Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/488

 

arrival of General Pierce with reënforcements enabled Scott to begin the long-meditated march upon the capital. The rarefied air of the table-land affected the men severely, and combined with climatic fevers, dysentery, and other causes to swell the sick-list at Puebla. The care of these as well as the city itself devolved upon Colonel Childs, with a few hundred men. This deduction made, left at the disposal of Scott about 11,200 men, with which force he set out from Puebla between the 7th and 10th of August, en echelon, leaving one short day's march between each of the four divisions, under Worth, Twiggs, Pillow, and Quitman, respectively.

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