Saturday, November 15, 2025

History Minute #029: report of soldier conduct in 1846

The United States takes Los Angeles by force in 1846.

Quoting Zinn:

General Taylor had moved across the Rio Grande, occupied Matamoros, and now moved southward through Mexico. But his volunteers became more unruly on Mexican territory. Mexican villages were pillaged. One officer wrote in his diary in the summer of 1846: "We reached Burrita about 5 P.M., many of the Louisiana volunteers were there, a lawless drunken rabble. They had driven away the inhabitants, taken possession of their houses, and were emulating each other in making beasts of themselves." Cases of rape began to multiply.

Excerpt From
A People's History of the United States
Howard Zinn
 






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