James Mccaffrey's Army Of Manifest Destiny

James M. McCaffrey, the author of the historical novel “Army of Manifest Destiny: The American Soldier in the Mexican War 1846-1848”, writes about American soldiers during the Mexican-American War. The Mexican-American War was a huge contribution to the history of the United States and what it is today. He describes America’s first foreign war, the Mexican-American War, through the day-to-day experiences of the American soldiers in battle and camps. McCaffrey states “The purpose of the present work, then, is to look at the war from the viewpoint of the common soldier’s experiences. What prompted them to enlist in the first place? What did they think of the Mexican people with whom they came in contact? How did they feel toward their officers? Were they adequately …show more content…
McCaffrey used the best collections of soldiers’ letters, diaries, and published primary materials in order to really have a first-hand depiction of a common soldier’s experiences in the Mexican-American War. To support his thesis he explains why soldiers joined the war in the first place which he found through their letters and diaries. One of them was the “desire for personal glory” (McCaffrey, Page 31) and “adventure in a foreign land” (McCaffrey, Page 31) which overweighed the ideas of their chances of getting hurt and sacrifices some of them would have to make for their country. Another reason was some of the soldiers’ need to “avenge the deaths of the men killed during the Texas Revolution” (McCaffrey, page 31), they wanted revenge on Mexicans for the American men they killed and that drove them to join the army. The Mexican War had many positive aspects to it that overshadowed all of the negative aspects of it that the soldiers put behind them to just focus on the positive. They would be able