Taylor Camp Site, 1846
Kingsville, Kleberg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1846 Zachary Taylor's army marched from Corpus Christi to the Rio Grande. On March 10,11, 12, 13, the four regiments in succession camped at this spot on Santa Gertrudis Creek. War with Mexico over the boundary of Texas began soon. The first battles -- Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma -- occurred near present Brownsville. General Mariano Arista led the Mexican army. The results of the war: the boundary of Texas was fixed at the Rio Grande; the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave the United States New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California; a notable group of men got training for later public service. Of the 251 officers camped here, many rose to national fame. The Honor Roll Twelve leaders in the Texas battles gave name to United States forts in Texas: Wm. G. Belknap, Jacob Brown, J. E. Blake, W. W. S. Bliss, Theodore L. Chadbourne, James Duncan, Clinton R. Gates, Zebulon P. M. Inge, George T. Mason, J. B. McIntosh, Samuel Ringgold, William Jenkins Worth. Many who camped here became commanders of great armies in the Civil War. Among them: Augur, Bee, Bragg, Kirby Smith, Longstreet, Meade, Pemberton, Reynolds, Twiggs, Whistler. Two of them -- Zachary Taylor and Ulysses Simpson Grant -- became President of the United States. Kleberg County Historical Survey Committee 1964
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In March 1846, as Zachary Taylor's army marched from Corpus Christi to the Rio Grande, its four regiments camped in succession at this spot on Santa Gertrudis Creek. Within weeks the Mexican-American War erupted at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma near present Brownsville. The war fixed the Texas boundary at the Rio Grande and, through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, brought vast new territory into the United States — and the officers who camped here, among them future presidents Zachary Taylor and Ulysses S. Grant, went on to command great armies in the Civil War.
Why it matters
An ordinary campsite became a crossroads of American history, staging the war that redrew the nation's map and schooling the generals and presidents of the coming Civil War.
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Related people
- · Zachary Taylor
- · Ulysses S. Grant
- · Mariano Arista
Related events
- · Battle of Palo Alto
- · Battle of Resaca de la Palma
- · Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Henry L. Kinney built a fort-like trading post here, enclosed by a stockade around his home, store, and quarters for armed men, and Corpus Christi grew up around it. Much of his trade was with Indians and smuggling for Mexican Federalists, but business boomed when General Zachary Taylor's army camped nearby before marching to the Rio Grande in 1846. Kinney served as Taylor's quartermaster in the Mexican-American War, won repeated election to the legislature, and later ruined himself on a failed fair and a doomed Nicaragua scheme before dying in Matamoros.