Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 1.djvu/579

550

conception of their magnitude until they were fought over in the North by the Press and the reports came back to us" (Mems., i, 99). It will be noted that Taylor pursued now the same anti-Cæsarean, anti-Napoleonic policy of teaching his troops to despise the enemy that had been followed by him before the battles of May, 1846 (chap. viii, note 9). The distance by rail from Saltillo to Agua Nueva station is eighteen miles. Rives (U.S. and Mexico, ii, 350) speaks of the buildings at Buena Vista as "laid out in regular streets"; but, as the text states, Buena Vista was only a poor farm, not a rich hacienda. A soldier, there present, called it an "insignificant, dirty little rancho."

5. El Crepusculo, May 16, 1835, said that Santa Anna triumphed over Zacatecas "with the tranquillity of the tiger, which, sated with the flesh of its prey, lies down on what it does not wish to devour." During December, 1846, very sharp 76letters were exchanged by Governor Gonzélez and Santa Anna.

6. This estimate is based upon about thirty statements, none of them official. About the middle of August Salas ordered to the north the troops that had been fighting in Jalisco. About 5500 regulars preceded or accompanied Santa Anna's journey to the north, and later he called other troops from the capital and the states. Though accounts varied, Ampudia seems to have brought nearly 6000; the Fourth Brigade, which had failed to reach Monterey, and the former garrison of Tampico were substantial additions; Guanajuato state, roused personally by Valencia, contributed more than 5000; the Jalisco regiment, which arrived at the end of October, numbered 1345 foot; the state of S. Luis Potosí did well, and other states did more or less; and an artillery company was made up from American deserters, mostly Irishmen, under the name of San Patricio (see chap. xi, note 11); but desertion — due to the inborn distaste of the masses for war, to bad treatment and to poor subsistence — was constantly unraveling the. work of accumulation.

It seems to have been a mistake to draw Ampudia's army to San Luis at so early a date. It was in no danger before the end of the armistice; it could have encouraged the people near Saltillo to act as guerillas; and it needed time to regain its morale. Besides, this backward movement had a bad effect on the other troops, and so much was said at San Luis by Ampudia's men about the prowess of the Americans, that « general order forbidding such talk had to be issued. Ampudia and a number of his officers were put on trial; but the trials were suspended, and most of the accused were exonerated in orders. Several thousand men (successively under Urrea, Valencia and Vázquez) were kept at Tula, about 125 miles northeast of San Luis. Santa Anna knew the Americans could not bring artillery via Tula, and did not fear them without it; but he looked forward to operating via Victoria against Taylor's line of communication. Another body was kept at Matehuala. Smaller forces were echeloned in the same general direction; and Miñón's brigade was thrown still farther forward as a screen, corps of observation and means of annoying the enemy. In order to prevent the Americans from learning about his operations, Santa Anna gave orders to the cavalry at his front that no one should be permitted to go to Saltillo or Monterey without a pass signed by himself.

7. ''Santa Anna's arrival, plans and operations at S. L. P.; his financial difficulties there. Amer. Eagle,'' Apr. 8. 52J. Parrott, Feb. 6. 52Black, Nov. 17, 1846. London Times, Dec. 18, 1846; Mar. 11; Apr. 20, 1847.