Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/473

Rh the front, and arrived at Plan del Rio on the 14th. He was followed by Worth with his comınand, which came up at midnight on the 16th.

The American general employed two days in reconnoitring the formidable position of the enemy. No view of the ground could be obtained from any single point, and the dispositions of Santa Anna were for the most part hidden from sight. The work, too, of reconnoitring was extremely difficult and laborious, owing to the labyrinth of deep ravines and the confusion of massive hills which extended on all sides. Nevertheless, it was successfully accomplished, and on the 17th Scott began his attack.

The highway from Vera Cruz to Jalapa, crossing the Rio del Plan at Plan del Rio, at first winds its way with a north-west trend through a séries of eminences, which, like a Titanic staircase, rise in successive altitudes. Then taking a south-westerly direction, it approaches the northern bank of the river at the base of the highest eminence, called Cerro Gordo, or the Telégrafo. The Rio del Plan flows at the bottom of a ravine between four and five hundred feet in depth. The sides of this ravine are perpendicular, and present an impassable barrier against approach from the south. On the north of the line of eminences an equally impracticable ravine extends, while beyond it the mountains rise tier upon tier. Santa Anna's dispositions were as follows: On the eminences to the south-east of Cerro Gordo, and flanking the road on the south, four batteries were planted, mounting twenty-two guns in all. At the approach of the road to the ravine, down which the Rio del Plan flows, was a battery of seven guns; on the summit of Cerro Gordo a fort had been erected, defended by four light pieces, afterward increased to six; this position dominated all the other batteries, which