| Term | Definition |
| Texas Senate | Elected for four-year terms |
| Know-Nothing Party | Tried to keep new immigrants from voting |
| Democratic Party | Favored annexation |
| Whig Party | Opposed expanding slavery to new territories |
| Texas House of Representatives | Elected for four-years terms |
| Zachary Taylor | moved his troops across the Nueces River to the Rio Grande |
| Mariano Paredes | president of Mexico during the war |
| Henry Clay | Leader who helped write the Pearce Act |
| J. Pickney Henderson | Texas governor who took a leave of absence to command Texas troops |
| Sarah Borginnis | Traveled with U. S. troops, loading cartridges and dressing wounds |
| Teamster | person who drives a team of animals |
| GTT | message left on many abandoned homes |
| Census | complete count of population |
| Descendant | offspring of an ancestor |
| Asmonean | New York newspaper that carried a letter urging European Jews to move to Texas |