From The Golden Gate to Mexico City

From the Golden Gate to Mexico City: The U.S. Army Topographical Engineers in the Mexican War tells the story of how the engineers performed a valuable combat support mission in America's first foreign war, making reconnaissances, planning routes of advance, and charting little-known terrain. Adrian G. Traas describes the engineers' decisive roles in the campaigns in the Southwest and Mexico, providing the new nation with maps of newly acquired lands and vast amounts of valuable scientific findings. He also shows that they were on the cutting edge of nineteenth-century technology as they laid the communication routes that would tie the nation together. Traas has written a compelling story for today's military students with an interest in not only the account of frontier adventures but also the influence of terrain on campaigns and battles, the principles of geographical intelligence in our era of computer and satellite technology still viable.