Resaca de la Palma: The Rout
Near Brownsville, Texas
The day after Palo Alto, on May ninth, eighteen forty-six, the Mexican army tried again. General Arista had pulled his forces back in the night and positioned them along a dry riverbed, a resaca, that crossed the road between Matamoros and the Gulf coast. The resaca was twelve feet deep, two hundred feet wide, and lined with dense brush.
On paper it was a killing ground. Any army trying to advance down that road would funnel into a choke point directly under Mexican artillery. General Taylor attacked anyway.
American dragoons charged through the brush on horseback. Infantry scrambled down into the resaca and back up the far bank under fire. A squadron of dragoons under Captain Charles May captured the Mexican artillery commander, General Romulo Diaz de la Vega, directly from his gun battery in what became one of the celebrated moments of the war.
The Mexicans counterattacked twice and were repulsed both times. Then something broke. Arista's army dissolved.
Soldiers threw away weapons and fled toward the Rio Grande, many drowning in the crossing. The official Mexican count reported one hundred fifty-four killed, two hundred five wounded, and one hundred fifty-six missing. The Union victory at Resaca de la Palma lifted the siege of Fort Texas, cleared northern Mexico's bank of the Rio Grande, and effectively ended major Mexican resistance north of the river.
Within days Taylor was preparing to cross into Mexico itself. The two battles had taken forty-eight hours. A future president had led them.
