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422 as lost, and the viceroy hastened to send Clavarino the Guanajuato battalion to render that place and Pachuca secure. With this force Clavarino extended his operations to the plains of Apam, dislodged the insurgents from Calpulalpan, and defeated them at Irolo on the 24th of June. These advantages were counterbalanced by the defeat of Samaniego at Zacatlan, where he ran great risk of being completely undone. The insurgents were beaten in several other petty encounters; yet in the latter part of September, notwithstanding the loss of Pachuca, they were masters of the plains of Apam, and Osorno held Zacatlan, whence his soldiers overran the country in various directions.

Now, more than ever before, perhaps, this revolution, begun at Dolores by Hidalgo and Allende, and continued by Morelos, Rayon, and others, was assuming the form of a continual succession of minor battles and skirmishes. There was a fight in one province or another almost every day, and often in several provinces at the same time. As long as the revolutionists could not or would not concentrate, the royalists were obliged to scatter themselves through out the land. And so all over Mexico war became chronic. In Michoacan the insurrectionary forces had become greatly increased, and frequently advanced to the gates of Valladolid, committing hostilities and stopping supplies as heretofore. The royalist commander, bent on their destruction, had detached several bodies of troops from the garrison to pursue them. Two of these detachments were commanded respectively by Manuel de la Concha and Juan Pesquera. Concha on the 17th of April occupied Cocupao, capturing there Father Vicente Ochoa, a mariscal de campo, whom he took to Valladolid. He also found in the place Colonel Caballero and fifteen other insurgents,