Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/403

Rh with about three hundred men. The former concluded to remain temporarily at Jalapa, to recruit his com — mand, and Colonel Wynkoop returned to Perote.

The tedious march of General Worth's division, rendered far more fatiguing in consequence of the labor required to fit the road for the passage of their wagon-train and artillery, was terminated on the 17th of August, by their arrival at San Augustin, on the Acapulco road, — twenty-seven miles from Ayotla, by the route traversed by the American army, and nine miles south of the city of Mexico. Captain Blake, of the 2nd dragoons, in command of the advance guard, had a slight skirmish with the enemy's pickets, as he entered the town, in which the latter were easily routed. General Scott came up early in the morning of the 18th, and General Worth was then ordered to move along the causeway, towards San Antonio, two and a half miles further north, to make room for the other divisions to close on him. On approaching San Antonio, it was discovered that the fortifications at that point commanded the causeway and the marshes on the left, as far as Lake Xochimilco. The right was protected by a pedregal, or field of volcanic rocks, impassable for cavalry or artillery, and nearly so for infantry, extending some four or five miles westward, to the San