War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's

founding right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased

its size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. host, James Early. Hello and welcome back to Key Battles of the Mexican-American War.

This is your host, James Early, as always. And I'm joined, of course, by Sean McIver, as I have been throughout this series. We're already up to the seventh episode now of eight.

So we're getting close to the end.

In fact, this is really the last war episode.

We'll do an epilogue next time, as we always do.

But let's go back.

Would you say we're at the penultimate episode?

Yes, I would say that, Sean.

That's very good.

Penultimate.

Okay.

Fancy, fancy, fancy words here.

You're such an intellectual, Sean. Okay, so let's recap.

Let's talk about what happened last time that I'm going to use small words.

So we started the whole Winfield Scott, amphibious assault and his march toward Mexico City.

We saw how he landed an army of 12,000 at Veracruz, laid siege to the city, took the city, which surrendered to him, and then he

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