Grant at Fort Brown: The Young Lieutenant's First War

Two years out of West Point, 24-year-old Second Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant found himself at the front of the U.S.-Mexican War. This account comes from The Odyssey of Ulysses, a National Park Service series by Frank Kohl that follows Grant from his first battle to his final resting place.

Soldiers defending Fort Texas, later renamed Fort Brown. Nineteenth-century illustration from the National Park Service's page.

An earthwork on the Rio Grande

Grant was part of the Army of Occupation under General Zachary Taylor, a future president. When it reached the north bank of the Rio Grande, the troops began building an earthwork — first known as Fort Texas, later as Fort Brown — within sight of a Mexican fort and the people of Matamoros.

Supplies were running low. While the fort's commander, Major Jacob Brown, stayed with 500 men to finish the work, Taylor marched 2,300 troops to Point Isabel on the coast to meet ships bringing food, weapons and other supplies. Grant went with the troops sent for the supplies.

"The war had begun"

On May 3, 1846, the Mexican army opened fire on the fort, nearly 25 miles away. Grant, asleep in his tent near the Gulf of Mexico beaches, was woken by the guns. He later wrote in his Personal Memoirs:

"As we lay in our tents upon the sea-shore, the artillery at the fort on the Rio Grande could be distinctly heard. The war had begun. . . [as] a young second-lieutenant who had never heard a hostile gun before, I was sorry that I had enlisted."

Grant's first battles

On May 7, Taylor's troops set out along the Point Isabel–Matamoros road with more than 250 supply wagons to relieve the besieged fort. The Mexican army tried to cut the supply line, meeting them at the Battle of Palo Alto on May 8 and the Battle of Resaca de la Palma on May 9 — Grant's first two battles.

The siege lifted

After Resaca de la Palma the Mexican forces fell back to Matamoros, and the U.S. troops reached the fort. Major Brown had died, and when Taylor learned of it, he officially named the fort in Brown's honor. As Grant recalled, "Since then a town of considerable importance has sprung up . . . which has also taken his name."

Fort Brown today

Low mounds that were part of the original earthworks can still be seen. Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park is working to preserve them and can provide information about visiting the site.

Sources

• Frank Kohl, "Grant at Fort Brown," The Odyssey of Ulysses, National Park Service (Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park): https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/grant-at-fort-brown.htm
• The source spells Matamoros two ways; this page uses Matamoros. It also has "grading" where it means graduating from West Point.