The A to Z of the United States-Mexican War by Edward H. Moseley & Paul C. Clark Jr

Author:Edward H. Moseley & Paul C. Clark Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2009-04-12T04:00:00+00:00

N

NAJERA, JUAN N. (d. 1846). In the battle of Monterrey (q.v.), Lt. Col. Juan N. Nájera commanded the Jalisco cavalry regiment. The regiment was part of the advance guard of a 2,000-man cavalry and infantry force that defended the Saltillo (q.v.) road to the west of Monterrey. On September 21, the second day of the battle, Nájera led a hellbent-for-leather charge with his cavalrymen against the leading unit of Gen. William J. Worth’s (q.v.) division—a company of Texas Rangers (q.v.) under Capt. Ben McCulloch (q.v.). This opening of the Monterrey battle was short, bloody, and, for the Mexicans, costly, as they suffered heavy casualties, including the gallant Nájera, who died within minutes of leading his bold charge against the Texans.

NARROWS, THE. See ANGOSTURA.

NATIONAL BRIDGE. See PUENTE NACIONAL, VERACRUZ.

NATIONAL HIGHWAY. The National Highway or Road, known in 19th-century Mexico as the Camino Nacional, was the historic route over which Hernán Cortés marched from Veracruz (q.v.) to conquer the center of Aztec power at Tenochtitlán in the Valley of Mexico (q.v.). Gen. Winfield Scott (q.v.) chose this road for his army’s march from Veracruz to Mexico City (q.v.). It ran northwest from Veracruz through Corral Falso, Cerro Gordo (q.v.), Jalapa (q.v.), La Joya (q.v.), and Las Vigas (q.v.). At Las Vigas, it turned southwest, continuing through Perote (q.v.) and Amozoc (q.v.) to Puebla (q.v.). From Puebla, the road completed its course to Mexico City in a northwesterly fashion, passing to the north and in the shadow of the 18,000-foot peak of Popocatépetl before descending into the Valley of Mexico and the nation’s capital.

NAVAJO INDIANS. Navajos in the New Mexico (q.v.) region had been hostile to white settlers in the period leading up to the war with Mexico. When Brig. Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny (q.v.) arrived with his army from Fort Leavenworth (q.v.) in 1846, he charged one of his commanders, Col. Alexander Doniphan (q.v.), of the First Missouri Mounted Volunteers, with the task of solving the Navajo problem. In October and November 1846 Doniphan and his senior officers departed Santa Fe (q.v.) to seek out the Navajo leaders, including their chief, Narbona. Doniphan was able to arrange a peace treaty calling for an end to hostilities with 500 Navajos.

NAVY, MEXICAN. In the mid-1840s, the Mexican government had few resources to support its armed forces adequately in the war with the United States. The limited support it did have went to its armies, although supplying land forces was often a haphazard affair immediately before battle. The Mexican navy got scant support. Historical records are unclear about the exact number of naval vessels belonging to the Mexican government at the time of the war. Naval records in the Archivo General de la Nación (general archives) in Mexico City listed 16 ships in government service for 1845. These included 11 schooners, three brigs, and only two steamships. These naval ships were designed to patrol the rivers and the coasts and were clearly not prepared to challenge the U.S. Navy in blue water. The active service of all of the ships listed here ended prematurely and somewhat disastrously during the war years.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.