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As an American volunteer colonel during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), Alexander W. Doniphan played a leading role in the earliest experiences of the U.S. military government. Serving as an officer in the U.S. expedition that captured Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1846, Doniphan was ordered to write a constitution and set of laws for the New Mexico Territory. Furthermore, Doniphan had to deal with the ethnically diverse population of the conquered lands. He negotiated a treaty with the Navajo tribe in hopes of establishing peaceful relations between the tribe and the United States. Other officers, both regulars and volunteers, later performed similar duties in the captured territory of California. Comprehensive works on military government point to Doniphan's actions as helping to set the example for U.S. military governments in other captured territories after the war with Spain in 1898 and into the twentieth century. Moreover, Doniphan was also involved in an incident that served as an important example of the difficulties of nineteenth century civil-military relations during wartime. Believing that he would need privately owned supplies while his expedition operated in enemy territory, Doniphan ordered goods to be commandeered for his soldiers' use. The owner of the supplies sued for compensation and his case proceeded all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court ruled that Doniphan and his subordinates had acted improperly in confiscating the supplies, thus forcing military officers to be aware that they could not take arbitrary actions even in the face of enemy armed forces in enemy territory.