The Battle of Resaca de la Palma was one of the early engagements of the Mexican–American War, where the United States Army under General Zachary Taylor engaged the retreating forces of the Mexican Ejército del Norte ("Army of the North") under General Mariano Arista on May 9, 1846. The United States emerged victorious and forced the Mexicans out of Texas.
Following the Mexican defeat at the Battle of Palo Alto the previous day, Arista on the morning of May 9 moved his forces to a more defensible position along a resaca, known as Resaca de Guerrero to the Mexicans but as Resaca de la Palma to the Americans. Recalling his experiences at the Siege of Fort Texas, he positioned his forces along the twelve foot deep and two hundred foot wide resaca, three miles from the Rio Grande, by 10 a.m. Arista placed most of his infantry in the ravine, thickly forested on either side, to negate the effectiveness of Taylor's artillery, with the 6th and 10th Infantry, Sappers, 2nd Light Infantry and 1st Infantry being placed east of the road, and the 2nd Infantry, Tampico Battalion and 4th Infantry west of the road. Covering the flanks in the rear were the Presidiales, the light cavalry, and the 7th and 8th Regiments, and two artillery batteries on the south bank.
Taylor reached the area about 3 p.m. and ordered Captain William W. Mackall's skirmishers and Captain Randolph Ridgely's battery along the road, with the 4th and 5th Infantry to the left and the remaining 4th and 3rd Infantry on the right.
American forces began to encounter the Mexican lines at around three in the afternoon. The advance party of skirmishers under Captain Mackall had been pursuing Arista's army throughout the morning and early afternoon, and as they reached the brush around the resaca the group came under heavy rifle and artillery fire. Mackall attempted to press further in order to gain a clearer view of the Mexican position, but, lacking the firepower of Taylor's main body, was ultimately forced to retreat and await reinforcements.
By four, General Taylor had linked with Captain Mackall and had begun to deploy his army to assault Arista's position. First, he moved to destroy the Mexican skirmish line which was harassing his movements. Two infantry regiments, supported by Ridgely's artillery battery, were able to converge on Arista's skirmishers and force them back into the Mexican main line with heavy casualties. With his immediate front clear, Taylor began to press his attacks on Arista's flanks.
Fighting was disorganized and uncoordinated due to the dense chaparral and the intense Mexican artillery fire, although Ridgely did repulse a Mexican cavalry charge. As regiments entered the heavy underbrush unit cohesion broke down, as smaller and smaller groups became visibly separated from each other; many of these groups were led by non-commissioned officers as the regular officers became cut off from the rest of their men. However, this same issue plagued the Mexican defenders, as the chaparral hampered the lines of communication as well as lines of sight. As a result, the majority of the fighting occurred simultaneously but also independently within these small, separate groups, as each lacked information on the battle as a whole. This breakup of unit integrity effectively negated many of the defensive and numerical advantages the Mexican Army would have ordinarily enjoyed.
The Mexican-American War (1846–1848) grew from the annexation of Texas (1845) and a disputed border between Texas and Mexico at the Rio Grande. President James K. Polk ordered US troops under General Zachary Taylor into the contested zone; after a skirmish that killed American soldiers, Congress declared war in May 1846. US forces won a series of engagements — Palo Alto, Monterrey, Buena Vista — before General Winfield Scott led an amphibious landing at Veracruz and an overland campaign to Mexico City, which fell in September 1847. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (February 1848) transferred California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming to the United States in exchange for $15 million and assumption of $3.25 million in claims — roughly 525,000 square miles, a 67 percent expansion of US territory. The war's outcome immediately reopened the slavery question: the Wilmot Proviso, debated throughout the war, proposed banning slavery from any territory acquired from Mexico, foreshadowing the sectional crisis of the 1850s.
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