U.S. ARMY, MEXICAN WAR, CAMPAIGN STREAMER, RESACA DE LA PALMA, 1846

Description

U.S. ARMY, MEXICAN WAR, CAMPAIGN STREAMER, RESACA DE LA PALMA, 1846
The Army adorns its flag with a separate Streamer for each important action in all wars in which it participated.  The Army currently allows 190 Streamers. This Campaign Streamer is regulation size at 2-3/4 inch x 4 feet long. This Streamer has a grommet at the hoist end (left side) to protect the material and provide a device to attach the Streamer to the ring holder and then to the top of the flagpole which is held in place by the top ornament (spear, eagle, etc)
Resaca de la Palma
9 May 1846.The next morning Taylor, continuing his advance, found the Mexicans a few miles down the road, where they had taken up a strong defensive position in a dry river bed known as the Resaca de la Palma. In this second successive day of battle the infantry conducted most of the action, although the dragoons played an important part in knocking out the enemy artillery. Eventually the infantry turned the enemy's left flank, and the Mexican line broke and fled. The rout became a race for the Rio Grande which the Mexicans won, but many were drowned while attempting to cross the river. Taylor's losses were 33 killed and 89 wounded. Arista's official report listed 160 Mexicans killed, 228 wounded, and 159 missing, but Americas estimated that the Mexicans had suffered well over a thousand casualties.
Taylor had to wait until 18 May for boats to move his army across the Rio Grande. When the Americans finally moved into Matamoros, they found that the Mexican force had disappeared into the interior. The next objective was Monterey, but the direct overland route from Matamoros lacked water and forage; Taylor therefore waited until August for the arrival of steamboats, with which he moved his army 130 miles up river to Camargo. Meanwhile thousands of volunteers had poured into Matamoros, but disease and various security and logistic factors limited Taylor to a force of little more than 6,000 men for the Monterey campaign.
Monterey, 21 September 1846.Taylor's forces left Camargo at the end of August and launched an attack on Monterey on 21 September 1846. The city was defended by a force of from 7,300to 9,000 Mexican troops under the command of Gen. Pedro de Ampudia. After three days of hard fighting the Americans drove the enemy from the streets to the central plaza. On 24 September Ampudia offered to surrender the city on the condition that his troops be allowed to withdraw unimpeded and that an eight-week armistice go into effect. Taylor, believing that his mission was simply to hold northern Mexico, accepted the terms and the Mexican troops evacuated the city the following day. Ampudia reported that his army had suffered 367casualties in the three-day fight. Taylor reported his losses as being 120 killed and 368 wounded. Both reports were probably underestimated.
Taylor was severely criticized in Washington for agreeing to the Mexican terms, and the Administration promptly repudiated the armistice, which had almost expired by the time the news reached Monterey.
Meanwhile, in keeping with the strategic plan, the other two prongs of advance into northern Mexico had been put in motion. On 5 June 1846, Brig. Gen. John E. Wool had left San Antonio with his "Army of the Center," a force of some 2,000 men. His original objective was Chihuahua, but en-route it was changed to Parras. Wool, encountering no opposition, arrived at Parras on 5 December; his force then became part of Taylor's command. The third prong, Col. (later Maj. Gen.) Stephen W. Kearny's "Army of the West," a  force of about 1,660 men, left Fort Leavenworth early in June 1846 and entered Santa Fe unopposed on 18 August. From there Kearny left for California on 25September with about 300 dragoons. En route he met a party, led by Kit Carson, bringing news from the west coast that a naval squadron under Commodore J. D. Sloat, with the questionable help of volunteers under Capt. John C. Fremont, had won peaceful possession of California in July, although some opposition remained. Kearny seat back 200 of his men and pushed on with the rest, arriving at San Diego on 12 December after having fought a sharp engagement on 6 December with a larger force of Californians at San Pasqual. At San Diego Kearny joined Commodore Robert F. Stockton, who had replaced Sloat, and their combined force of some 600 men, after same minor skirmishing, occupied Los Angeles on 10 January1847. Three days later the last remaining Californian opposition capitulated to the volunteer force commanded by Fremont.
Meanwhile, in mid-November of 1846, Taylor had sent one of his divisions to occupy the city of Saltillo. Another detachment occupied Victoria, a provincial capital between Monterey and the port or Tampico, which latter had been occupied by an American naval force under Comdr. David Conner on 15 November 1846. Thus, by the end of 1846, a very large part of northern Mexico had come under American control.
A plan was adopted late in 1846to strike at Mexico City by way of Vera Cruz. In preparation for this expedition Maj. Gen. Wintield Scott, Commanding General or the Army, detached about 8,000men from Taylor 'a command early in 1847, ordering the troops to Gulf ports to wait sea transportation. Taylor was left with some 4,800 men, practically all volunteers, most or whom he concentrated in a camp south of Saltillo.
The campaign streamers attached to the Army Flag staff denote campaigns fought by the Army throughout our nation’s history. Each streamer (2 ¾ inches wide and 4 feet long) is embroidered with the designation of a campaign and the year(s) in which it occurred. The colors derive from the campaign ribbon authorized for service in that particular war.
The concept of campaign streamers came to prominence in the Civil War when Army organizations embroidered the names of battles on their organizational colors. This was discontinued in 1890, when units were authorized to place silver bands, engraved with the names of battles, around the staffs of their organizational colors. When AEF units in World War I were unable to obtain silver bands, General Pershing authorized the use of small ribbons bearing the names of the World War I operations. In 1921 all color-bearing Army organizations were authorized to use the large campaign streamers currently displayed.
"The Army Flag and Its Streamers" was originally prepared in August 1964 by the Office of the Chief of Military History, in cooperation with the Office of the Chief of Information, and the U.S. Army Exhibit Unit, to provide general summaries of each of the campaigns displayed on the Army flag. It was subsequently updated by the Center of Military History to add the campaigns from Vietnam. This study covered named campaigns only and did not include the campaigns that were sometimes awarded to individual units for war service in engagements outside the limitations of the named campaigns (i.e., Virginia 1863). It only addressed those campaigns authorized for display on the Army flag.