The Capture of Tucson was the United States attack on the Mexican city of Tucson, Sonora, now the present day Tucson, Arizona. The would be combatants were provisional Mexican Army troops and the American Mormon Battalion in December 1846.

Capture

The Mexican-American War began after Thornton's Defeat in 1846. This same year the Mormon battalion was dispatched across the Great Western Desert.The U.S. force included, commander Lieutenant Colonel Philip St. George Cooke and around 500 riflemen and officers. Eighty-four women and children were also present during the advance across Arizona.

Marching northwest to Tucson in November of the said year, the battalion fought their only battle in Arizona. Between wild cattle which attacked them near the San Pedro River. After the "Battle of the Bulls", as it is known, the force moved on to the outskirts of Tucson, where they expected to fight the Mexican garrison of Fort Tucson, a former Spanish presidio.

The Mexican force consisted of around 200 men, most likely infantry and cavalry plus two small brass cannons, as well as an unknown force of men from the garrisons of Tubac, Santa Cruz and Fronteras. On December 16, 1846, the American enlisted men of the Mormon Battalion arrived at the end of Tucson, to attack the town's garrison.

The Mexican Captain Antonio Comaduron had received short warning of the approaching Americans. At first he was reluctant to surrender the presidio. But eventually after watching the advancing United States force and seeing it's number of fighting men, Captain Comaduron decided to withdrawal without fighting. After advising many civilians to abandon Tucson with him.

The Mexicans retreated to San Xavier just as the Americans began their assault to take the city. No fighting occurred, as soon as the colonels entered Tucson, they began to assure the frightened and staring population of their friendly intentions. A twenty-eight star American flag flew over Tucson for the first time. Many of the Mormon men were interested in trade. Lieutenant Colonel Cooke's soldiers had been low on food so the Mexicans and Pimas bartered meat and bread for cloth, buttons and pins, but only a little food was transferred to the Mormons through trade. Several thousand bushels of grain were left behing by the Mexican garrison, the Mormons took this and on the next day of December 17, proceeded onto San Jaxier. The only shots fired had been from one picket who mistook approaching Mexican civilians for soldiers and fired. Noone was killed or wounded.

Fifty men under one of the Philip Cooke were spotted five miles before the mission town, prompting the Mexican Army to retreat again, south towards the Tubac presidio. The Mormons then ended their occupation and continued on their march across the desert. Tucson would officially become an American city ten years later in 1856, after the Gadsden Purchase.

See also

• Capture of Tucson
• First Battle of Tucson
• Second Battle of Tucson
• Third Battle of Tucson
• Fourth Battle of Tucson
• Apache Wars
• Navaho Wars
• Spanish period of Arizona
• Mexican period of Arizona

References

• Smith, Justin Harvey. The War with Mexico. 2 vol (1919). Pulitzer Prize winner. full text online.
• Harte, John Bret, 2001, Tucson: Portrait of a Desert Pueblo. American Historical Press, Sun Valley, California. (ISBN 1-892724-25-1).
• Dobyns, Henry F., 1976, Spanish Colonial Tucson. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. (ISBN 0-8165-0546-2).
• Drachman, Roy P., 1999, From Cowtown to Desert Metropolis: Ninety Years of Arizona Memories. Whitewing Press, San Francisco. (ISBN 1-888965-02-9.