The war was now transferred to the district between Vera Cruz and the
City of Mexico, the capital, and was henceforth conducted for the United
States by General Winfield Scott, whose previous military career had
been much the same as General Taylor's. Scott had been made
Major-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Army in 1841. His first
operation in Mexico was the taking of Vera Cruz, the principal Mexican
seaport, on the Gulf of Mexico. With the aid of a fleet he besieged the
city in March, 1847, and on the 27th received its surrender. At Cerro
Gordo (April 17th and 18th) he won an important victory that opened his
way through the mountains toward his objective, the city of Mexico.
Reenforcements gradually reached him, and by the first of August he was
ready to move on the valley of Mexico with about eleven thousand men.
From this stage to the fall of the capital, completing the conquest of
the country, Bonner's account gives a graphic recital of events. The
city was held by Americans from September 14, 1847, the day they entered
it, until the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (February 2,
1848), which ended the war.
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