DUANE
Duane's take
The marker's the one tellin' this tale, and I'm just the voice it borrowed for the road. Now picture it. August of 1845.
General Zachary Taylor rolls into Corpus Christi with the largest United States Army fielded in the first half of the nineteenth century. That's not Texas bragging — that's the record. He wasn't there for the scenery, though there was plenty of it.
The annexation of the former Republic of Texas had been approved in 1845, and the United States needed to make its position clear: everything east of the Rio Grande was American soil. Taylor was the message. So he set up camp and he waited.
Diplomats on both sides tried to hammer out a boundary agreement while Taylor's army sat in the Gulf humidity and drilled. All through a rainy winter, they drilled. And here's the part that'll make you sit up a little straighter — on those army rosters, mixed in among the rank and file, were two men who would go on to become presidents of the United States.
The marker doesn't name them, and neither will I, but they were there, boots in the mud, same as everybody else, learning what war felt like before they ever had to decide whether to make one. While the diplomats talked, Taylor put his engineers to work. They mapped a road running parallel to the Gulf, where the U.S.
Navy was already keeping a close eye on things. He was a patient man, but he was also a prepared one. Then Washington gave the order.
March 1846 — move toward the Rio Grande. The army started down through a land that was about as empty of people as it was full of everything else. Wild cattle.
Antelope. Deer. Mustang horses running free.
Wild turkeys. It was the kind of country that hadn't yet decided what it wanted to be. About seventy miles south of where this marker stands, a Mexican patrol challenged Taylor's advance.
He proceeded anyway, pushing on to occupy the Rio Grande Valley. That challenge was a fuse, and it was burning. In April came the attacks.
Then the battles — Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma — and those battles were enough. The United States declared war. What followed poured more troops down this same road, soldiers marching toward a conflict that would not end quietly.
When it did end, the Rio Grande was fixed as the boundary, and the United States had gained lands that now make up Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico. All of it — that whole reshaping of a continent — started with an army trudging through the game-thick brush right along this stretch of South Texas ground. One road.
One general. One rainy winter of waiting. And then the world changed.
What the marker says
Battle road of General Zachary Taylor and largest U.S. Army fielded in first half of the 19th century. After annexation of former Republic of Texas was approved in 1845, the United States sent Taylor to occupy area below the Nueces-- to support claim to all land east of the Rio Grande. In August 1845 he reached Corpus Christi where he waited while U.S. and Mexico tried to reach boundary agreement. He also sent out engineers to map a road parallel to the Gulf, where the U.S. Navy watched the crisis. His army-- including on its rosters two later U.S. presidents and later many statesmen and generals-- drilled throughout a rainy winter. On orders from Washington, it moved toward Rio Grande in March 1846. Along its path were few people but much game-- wild cattle, antelope, deer, mustang horses, wild turkeys. Although challenged about 70 miles south of here by a Mexican patrol, Taylor proceeded to occupy Rio Grande Valley. April attacks and may battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma caused the United States to declare war. Afterward many troops took this road and joined the fighting, which fixed the Rio Grande as boundary and gained for U.S. lands now in Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico.