He was Every Inch a Fightin’ Man — Ben McCulloch, Part II

The scouting of Ben McCulloch saved the U.S. Army from disaster in the Battle of Buena Vista. A bold statement, but the facts support it.

After Monterrey, General Zachary Taylor’s army was stalled in northern Mexico, depleted by disease and the departure of men whose enlistments had run out. The theater of war had shifted south, where General Winfield Scott had landed at Veracruz and was penetrating the central Mexico interior, driving on Mexico City.

What Taylor did not know was that the Mexican General Santa Anna, had abandoned his front against Scott and moved north in a desperate bid to crush Taylor and drive for Texas. He hoped to force a negotiated end to the war, possibly even including the reconquest of Texas. It was a desperate gambit, but if he had taken Taylor by surprise it might well have succeeded. Fortunately for the Americans, Ben McCulloch was in the field with his rangers.

Scouting south from Taylor’s camp at Agua Nueva, McCulloch and his riders chased some Mexican pickets toward Rancho La Encarnacion, where they encountered a dark mass 400 yards to their front. They approached cautiously until they drew a blinding volley from what turned out to be Mexican cavalry. Using standard Ranger tactics, McCulloch ordered a pistol charge, but only a handful of his scouts could control their horses well enough to engage the enemy. After a brief firefight, McCulloch pulled his patrol back and returned to headquarters.

Convinced that the cavalry he had encountered was part of a larger force, McCulloch persuaded Taylor to authorize another scout south to Encarnacion.

The intuition of the Frontier Partisan was on target. When McCulloch returned, threading his way past pickets, cloaked in darkness, his patrol discovered a big encampment. It couldn’t be anything other than Santa Anna’s army. McCulloch sent most of his patrol back to warn Taylor. He and one companion stayed behind for a closer look.

Overnight, they played cat-and-mouse with a Mexican cavalry patrol and tried to avoid running into pickets. When dawn broke, it revealed 20,000 enemy in the camp and pickets building a fire at the foot of the hill 80 yards away. And somewhere nearby was a patrol of 20 cavalry.

It took all of the rangers’ skill to elude capture. In a brilliant feat of hiding in plain sight, they rode past one picket a hundred yards out, pretending to be Mexican horse hunters (the Texicans’ irregular dress a saving grace), riding up on little ridges and pointing here and there as if checking for sign.

Returning to Agua Nueva, they found the army had decamped, warned by McCulloch’s returning patrol of Santa Anna’s approach. The American force had pulled back to a beautiful defensive position at Buena Vista, on high ground behind a pass through which Santa Anna must bring his force.

McCulloch grabbed some much-needed sleep, then headed to Buena Vista and the American line of battle.

When the battle was joined at about 8 a.m. on February 23, 1847, McCulloch was on the American right flank. The action there was hot, and McCulloch fought with his usual coolness and skill. A horse was shot out from under him and he also managed to chase down and capture a Mexican lancer mere yards in front of the enemy line.

As it became clear that the battle was won, McCulloch and Major Andrew Jackson Coffee stood between the lines and toasted victory with a bottle of Coffee’s champagne, which McCulloch pronounced the best wine he had ever tasted.

Thanks to McCulloch’s reconnaissance, Taylor’s army not only escaped a surprise assault by Santa Anna’s force, Old Rough and Ready had time to choose his fighting ground and deal out a decisive victory.

In typical understatement, McCulloch summed up his work: “In this way we did the country some service.”

 

 

Part III: McCulloch seeks his elusive fortune and casts his lot with the Confederacy as the storm of civil war gathers.