For Duty and Honor: Tennessee's Mexican War Experience

The outbreak of the American Civil War was destined to cast a long shadow over the earlier, shorter Mexican–American War (1846—1848), as evidenced by today’s relatively slight historiography on the conflict. As for Tennessee’s role in the war, history remembers little more than its large contribution of volunteers and subsequent state moniker as “The Volunteer State.” Today, beliefs persist that the Mexican–American War was simply a colossal land grab for the United States in its pursuit of...