President James K. Polk Gears Up For War in Mexico, Appointing a Man Who Would Fight at Vera Cruz and Was Later a Heroic General in the Civil War: Washington Lafayette Elliott

Washington Lafayette Elliott was born on March 31, 1825, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was a son of U.S. Navy Commodore Jesse Elliott. Washington accompanied his father on some voyages. After attending Dickinson College, he entered the United States Military Academy on July 1, 1841.

Congress declared war on Mexico on May 13, 1846, and it was clear that the U.S. peacetime military was inadequate to the task of fighting an international war. So in June, Congress passed an act providing for the organization of volunteer forces. On June 26, Polk began making appointments for these forces.

Elliott left his then field of medicine in to answer that first call.  He was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1846 for the Mexican–American War.

Document signed as President, large folio on vellum, with an eagle above, and flags, cannon and military accoutrements below, Washington, June 26, 1846, naming Elliott "2nd Lieutenant in the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen."

Elliott fought at Vera Cruz and was appointed full lieutenant in July 1847. He then served at Fort Laramie on the Oregon Trail in Wyoming (1849-1851) and in Texas (1852-1856), receiving a promotion to captain in 1854. He also held assignments in New Mexico during the five years preceding the Civil War, gaining ample experience as a frontier soldier in skirmishes against the Comanche and Navajo tribes.

During the Civil War, Elliott distinguished himself at Wilson's Creek in Missouri and was appointed colonel in command of the Second Iowa Cavalry in September 1861. In November, he was promoted to the permanent rank of major and was assigned to the 1st U.S. Cavalry Regiment. Elliott was then given command of a brigade in the Army of Tennessee and won a brevet for gallantry in the capture of Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River. During the spring of 1862, he distinguished himself again in a long cavalry raid into Mississippi, the first such Union action of the war. In this raid, Elliott led a brigade of Iowa and Michigan cavalry against the communications of the Mississippi and Ohio Railway.
Elliott was promoted to brevet brigadier general in June 1862, and his efforts as a Union commander were unceasing for the remainder of the conflict. He was wounded at Second Bull Run while serving as division commander in the Armies of the Potomac and the Cumberland, in which he became chief of cavalry. Elliott also participated in the march on Atlanta and fought at the Battle of Nashville. By that time, he was a major general of volunteers and a brevet regular army brigadier general. At the end of the war, Elliott was breveted as a regular major general and received permanent promotion to lieutenant colonel of cavalry in August 1866. He then returned to duty in the western territories. Elliott served in Oregon and California toward the end of his military career and was promoted to full colonel in April 1878.