Where did the Thornton affair take place?

Answer 1

In the disputed territory between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande River, in present-day Texas. The American president (Pres. Polk) had ordered General Zachary Taylor and his force to move south of the Nueces into the disputed zone, and there to build a supply depot at Point Isabel and a fort near the Rio Grande, just across from the Mexican city of Matamoros. The Mexican government demanded that he withdraw from the disputed area and not only did Taylor ignore them he then ordered a naval blockade of the mouth of the Rio Grande intended to cut off the Mexican forces forming up in Matamoros from their supplies. When the Mexican Army finally responded to these acts of aggression by sending a cavalry force into the disputed zone a skirmish developed between an American patrol led by Thornton versus the Mexican cavalry force. About 16 American soldiers were killed and Pres. Polk used this as a pretext to ask Congress for a declaration of war against Mexico, as Polk coveted Mexican California and New Mexico. So you see, the Mexican-American war was entirely provoked and started by the U.S., a war of aggression. In other words the U.S. is the bad guy in this war.