The Mexican-American War, 1846-1848, resulted in the largest militaristic land acquisition in American history. It also, as Christopher Menking contends in this book, shaped the distribution of power and wealth in South Texas in profound ways that still resonate throughout the region's political and economic landscape. The US Army Quartermaster Department oversaw the logistical war effort, which continued to operate a new chain of forts and depots along the southern and western boundary with territories controlled by Native Americans after the war ended. In Quartermasters of Conquest Menking explores the Quartermaster Department's critical but generally unappreciated functions-its wartime support of three separate armies in the field and its long-term, consequential operations in the decade after the war. In a detailed account of the Quartermaster Department's methods, Menking describes how the Army imported Anglo labor to the area north of the Rio Grande, then sparsely populated by Tejanos and Mexicans. This Anglo influx, along with river transportation and supply contractors, ultimately altered the demographics of the region-and, Menking suggests, contributed to the growth of new Texas towns and cities, as satellite communities grew alongside the forts, dramatically shifting the urban geography and economic power across the Rio Grande. Combining analysis of wartime logistics with insight into the divergent military and social histories of the lower Rio Grande borderland, Quartermasters of Conquest demonstrates the lasting influence of the Quartermaster Department on South Texas during the mid-nineteenth century-and the wartime roots of Anglos' political dominance despite being an ethnic minority in the region.
Christopher N. Menking is a Professor of History at Tarrant County College, Southeast Campus.
"In this highly readable and convincing account, Christopher N. Menking clearly explains wartime logistics and demonstrates the important effects of US spending on the war and how it influenced the social, political, and economic dynamics of the Lower Valley region."-Armando C. Alonzo, author of Tejano Legacy: Rancheros and Settlers in South Texas, 1734-1900 "With crisp, well-reasoned, and intelligent prose, Menking trains a fresh eye on an old story, one that gives us much to ponder."-Thomas Ty Smith, author of The Garza War in South Texas: A Military History, 1890-1893 "An important addition to scholarship highlighting the vital importance of the United States Army in shaping nineteenth-century American economy and society."-Robert Wooster, author of Soldiers, Sutlers, and Settlers: Garrison Life on the Texas Frontier
