Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/318

272 steep ridge, and then dipping down between the overhanging banks on the opposite side, it inclines again towards the river, and enters the Pass of Cerro Gordo. As it approaches the defile it is flanked, on the left, by three hills, nearly parallel to each other and to the road, jutting out in the shape of a fan from the same terrace in the rear, and separated by deep ravines, from one to two hundred yards in width. The southernmost ridge is situated just above the deep and impassable gorge through which the river flows. These hills, which command the road, and the defiles leading to the high ground in their rear, formed the right and front of the Mexican position. Intrenchments were thrown up on their eastern extremities, and seventeen pieces of cannon distributed among the different works. In addition to the advanced breastwork on the crest of the central bluff, which was partially masked by brush and a stone wall, there was a redoubt in the rear, with three or four guns, and still further to the rear and left, on a retired line, was an intrenched battery of two guns. The intervals and slopes on the east of this line of intrenchments were for the most part thickly wooded, or covered with underbrush.

Something more than half a mile higher up, on the right of the road, and at a point where it approaches to within eighty or a hundred yards of the river, was a strong battery of six large brass guns, which completely enfiladed the defile. Just beyond this, and a little further to the north, rose the key of the whole position, the main height of Cerro Gordo, towering far above the surrounding hills, and commanding the advanced batteries, and the road, "on a single declination, like a glacis, for nearly a mile." Around the hill, about sixty yards from its foot, was a breastwork of stone for