Seth Thornton probably expected a cakewalk on April 24, 1846. He was to reconnoiter upriver while Croghan Ker took a similar patrol downriver from the site where their commander, Zachary Taylor, had planted the American flag on the north bank of the Rio Grande.
Ker found nothing.
Thornton found his way into the history books when he and his 80 men encountered a Mexican force of…
