Description: Captain Schuyler Hamilton carried this national flag, the colors of the 1st Ohio Volunteer Infantry (O.V.I.), in the Battle of Monterrey in September 1846 during the Mexican War. It measures 65.35 by 188.11 inches (166 by 300 cm). Parts of the flag are missing. Six white, six-pointed stars remain on a blue silk canton above United States arms. Instead of the customary U.S. shield, there is a shield with a side-wheel steamboat bearing the text "Rio Grande," a rising sun, a plow, and a river. The annexation of Texas, American desire to annex New Mexico and California, and Southern politicians' hopes of expanding slavery all contributed to the Mexican War. Among Ohio Whigs in Congress, opposition to the war and the extension of slavery was strong. In the end, however, 7,000 Ohioans enlisted in the war. Many of them served under Zachary Taylor in the northern provinces of Mexico and under Winfield Scott in Mexico City. The Mexican War ended on February 2, 1848, with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which set the southern boundary of Texas and gave the United States control of New Mexico and California. Ohio battle flags were on display at the Ohio Statehouse until the 1960s, when the state formed a committee to oversee efforts to restore the fragile flags. Some of the battle flags were on display on the plaza level of the Ohio History Center from 1970 until 1989. For conservation reasons, the flags have been in storage since 1989. In the 1960s, the collection was photographed and commercial artist Robert Needham painted illustrations of many Civil War flags. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om1330_1664678_008
Subjects: Military Ohio; Mexican War; 1st Ohio Volunteer Infantry (O.V.I.); Flags
Places: Ohio; Monterrey (Mexico)
 

Description: National colors of the 4th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Text on flag reads: Mexican War 1846. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL01804
Subjects: Mexican War, 1846-1848; Ohio History--Military Ohio
 

Description: This carte de visite depicts Ambrose E. Burnside, a military officer who fought in the Mexican War and the Civil War. He was born on May 23, 1824, near Liberty, Indiana. After graduating from West Point in 1847, he served in the Mexican War. As a Union Army general in the Civil War, he conducted successful campaigns in North Carolina and East Tennessee, but suffered disastrous defeats in the Battle of Fredericksburg and the Battle of the Crater. Following the war, he served as the governor of Rhode Island from 1866 to 1868, and in the United States Senate from 1875 to 1881. Burnside died in Bristol, Rhode Island, on September 13, 1881. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04214
Subjects: Generals--United States; West Point (Military academy); Mexican War, 1846-1848; United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865; Ohio History--Military Ohio
Places: Rhode Island
 

Description: Don Carlos Buell was a military officer from Ohio who fought in the Seminole War, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. He was born on March 23, 1818, near Marietta, Ohio. After Buell graduated from West Point in 1841, he embarked upon a military career. During the Civil War, he succeeded William T. Sherman as commander of the Department of the Ohio and participated in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, and Perryville. After the war was over, he worked in the iron and coal industry and as a government pension agent. Don Carlos Buell died on November 19, 1898, in Rockport, Kentucky. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04213
Subjects: Generals--United States; West Point (Military academy); Mexican War, 1846-1848; United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865; Ohio History--Military Ohio
Places: Marietta (Ohio); Washington County (Ohio)
 

Description: Unidentified flag remnant from Mexican War. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL01805
Subjects: Flags--Ohio; Mexican War, 1846-1848
 

Description: George Wythe McCook (1821-1877) is pictured in this 4.5 by 6.25-inch (11.36 by 15.88 cm) cabinet card. George was the son of Daniel and Martha Latimer McCook and a member of the Fighting McCooks, an Ohio family that sent fifteen men to serve in the Civil War. He was a graduate of Ohio University and became the law partner of Edwin Stanton, who later served as secretary of war, in Steubenville. McCook served in both the Mexican War and the Civil War, although in the later war his poor health prevented him from much active duty. He also served as attorney general of Ohio. Daniel McCook, Sr. and his eight sons, together with his brother John McCook and his five sons fought in the Civil War. Daniel (1798-1863) and John (1806-1865) were born in Pennsylvania, and moved to Lisbon in Columbiana County, Ohio in 1826. Daniel subsequently moved to Carrollton, where he served as Carroll County's first clerk of the court of common pleas. John settled in Steubenville, where he practiced medicine. When President Lincoln made the first call for volunteers, 63-year-old Daniel Sr. answered and his sons and relatives followed. Daniel Sr., Daniel Jr., Robert Latimer, and Charles Morris McCook were killed in the war. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om1289_793691_007
Subjects: Military Ohio; Ohio Government; Mexican War; Civil War; McCook family
Places: Carrollton (Ohio); Carroll County (Ohio); Steubenville (Ohio); Jefferson County (Ohio)
 

Description: Thomas Corwin (1794-1865) was born in Kentucky and was a life long politician. He served as the fifteenth governor of Ohio from 1840 to 1842. After his time as governor he served as a US Senator, and in this capacity he was known as a great orator, eloquently expressing his opposition to the Mexican War. He also served as a minister to Mexico and Secretary of the Treasury. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04108
Subjects: Mexican War, 1846-1848; Ohio History--State and Local Government; Other--Federal Government; Governors--Ohio
Places: Lebanon (Ohio); Warren County (Ohio)
 

Description: Daguerreotype of a man wearing an officer's military coat, possibly during the era of the Mexican War, 1846-1848. The plate carries a hallmark reading "L. B. Binsse & Co. N. Y.," referring to an American plate maker in business from 1844 to 1848. The young man in the image is possibly a relative of Jesse Root Grant. This cased portrait was included in "Over Here, Over There," an exhibit that opened at the Ohio History Center on July 1, 2011. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AP1459_01
Subjects: Mexican War, 1846-1848; Portrait photography--United States--History--19th century; Military officers;
 

Description: Unidentified flag remnant from Mexican War. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL01805
Subjects: Mexican War, 1846-1848; Ohio History--Military Ohio; Flags
 

Description: Engraved portrait of Thomas Corwin (1794-1865), who served as governor of Ohio from 1840 to 1842. As an orator, he eloquently expressed his opposition to the Mexican War. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02840
Subjects: Mexican War, 1846-1848; Governors--Ohio; Politicians; Lebanon (Ohio)
Places: Ohio
 

Description: National colors of the 1st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Rectangular flag measures 166 cm high by 300 cm wide. Text on flag reads: Capt. Hamilton Flag Used at the Battle of Monteray 22nd Sept. 1846. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL01801
Subjects: Flags--Ohio; Mexican War, 1846-1848
 

Description: National colors of the 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL01803
Subjects: Flags--Ohio; Mexican War, 1846-1848