Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/813

Rh arrival of provisions in Mexico, and his friends became very enthusiastic, not being willing as yet to believe that their chief's star was on the wane. But partial successes could not prevent the steady approach of Gonzalez Ortega's army of about 9,000 or 10,000 men, with 44 pieces of artillery, which left Querétaro on the 10th of December, and was to be further reënforced from Morelia and elsewhere. Miramon, with the double object of saving the capital from the effects of a siege and assault, and of defeating the enemy before the concentration of all his forces, started from Mexico on the 20th of December, at the head of his best troops, 8,000 strong, with thirty pieces of artillery, the brigades being respectively commanded by Marquez, Velez, Negrete, Ayesteran, Cobos, and others. On the morning of the 22d he was between Arroyozarco and San Francisco Soyaniquilpan, establishing his lines, and trying unsuccessfully to cut off the liberal left wing. The fight began at eight o'clock in the morning on the heights of San Miguel Calpulalpan, and had terminated at ten, and with it the reaction and the three years' war.

Ortega's army was 16,000 strong, Miramon's about one half that number The latter made so vigorous an attack that it dislodged the Juaristas from many positions. The combatants gained or lost ground only foot by foot. Ortega steadily reënforced weak positions. Mariano Miramon, the general's brother, charged with the cavalry, but a number of his men went over to the enemy; the rest fled, running against their own infantry, and general confusion followed. Miramon's centre was then broken; the rest followed, artillery, trains, ammunition, wounded — all was abandoned. Miramon was utterly routed. He went