The Palmetto Regiment Flag Casts a Shadow Over Mexico

The Battle of Chapultepec, Carl Nebel

“The Gallant Palmettos, who showed themselves worthy of their state and country, lost nearly one half. The victory will carry joy and sorrow into half the families in South Carolina.” Brigadier General W.J. Worth, August 26th, 1847.

The Charge of the Palmettos at Churubusco (In Harper's Weekly, 1855)

The Mexican War (1846-1848) was one of the major outcomes of United States beliefs of Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny’s major tenet was the belief that the United States should encompass the whole of North America from east to west. Winning the war with Mexico led to the Mexicans surrendering vast new territories to the United States. These lands would one day be the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and portions of the states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. The war was a pivotal event that contributed to the United States spreading its system of government and culture from the Atlantic to the Pacific shores. Men from South Carolina would volunteer for this war, as would thousands of other Americans, and they would all become a part of the story of American Westward Expansion.

Historical Marker for Palmetto Regiment in Saluda, South Carolina

In South Carolina, President James Polk’s call for volunteers led to the formation of the Palmetto Regiment. This regiment was composed of 10 companies of men from both the United States professional army and volunteers. Most volunteers served in the war as infantry. The regiment joined General Winifred Scott’s regular army in February 1847. The Palmettos, as they were known, were landed at Vera Cruz by the United States Navy to assist Scott in his siege of that city. They went on to serve bravely in four additional campaigns including battles at Contreras, Churubusco, Chapultepec, and Belén Gate.

The Battle of Chalpultepec, Carl Nebel

Many from the regiment suffered death from diseases rather than from combat. In fact, as many as 13,000 U.S. soldiers died in the war but only about 2,000 from combat. In the Palmetto Regiment 1027 served. 292 died but 236 died from disease and only 56 died in combat or wounds received in combat. The exception was the relatively large number of Palmettos lost in the Battle of Churubusco. Most deaths during the war came from yellow fever, malaria, measles, and dysentery that swept through whole regiments as they served along the humid, tropical coasts near Vera Cruz as well as in the rugged, plateaus of the Valley of Mexico near Mexico City. The Palmetto Regiment had the highest death rate in General Scott’s army. The Highest Ranking Officer from South Carolina, Colonel Pierce Butler (a former governor of the state) was killed by enemy fire during the Battle of Churubusco. His body was later laid to rest near his hometown in Edgefield, South Carolina.

After Scott’s successful siege and taking of the port of Vera Cruz in March 1847, the U.S. Army, now supplied through this port with supplies and manpower slowly fought its way toward Mexico City. Although outmanned in every battle, superior training and equipment helped the United States to slowly push the Mexicans back toward their capital. Here General Scott halted before the gates of Mexico City in August, 1847. The capital itself was defended by over 30,000 men as well as several citadels and forts. One of these forts sat on top of a hill and was known as Chapultepec Castle. After asking for surrender and once more being refused, Scott then led his troops on a charge up the hill of Chapultepec. The Palmetto Regiment fought bravely here and in the end planted their flag along side the regiment of New York’s flag atop Chapultepec Castle, the citadel that guarded one of the approaches to Mexico City. Scott then continued to advance the fight to the center of the Mexico City. On September 13, 1847, U.S. troops raised the Stars and Stripes over the Palace of Montezuma. Soon, afterwards the Mexicans sued for peace.

The Palmetto Regiment Monument at the South Carolina State House

The Palmetto Regiment veterans came home as heroes. Today you can find few relics of their deeds. There is a monument to this regiment on the state house grounds in Columbia. There are a few historical markers scattered throughout the state as in Saluda. And there are some old but interesting artifacts from the war and commemorating the war at the South Carolina State Museum and the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum in Columbia. Many of the veterans of this war went on to also serve in the Civil War. And it was this terrible civil war, rather than a war that advanced United States lands clear to the Pacific, that would overshadow what happened in Mexico. It would also overshadow the accomplishment of Manifest Destiny that led the United States to become one of the great powers of the world during the late 19th and early 20th century. So, for a short time the Palmetto Regiment’s flag cast its shadow over Mexico and the Mexican capital and symbolically signaled the march of Manifest Destiny and the happy and bitter fruits of Westward Expansion.

Andy Thomas

Works I consulted in writing this blog:

1) See South Carolinians in the War with Mexico at http://sciway3.net/proctor/state/sc_mexicanwar.html

2) South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum’s Exhibit on the Mexican War at http://crr.sc.gov/exhibitions/tour/mexicanwar/

Architect of Manifest Destiny: Maps, Flowers, and a National Scientific Institute

At Christmas time we are all familiar with his namesake: the Poinsettia. This beautiful tropical, red flower is named after the man who brought it home from Mexico to grow in his home state of South Carolina in 1828. Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779-1851) is almost forgotten other than that note in history. But he was much more than an amateur botanist and promoter of this flower. He served as the first United States minister to Mexico and later as the United States Secretary of War with President Martin Van Buren. He was also a mentor to fellow southerner and western explorer John C. Fremont. His thoughts on race and civilization served as a foundation for what would later be called Manifest Destiny. He expanded the size of the United States Topographic Bureau and supported explorations to better map the West. And because of his interest in natural history he helped to found the predecessor to the Smithsonian.

Poinsett, a statesman, physician, and amateur botanist was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1779. He was schooled in Connecticut and then later in Europe. He was very well-educated and very well-travelled before his return to the United States. He served his own state of South Carolina as state representative and as an United States Congressional Representative. He was then appointed special envoy to Mexico in 1822-23 because of his experiences in South America observing and offering assistance to various revolutionaries who hoped to overthrow Spanish rule and establish republican style governments. It was in Mexico, as an interested naturalist and observer, that he wrote Notes on Mexico (1822), one of several popular and official descriptions of this country. Because of his considered expertise he was later appointed as the first United States Minister to Mexico in 1825 and held that post until 1830. He continued to champion republican styled government in Mexico along with certain racial and imperialist views of Mexico and its relationship to the United States. These views would color later relations among these two countries and Poinsett was not favorably viewed by some Mexicans who rightly feared American expansion at the expense of Mexico.

It was during this time that he brought back the red flower known to the Aztecs as Cuetlaxochitl (meaning "skin flower.”) The flower had a connection to Christmas traditions in Mexico since the 16th century. There was a legend of a little, poor girl who received a visit from an angel at Christmas. The angel guided her to pick roadside weeds and place them before a church alter as a gift for baby Jesus. The weeds were then transformed into beautiful red flowers. These flowers, from the legend, became a traditional part of Christmas in Mexico. By 1836, they had also become a staple of American Christmas traditions, thanks to Joel Poinsett who grew them in his greenhouses in Charleston and then distributed them to friends and others.

Several Years after he returned from Mexico, Poinsett was picked by President Martin Van Buren as his Secretary of War (1837-41). Here he pushed for policies of continued Indian removal from the East and presided over the Seminole War in Florida. He also called for the expansion of the United States Topographic Bureau. He said that, “We are still lamentably ignorant of the geography and resources of our country.” This expanded institution would impel him to send explorations to the West to seek new mineral and natural resources and to create new accurate maps. One of the young men he had mentored, John C. Fremont, would become one of the greatest of western explorers. He helped Fremont, a fellow Southerner, to get a job mapping the Southern Appalachian Mountains for a proposed railroad from Charleston to Cincinnati. (The railroad was never built but one of the tunnels was started. Stumphouse Tunnel is an abandoned, partially finished railroad tunnel blasted into the mountains just above Clemson University.). With this experience in mapping rugged terrain and his patron, Fremont was later helped to find work with the Army Corps of Engineers to survey the Upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. His accurate mapping on this expedition and other western ones helped to produce maps which were carried by thousands of settlers and others on their rush to the West and in their fulfillment of Manifest Destiny.

Poinsett, ever interested in natural science, asked for these expeditions to bring back new plants and animal specimens when encountered. This also led him, in 1840, to found the National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts. This was to be the forerunner to what would become the Smithsonian. Although, a South Carolinian, Poinsett was a devoted unionist with ever an eye on how to help the United States become one of the great civilized nations of the world. He passed away in 1851 and is buried at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross in Stateburg, Sumter County, South Carolina. His importance lies in many areas. His name is forever connected with Christmas and the red, Aztec flower we call the Poinsettia. However, his importance is much more than that. He was one of the earliest of the architect’s for Manifest Destiny. He colored the relationship between Mexico and the United States, a relationship that would eventually lead to the annexation of Texas and a war with Mexico. He expanded the United States Topographic Bureau and called on expeditions to map the West. He was a mentor to the great western explorer, John C. Fremont who would carry out much of that mapping. And he helped to found one of the great scientific and museum complexes in the world: the Smithsonian. When you think about, it’s a wonder we don’t know more about Poinsett, other than how his last name graces the most famous of all Christmas flowers.

See articles I consulted for this blog:

Freed, Feather Crawford. “Joel Poinsett: Agent of Empire, Patron of Science” (2008): Hidden Transcripts: http://hiddentranscripts.wordpress.com/2008/11/08/joel-poinsett-agent-of-empire-patron-of-science/.

Volpe, Vernon L. “The Origins of the Fremont Expeditions: John J. Abert and the Scientific Exploration of the Trans-Mississippi West.” The Historian, (January 1, 2000): Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. Gale Group: Farmington Hills, Michigan

Andy Thomas