Battle of Mora

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The Battle of Mora was part of the Taos Revolt, a popular insurrection against the United States. It took place on January 24, 1847, during the Mexican-American War.

[edit] Background

On January 20, 1847, Manuel Cortez, a native of the village of Mora, New Mexico, organized an armed front against the invading American Army. The rebellion in Mora began with the assassination of a group of American merchants traveling to Missouri. Word of the uprising reached Captain Israel R. Hendley outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Hendley learned that the insurgents had gathered a force of about two hundred men in Mora.

[edit] Battle

On January 24, eighty U.S. troops commanded by Captain Hendley arrived in Mora to confront the insurgents. A general engagement ensued, and the insurgents retreated and fired from windows in the houses of the village. Insurgents had entrenched themselves in an old fort and fired on the Americans from there. Hendley led a charge on the fort but was shot and killed. The U.S. troops, having no artillery, retreated to the town of Las Vegas, New Mexico, to reorganize. The three-hour battle claimed Hendley as the sole American fatality, while the insurgents lost 25. Other casualties included three wounded Americans and 17 rebels taken prisoner.

On February 1, approximately 200 U.S. troops led by Captain Jesse I. Morin returned to Mora armed with two howitzers. Most of the insurgents fled to the surrounding mountains. Nevertheless, Morin ordered the complete destruction of the village of Mora and the burning of the wheat fields that surrounded the town. Niles' National Register reported as follows: "Capt. Morm [sic] of Platte who was in command, pursued them through the Moro [sic] valley, and burnt to ashes every house town, and rancho in his path. The inhabitants fled to the mountains, where they are bound to starve, as Morm [sic] leaves them nothing whatever to subsist on - a just retribution for their assassination of innocent people." The U.S. troops then returned to Santa Fe.

[edit] References

• Twitchell, Ralph Emerson, The History of the Military Occupation of the Territory of New Mexico from 1846 to 1851, Denver, Colorado: The Smith-Brooks Company Publishers, 1909
• Herrera, Carlos R., New Mexico Resistance to U.S. Occupation, published in The Contested Homeland, A Chicano History of New Mexico, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000
• Niles' National Register, NNR 72.081, April 10 1847, available at [1]