Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/227

Rh to join General. Worth with all their available forces. General Wool received the intelligence on the evening of the 17th, and in two hours his whole army was in motion. He was three nights upon the road, and his men were aroused at one o'clock in the morning to resume the march. When they arrived near Saltillo, his soldiers, who had confidently anticipated a battle, were much chagrined to find that the alarm proved to be unfounded. On the 215t of December General Wool took position with his command at Agua Nueva, a small rancho seventeen miles south of Saltillo and near the great pass through the mountains, in order to hold the approaches from San Luis in observation.

On his way to Saltillo General Taylor was informed that the position was no longer in danger. He therefore retraced his steps to the camp near Monterey, and in a few days again started for Victoria. At Montemorelos,an officer of the topographical engineers, with a squadron of cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel May, was dispatched to reconnoitre a pass through the mountains to Labradores, and thence to Linares. The reconnaissance was effected, but on the return of the party to Linares, the baggage and ten men of the rear guard were cut off in a narrow pass beyond San Pedro. Lieutenant Colonel May dismounted a portion of the squadron and repassed the defile, in the hope of rescuing his men. Occasional shots were fired upon him from the cliffs overhead, but he did not encounter the enemy.

General Quitman occupied Victoria without resistance on the 29th of December. A body of the enemy's cavalry, numbering about 1,500, and belonging to a strong division of observation stationed at Tula under General Valencia, were in the town when he