The Mexican-American War was the US's first major foreign war and the most important campaign in that conflict was General Winfield Scott's 1847 effort to seize Mexico City. Vastly outnumbered, and carried out with less than 10,000 soldiers, Scott's bold operation to capture the massive Mexican capital, achieved after one major siege and four major battles, has continued to fascinate both military strategists and romantics alike. Drawing on numerous and varied sources, this new and groundbreaking work highlights the autobiography of Lieutenant Raphael Semmes, who had captained the USS Somers recently shipwrecked in the Gulf of Mexico. It chronicles how this chapter of the Mexican-American War captured imaginations at home and in Mexico, and how a small but disciplined force persevered against all odds to divide and subdue a formidable enemy, and in doing so, shape the destiny of a continent.