Training for the Civil War

The U.S.-Mexican War was a training ground for officers in the American Civil War. John S. Roane, Solon Borland, Albert Pike, and James Fagan, members of the Arkansas Regiment, became generals in the Civil War. Others learned as well.

Future Confederate general Robert E. Lee was a captain of the engineers when he started for Chihuahua, often riding with Arkansas volunteers as scouts. He was transferred to Winfield Scott’s command and won fame at the battles of Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo and Contreras.

Captain Braxton Bragg became a war hero for his artillery successes at Buena Vista. Lieutenants Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and George B. McClellan, both fresh from West Point, fought in the Valley of Mexico. All three served as Confederate generals during the Civil War.

Ulysses S. Grant, a U.S. general in the Civil War, fought the Mexican army in the first battles along the Rio Grande. Hearing the guns open fire on Fort Texas, he said, as "for myself, a young second-lieutenant who had never heard a hostile gun before, I felt sorry that I had enlisted." He went on to fight with Scott’s army into Mexico City.