General Taylor and the Battle of Buena Vista

On February 22, 1847, some 15,000 Mexican soldiers under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna advanced on an American force of fewer than 5,000 near the village of Buena Vista in northern Mexico. It was the height of the Mexican-American War, and Santa Anna had raised a fresh army to drive the Americans out of the territory they had seized. He demanded surrender. Taylor’s reply, delivered through his aide, was brief: “I beg leave to say that I decline acceding to your request.” The fighting that followed ended with Santa Anna’s army in retreat and Zachary Taylor a national hero.

Taylor was a career soldier, not a politician, known to his men as “Old Rough and Ready” for his plain dress and willingness to share the hardships of campaign life. He had spent decades on remote frontier posts before being sent to the Rio Grande in 1846. Buena Vista made him famous overnight. Within a year, the Whig Party had nominated him for president, and in 1848 he won the election, despite having never held political office or even voted.

Shantymen were always hungry for topical material, and Taylor’s name quickly entered the repertoire in the halyard shanty General Taylor and the capstan shanty Santy Anna.