What are tree us army generals who headed the three pronged force fighting the Mexicans?

Answer 1

The Mexican-American War was the last in continental North America where tremendous results, drastically altering the course of history, were obtained by relatively small numbers of men.

When the war began Zachary Taylor ("Old Rough and Ready"; "Old Dad Taylor") was commanding the American forces along the Rio Grande. Taylor fought a brilliant campaign along the Rio Grande and into northern Mexico, fighting four or five desperate battles, always against a numerically superior force, and won every one. He completely secured the disputed territory that was the cause of the war, the Nueces Strip, and ended his part with a large battle at Monterey, Mexico. After having won that battle he had no one left to fight. Taylor became president in 1848, rewarded by the public as a great hero of the war. He was a former father-in-law of Jefferson Davis, who became president of the Confederacy. Davis was a young officer fresh from West Point when he fell in love with the daughter of his commanding officer, who opposed the marriage. He loved his daughter dearly and wanted a better life for her than the lonely and isolated one, in primitive conditions, of an officer's wife at bleak frontier outposts. So Davis resigned from the Army, married Sarah Taylor and took her to Mississippi, where with the help of family he went into the sugar came plantation business. Sadly, Sarah Taylor Davis fell ill and died within two months of their arrival in Mississippi. Davis and Zachary Taylor eventually healed any breach in their relations and Davis commanded a regiment of Mississippi Volunteers under his former father-in-law in this campaign along the Rio Grande. Taylor's son Richard served as his father's military secretary during the Mexican War, and became one of only two men without any formal military experience or training to rise to the rank of three-star lieutenant general in the Confederate Army.

The General in Chief of the US Army since 1839 was Winfield Scott, "Old Fuss and Feathers". Scott was a giant, standing 6' 8", and an authentic hero of the War of 1812. He had been in the Army since 1808, commissioned directly from civilian life in Virginia. Politically, Scott was a Whig while Zachary Taylor was a Democrat. Scott became alarmed at the rising presidential possibilities and wild popularity Taylor attained while leading his campaign in northern Mexico, and decided to take the field himself. He gathered more men and ordered away a large part of Taylor's force to join him. Scott fought an even more brilliant campaign than Taylor, unequaled in American history by anything. The only thing even remotely comparable would be the march on Baghdad in 2003. Scott landed near Vera Cruz on the east coast of Mexico, and laid siege to that walled city and captured it. Then, with less than 10,000 men, he headed inland, west along the only road to Mexico City. Fighting several battles along the way, each won with information obtained by his brilliant staff officer, Robert E. Lee, Scott reached the Valley of Mexico, fought several more battles including capturing the largest fortress in the Americas, and then battled his way into and captured the largest city in the hemisphere, with a population of 250,000, and then dictated peace terms to the Mexicans. Scott was the last Whig to run for president, losing the election of 1852, after which the Whigs evaporated as a party, and the Republican Party was created in 1854 to fill the void. When the Civil War started, Scott was still General in Chief. There was no system of retirement then. By that time he was 75 years old and had been in the Army for 53 years, and General in Chief for 22 years. He weighed over 400 pounds, and tended to fall asleep in the middle of conversations, and on the rare occasions when he tried to mount his long suffering horse, he had to be hoisted aboard with a block and tackle. Scott was obviously unfit to take the field and offered command of the northern field armies to the man he considered the most capable officer in the Army, Robert E. Lee, a fellow Virginian. But Lee resigned instead and went south. Scott was humiliated into resigning by George McClellan in 1862, and died in 1864.

Another brilliant, and extremely grueling campaign was led by Stephen Kearney, which secured the vast desert areas of the American southwest. Kearney was made governor-general of Vera Cruz at the end of the fighting, caught Yellow Fever there, and died. Most places and things named "Kearney" in the US are in his honor. His maternal grandfather was "Lord Stirling", William Alexander, a division commander in Washington's Continental Army during the Revolution who had James Monroe for an aide. Stephen Kearney's nephew was Phil Kearney, who was killed at Chantilly, Virginia at the end of the Second Bull Run Campaign in 1862, after mistakenly riding into a Rebel position in the heavy rain of a late evening.

Answer 2

The three US Army generals who led the three-pronged force fighting the Mexicans during the Mexican-American War were General Zachary Taylor, General Winfield Scott, and General John E. Wool.