This document describes and analyzes alternatives for the management and use of Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site, in order to assess the impacts of implementing each alternative, and to provide the public with an opportunity to comment.

"One need not be schooled in military history or archaeology to benefit from this research, for the authors do an excellent job of maintaining the interest of [both] the scholarly reader and anyone new to these subjects."--Journal of the West

Winner, Clotilde P. Garcia Tejano Book Prize The opening campaign of the US-Mexican War transformed the map of each nation and shaped the course of conflict. Armed with a broad range of Mexican military documents and previously unknown US sources, Douglas Murphy provides the first balanced view of early battles such as Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. He reassesses previously covered territory and also poses new questions. Why did Mexico establish its defenses south of the Rio Grande while claiming territory north of the river? What was Mexico’s strategy in the campaign against the United States? What factors most affected Mexico’s defeat? In confronting these questions, Murphy shows that the campaign was a complex chess match with undercurrents of political intrigue, economic motivations, and personal animosities as much as military action. Two Armies on the Rio Grande will transform our understanding of the US-Mexican War.