Book Review: Quartermasters of Conquest: The Mexican-American War and the Making of South Texas, 1846–1860

Quartermasters of Conquest: The Mexican-American War and the Making of South Texas, 1846–1860. By Christopher N. Menking. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2025. Hardcover, 214 pp. $45.00.

Reviewed by Sean Chick

A popular saying in military history circles is that “amateurs study tactics while professionals study logistics.” Too often, however, students view logistics as a dull aspect of warfare, lacking the drama of bold charges, sudden counterattacks, and courageous officers leading their men in battles. Nonetheless, logistics are vital to maintaining an army’s ability to wage war, and their role in conflicts is just as important to understand. In short, logistics allow an army to do what it is intended to do, fight, and continue to fight.

Christopher Menking’s Quartermasters of Conquest: The Mexican-American War and the Making of South Texas,1846–1860 puts logistics squarely in the spotlight. And while this book may not make logistics as exciting as a traditional battle history, it does something all too rare in military history; it makes logistics accessible, interesting, and understandable for both amateurs and professionals. By incorporating a narrative approach, Menking capably shows the evolution of American logistics during the Mexican-American War and the long-term impact it had on a specific region of the United States.

As important contextual information, Menking’s study provides an overview of the causes of the Mexican War. He then notes that in order to achieve victory, the American military forces needed a sophisticated logistical operation, a Herculean task given the region’s challenges. As the war’s first theater, south Texas was a border area of vast distances, inhospitable terrain, and primitive road networks that lacked major cities. In addition, it was rather new territory for the young country. American logistics in the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 left much to be desired, and while Menking does not explicitly make this point, poor logistics in those two wars led to a number of defeats and disasters. Avoiding those previous missteps in the conflict with Mexico helped ensure success.

Menking chronicles how logistics during the Mexican-American War expanded and improved as the conflict progressed. Americans achieved a particularly impressive feat as Winfield Scott’s army plunged toward Mexico City. In this regard, the conflict showed a true coming age for the military’s increasing proficiency and professionalism, which in turn prepared both the Union and Confederacy to field large armies during the Civil War that approached the scale of the hordes that fought the Napoleonic Wars.

While most of Menking’s account is military focused, he also shows how the military transformed the society, demographics, and economics of south Texas. The need to garrison the area, both to counter the Comanche presence there and to deter Mexican incursions into the region, required the army to maintain a rather large presence. The infrastructure required to sustain the U.S. Army and its soldiers necessitated a logistical network build up, which drew in settlers while at the same time it facilitated economic growth.

The army, too, by bringing money to spend, spurred growth. The Tejanos, who were generally neutral during the Mexican-American War, welcomed American money even as the new Euro-American arrivals soon changed population demographics and marginalized their distinctive culture.

Quartermasters of Conquest is part of a larger trend once described to me by historian Ronald Formissano as “bringing the state back in.” That is, to show how the Federal government, while small, did influence American life and economic development before the Civil War. Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse (Harvard University Press, 1995) by Richard R. John shows the central role played by the postal service in the development of American culture, politics, business, and the sectional tensions that ripped the country apart in 1860. Daniel Walker Howe’s What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford University Press, 2007) also championed this interpretation in a well-written and -argued synthesis.

Menking’s study aligns with the earlier works of John and Howe by showing how the army, despite its small size, could transform a region not just by securing a disputed area for America, but by also changing that area’s infrastructure and economics, and eventually its culture. The Tejanos, who dominated the area before 1860, saw their numbers and influence wane as new arrivals came with their own politics, ideals, and culture. The newcomers chose not to integrate with Tejanos, but instead subordinate them.

Quartermasters of Conquest weaves the logistics of conquest and consolidation with a broad narrative of the Mexican-American War and the transformation of south Texas. This book is more interesting, instructive, and accessible than it might appear by merely glancing at its title. It adds significantly to our understanding of the transformation of Texas, the maturation of the American army, and how that army, against many expectations, defeated Mexico in relatively short order.