of the divisive issue of admitting another slave state into the United States and the likely prospect that annexation would provoke a war with Mexico.

In early 1845, the United States Congress passes a resolution in favor of the annexation of Texas, which prompts Mexico to sever diplomatic relations with the United States.

The Mexican congress had never ratified Santa Anna's secret treaty with the Texans, and to underscore its opposition to Texas's independence, the Mexican congress passes a law that retroactively annuls any treaties signed by a Mexican negotiator while in captivity.

The heaviest fighting is done by General Winfield Scott's Army of Occupation, which lands at Veracruz on March 9, 1847.

Rather than attempt to occupy the city outright, Scott positions his forces west of it, cutting off Veracruz's supply line from the capital.

After several days of heavy naval bombardment that kills hundreds of civilians, Veracruz surrenders on March 27, 1847.

The United States Army attacks Mexico on three fronts: one column, under General Stephen W. Kearney, occupies California and New Mexico; another column, under General Zachary Taylor, enters northern Mexico; and a third detachment, commanded by General Winfield Scott, lands at Veracruz and marches to Mexico City.

California and New Mexico fall with little bloodshed.

Northern Mexico is the scene of fierce battles between Taylor and Santa Anna's armies at Buena Vista.

Santa Anna initially strikes hard at the outnumbered United States forces, but he later abandons the battle and returns to Mexico City, prematurely claiming victory.

Hostilities between Mexico and the United States begin on April 25, 1846, when several United States soldiers are killed in a cavalry skirmish with Mexican forces in the disputed territory.

Shortly after the two sides declare war, Santa Anna is recalled from exile in Cuba to once again lead Mexican troops against a foreign invasion.

U.S. President James K. Polk dispatches a special envoy, John Slidell, to Mexico City shortly after Texas is admitted to the Union as the twenty-eighth state, to settle the Texas boundary dispute and to arrange the purchase of California.

The Mexican president, José Joaquín de Herrera, had been willing to recognize an independent Texas but is under intense domestic pressure to reject United States annexation and Texas's expanded territorial claim.

As a result, he refuses to meet Slidell and begins reinforcing Mexican army units along the Rio Bravo del Norte.

Further aggravating the dispute is the fact that the Texans have issued a dubious territorial claim that expands the republic's southern and western boundary from the previously accepted Nueces River to the Rio Bravo del Norte.

By claiming all of the land up to the headwaters of the Rio Bravo del Norte, the Texans have more than double the size of their republic to include parts of present-day New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, and all of present-day western Texas.