“Now I propose to try to show, that the whole of this [Mexican-American War]  — issue and evidence — is, from beginning to end, the sheerest deception. “ 

       —Congressman Abraham Lincoln (1848)  

The Rogers Houses on Monterey Square 

The Rogers Houses on Monterey Square was designed by architect John S. Norris, who was Savannah’s most prolific designer of beautiful homes and stylish buildings during the antebellum period. 

Other buildings in Savannah still standing that Norris designed include: The Andrew Low House, The United States Customs House, The Joseph Fay House, The Massie School House, The Green-Meldrim House, the Unitarian Meeting House, as well as the fabulous Mercer-Williams House, among others. 

Antebellum is the Latin word that means ‘before the war.’ In this case, of course, the war referred to is the bloody American Civil War. So, the ‘antebellum period’ in American history generally runs from the end of the War of 1812 through the beginning of the most uncivil of American wars in 1861. 

The Rogers duplex was built in 1858 in the Greek Revival style for the family of Reverend Charles Rogers, a Presbyterian minister, just before the outbreak of the American Civil War and located at 423-425 Bull Street next door to the Mercer-Williams House. The cast-iron porticoes and the covered balconies are among its more unusual design details. 

Naturally, the period between the War of 1812 and the Civil War was not a peaceful time in American history. Foremost was the Texas Declaration of Independence, immediately followed by the fall of the Alamo, and finally Sam Houston’s defeat of the Mexican army at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836.  

An independent Texas was born and another war would soon follow. 

The United States immediately recognized the independence of Texas. What followed was a tense decade-long period that came to its head on March 1, 1845 when President John Tyler signed the resolution for the U.S. annexation of Texas. The next year, Mexico declared war upon the United States, which was opposed by a (then) largely unknown Illinois congressman who boldly said of the current President James K. Polk: “As I have said before, he knows not where he is. He is a bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man.” 

Well…the Manifest Destiny of President Polk would have its way. Soon enough the Battle of Monterey would be fought, and eventually the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo would be signed; settling the Mexican-American War, and adding 525,000 square miles to the U.S. territories that would later become the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. 

The dedication of Monterey Square in 1851 would commemorate (future President) Zachary Taylor’s 1846 victory at Monterey, Mexico; aided by several ‘Irish Jasper Greens’ militiamen from Savannah. 

The Antebellum Period came to its end with the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. That former unknown Congressman, now a leader in the six-year-old Republican Party, would go on to lead, from the typical Savannahian’s perspective back then, that terrible ‘War of Northern Aggression.’ And in the city of Savannah, a meaningful residue of that important period in American history continues to reside.