Zachary Taylor Research Paper

Words: 1829
Pages: 8

Hundreds of men on the battlefield, confused, dazed, and scared. The sound of guns and cannons are close by and many know death is not far. They see friends fall to the ground spilling blood. They dive behind cover trying to escape the loud noises, smoke, and death. In all of this confusion and chaos there is one man who keeps his head held high. He keeps calm through the chaos and takes actions into his own hands. This mans name is Zachary Taylor. During all the battles and wars Zachary Taylor kept calm and made the necessary decisions to win the fights. At the battles of Palo Alto, Monterrey, and Buena Vista General Zachary Taylor made decisions that not only helped the US win each battle but the entire Mexican American War.
Taylor was
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In this battle, General Winfield Scott took almost half of Taylor's soldiers and used them to be the core of his invasion force (Crawford). Scott and Zachary were also sending letters back and forth and the Mexican general Santa Ana got a hold of one. The letter contained information that Taylor's soldiers were heading towards Aqua Nueva. Mexican General Santa Anna therefore moved all his soldiers to La Encamacion south of Aqua Nueva. After losing nearly 5,000 men on the march, by February 21, Santa Anna's forces had gathered at La Encarnación, south of the U.S. encampment at Agua Nueva (Crawford). Santa Anna then sent a message to Taylor ordering him to surrender but Taylor rejected the offer and the battle began (Crawford). Taylor knew, that during Anna’s journey almost 5000 of Santa Anna's soldiers died because of the walk, so he decided to fall back into a more defensive position. Taylor pulled back from Agua Nueva to a better position south of hacienda Buena Vista: La Angostura, a narrow opening in the rugged hills through which the road to Agua Nueva passed (Crawford). The Mexican soldiers soon had the Americans surrounded and they could not go anywhere. Somehow, through the encouraging battle cries of Zachary Taylor and the narrow area they were fighting in the Americans managed to push the Mexicans back. Fortunately for the U.S. Army, the Mexican attack had been a series of separate, …show more content…
The biggest decision made during this battle was the decision to move back into a defensive position between the narrow hills. The soldiers moved back to this valley but were soon surrounded by the Mexican soldiers, but the narrow hills allowed the men to fight only a few men at a time and not every Mexican soldier. It also allowed the americans to fight in hand to hand combat because they were in such a small area. This allowed the Americans to push back the Mexicans to Aqua