Letters and Diaries

Title -   Orders and instructions to General Taylor. War Department, June 15, 1845

Date -   June 15, 1845

Publication Information -   Messages of the President of the United States, with the correspondence, therewith communicated, between the Secretary of War and other officers of the government, on the subject of the Mexican War.   Published by: Wendall and van Benthuysen, Washington, 1848

Format -   Letters (correspondence)

Collection -   The University of Texas at Arlington Library, Special Collections.

Call Number -   E404.U59 Library Collections Depository, Special Collections

Description -   Having learned that the people of Texas would ratify the joint resolution of annexation on July 4, formally signaling the Republic’s incorporation as the 28th state, the War Department instructed Zachary Taylor to march to Texas’s western frontier. Significantly, Taylor was ordered to take up positions on the Rio Grande, despite the fact that both countries claimed the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande.