Corpus Christi History
By Murphy Givens

Wednesday, Nov. 25, 1998

Taylor's army lands in Texas

   In June of 1845, as the Republic of Texas prepared to join the United States, President James Knox Polk ordered Brevet Brigadier Gen. Zachary Taylor to take a position south of the Nueces River in disputed territory. Mexico claimed the Nueces River was the northern boundary of Tamaulipas. Texas claimed its southern boundary was the Rio Grande. But neither Mexico nor Texas controlled the Nueces strip; it was no man's land between hostile nations.
   Taylor's "Army of Occupation" (Polk's instrument of "manifest destiny") had been assembled 25 miles southwest of Natchitoches, La., at Fort Jesup, which the soldiers called "Camp Salubrity." The first contingent of troops sailed from New Orleans on the ship Alabama. The dragoons (cavalry trained to fight like infantry) and heavy wagons traveled overland.
   When the Alabama arrived at the Aransas pass early in the morning of July 26, a Lt. Chandler waded ashore to plant the first American flag over Texas territory, on a sand dune on San Jose Island (St. Joseph's Island back then.) Units of the Third Infantry established temporary quarters on the island.
   Lt. Col. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, commander of the Third, inspected the camp, which was scattered up and down the island. "We have found good water and had fish and oysters for breakfast," he wrote in his journal. "There are two or three families living on shore."
   Another of Taylor's officers who kept a diary, Capt. W. S. Henry, wrote that when they arrived on San Jose soldiers played in the surf and that they could dig down four feet and find freshwater, but if they went any deeper they hit saltwater. A barrel slipped into the hole would keep the sides from caving in.
   Gen. Taylor was anxious to get the troops to Corpus Christi, which was chosen as a staging ground for the army for two reasons: 1) It was within the disputed territory and Polk wanted to provoke a reaction from Mexico; 2), the city's founder, H.L. Kinney, had been busy writing letters to Washington praising Corpus Christi as an ideal location for Taylor's army. (Kinney had an eye on a quick profit.)
   The transfer of troops to Corpus Christi was difficult. The channel between Mustang and San Jose was about three feet deep, while the lighter Undine drew four feet. Hitchcock fumed while Taylor dithered and changed his mind two or three times about whether he should risk taking the Undine into Corpus Christi Bay. Finally, he ordered the lighter to proceed with elements of Hitchcock's Third Infantry.
   The ship promptly ran aground, as Hitchcock warned that it would, and they were stuck on the bay bottom for two days. Officers were sent to hire fishing boats to ferry troops and supplies to Corpus Christi. During the transfer to the fishing boats, a lieutenant fell into the bay. He was Ulysses Simpson Grant.
   When they landed at Corpus Christi, Grant found a small hamlet, less than 100 people, with a trading post where goods were sold to Mexican smugglers. The first troops to land were K and G companies of the Third Infantry. They put ashore near the present turning basin at sundown on Aug. 1, 1845. Hitchcock wrote in his journal that "our arrival is hailed with satisfaction."
   To protect the landing site, Taylor's men borrowed two old cannons from Kinney and, Henry wrote, "placed them in a position to give us a more terrific appearance, but I question whether they were not more dangerous to ourselves than the enemy."
   Troops went to work clearing tall grass, buzzing with rattlesnakes. White tents soon spread from where Artesian Park is today to North Beach. At this stage, Hitchcock was in command of the encampment; "Old Rough and Ready" Taylor alternated between San Jose and another camp at Rockport.
   At Corpus Christi, young officers went exploring. One wrote that, "After enjoying the delightful view from the bluff, a party of us strolled over the beautiful plain, on the borders of which many Mexican families reside. Their residences are primitive enough; nothing more than sheds, partly included with crooked mesquite wood, and their roofs thatched with a long grass which grows in the marshes, called `tula.'|"
   Lt. Richard H. Wilson did not think much of Corpus Christi. He wrote home that it was "the most murderous, thieving, God-forsaken hole in the Lone Star State or out of it."
   
   (This is the first of three columns on Zachary Taylor.)