Mr. Polk's Army: The American Military Experience in the Mexican War.

Abstract

Mr. Polk's Army: The American Military Experience in the Mexican War. By Richard Bruce Winders. (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 1997. Pp. xvi, 284. Illustrations. Paper, $17.95.) Texas A&M Press has recently issued Richard Bruce Winder's 1997 study of America's Mexican War army in paperback. In Mr. Polk's Army, the author deals with two main topics: the partisan politics of military appointment and the democratic spirit of the American troops led by James K. Polk's many appointees. Winders is clearly most interested in the relationship between partisan politics and the officer selections of the Polk administration. The author reminds us early that the secretary of war, William Marcy, had previously gained national notice with an 1832 Senate speech vigorously asserting that the victor belong the spoils (16). The book then proceeds to develop in great detail the evidence for a similar emphasis upon partisan advantage in the 1846-1848 officer corps. Once he has built his case for Democratic leadership of the officer corps, Winders makes a more impressionistic case for democratic spirit among the enlisted men. This is clearly the topic Winders most enjoyed researching. His narrative quickens and his examples sparkle as he draws upon both major and minor campaigns from Texas to California to illustrate common behavioral features of the enlisted soldier. Concentrating upon recruitment, training, and camp life, the book argues for an egalitarian spirit in everything from discipline to costume. Combat, which might serve as a test of such ideals as courage, loyalty, and initiative is, however, largely ignored. Winders's army is no monolith. Both regulars and volunteers fought in the war, and the author makes a clear and lucid explanation of the background and organization of each group. He points out that the war benefited each in quite separate ways. For the regulars, the war allowed a purge of many tired, overage generals and the recruitment and training of more motivated enlisted men. For the volunteers, many of whom never saw battle, the war offered an initial burst of excitement that often yielded to boredom and indiscipline. Winders's army is also transitional. In detailing its weaponry, dress, organization, drill, and tactics, he portrays an institution abandoning the memories of the War of 1812 era for a more fluid, industrial, and irregular style that will look fairly familiar to Civil War buffs. But no such transition appears in such matters as diet, camp sanitation, and medical expertise, and the author offers a case that the Mexican War may, proportionate to numbers committed, have been the deadliest of America's wars. If Polk raised a winning army, he raised it at a high price. Contemporary perceptions of ethnicity often color our view of the war, particularly with regard to the role played by Irish immigrants. Winders acknowledges such issues as the American treatment of the Irish deserters who were punished for joining Mexico's San Patricio battalion. …