A border skirmish on the Rio Grande sparked the beginning of the Mexican War. It was the first armed conflict that the United States fought on foreign soil. It was the intention of President James Polk to extend the borders of the United States to the Pacific Ocean and at the conclusion of the war, the new territories of the United States included nearly all of present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.
A career soldier, Hamilton Hopkins, re-enlisted in October 1843 in Company E 3rd Artillery. We know he was 27 years old at the time of his re-enlistment, that he had blue eyes and brown hair and that he was an artificer or skilled mechanic. Although he was born in Warren, there is no record of his birth or his parents’ names.