Mexican War (detail of painting 'Battle of Chapultepec' by James Walker)

Mexican War

America went to war to gain territory from Mexico and expand the nation’s boundary from Texas to California. President James K. Polk believed it was the nation’s destiny to occupy these lands, and he planned an elaborate military campaign to seize them. But others decried the war. Newspaper editor Horace Greeley warned Americans: “Your Rulers are precipitating you into a fathomless abyss of crime and calamity!”

Facts / Statistics

Dates: 1846-1848
Troops: 78,718
Deaths: 13,283