Expeditionary· Mexican-American War
Gillespie arrives at Monterey with Polk's secret messages
The first major covert assignment given to a Marine officer, and a small but consequential prelude to the conquest of California.
First Lieutenant Archibald Gillespie was sent from Washington in late 1845, after meeting personally with President Polk, to carry confidential instructions to the American consul Thomas Larkin at Monterey and dispatches to Commodore Sloat of the Pacific Squadron. To pass safely through Mexico, Gillespie traveled in disguise as a merchant, memorizing his most sensitive messages and destroying the written copies, and made a hazardous overland journey across the country before reaching Monterey in April 1846. The messages bore on the possible American acquisition of California should war with Mexico come. His arrival put the squadron and the consul on notice and helped set in motion the events that would soon bring California under American control. No fighting attended the mission itself.
Podcast episodes on Mexican-American War
Record no. 325