Category:Mexican War Veterans

These folk were Mexican War Veterans, as identified by the Baseball and the Armed Forces Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

This information has been dug out of numerous sources including newspaper obituaries (OB), VA Hospital Records (VA), Miltary Cemetery websites (CM), Soldier & Sailors System (CW), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), Stars&Stripes (S&S), the SABR BIOProject (BP), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs (WW), old Baseball Registers (BR), Commissioners Lists (CL), The Baseball Necrology (BN), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB), independent research by Walter Kephart and Frank Russo and others.

See also The Deadball Era, Society for American Baseball Research, Veterans Affairs Gravesite Locator, The Encyclopedia of Catchers, Soldiers & Sailors System and auricle.net(under reconstruction).

The Mexican-American War was fought between the United States and Mexico between 1846 and 1848. In the U.S. it is known as the Mexican War or Mr. Polk's War; in Mexico, it is known as the U.S. Intervention, the U.S. Invasion of Mexico, or the United States War Against Mexico.

The Mexican-American War grew out of unresolved conflicts between Mexico and the Republic of Texas and from the desire for U.S. imperialism, an idea known as "Manifest Destiny". After the 1836 Texas Revolution, Mexico refused to recognize the existence of the Republic of Texas, and declared its intention of recapturing the breakaway province. Officials in the Republic of Texas expressed interest in being annexed to the United States, though Mexican officials warned that annexation would mean war. For years, the United States declined to annex Texas, but in 1845, President John Tyler—on his last day in office—sent an offer of annexation to Texas. Texas accepted, and soon became the 28th state of the United States.

The Mexican government complained that the United States, by annexing its rebel province, was intervening in Mexico's internal affairs and had unjustly seized sovereign Mexican territory. British envoys had repeatedly attempted to dissuade Mexico from declaring war, but British efforts to mediate were fruitless as additional political disputes (particularly the Oregon boundary dispute) arose between the United Kingdom and the United States.

After the annexation of Texas, newly elected President James K. Polk set out to acquire the Mexican province of California. American expansionists wanted California in order to have a port on the Pacific Ocean, which would allow the United States to participate in the lucrative trade with Asia. Furthermore, Mexico's hold on its distant province was weak, and American expansionists feared that California would eventually be acquired by Great Britain, which, according to the thinking of the Monroe Doctrine, was a threat to U.S. security. In 1845, Polk sent diplomat John Slidell to Mexico to purchase California and New Mexico for up to $30 million.

In January 1846, Polk increased pressure on Mexico to sell by sending troops, under General Zachary Taylor, into the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande—territory that was claimed by both Texas and Mexico. Taylor ignored Mexican demands that he withdraw, and marched south to the Rio Grande, where he began to build Fort Brown.

Slidell's arrival in Mexico caused political turmoil after word leaked out that he was there to purchase additional territory and not to offer compensation for the loss of Texas. The Mexicans refused to receive Slidell, citing a problem with his credentials. Slidell returned to Washington, D.C. in May 1846. Polk regarded this treatment of his diplomat as an insult and an "ample cause of war", and prepared to ask Congress for a declaration of war.

Mexican War in Wikipedia