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 442 was covered with the slain, the Americans losing 750 men and the Mexicans about 2,000.

With the remains of his shattered army the unfortunate Santa Anna retreated to San Luis Potosi; but though defeated he was not dispirited, and by his pompous bulletins he almost made the Mexicans believe that they had won and the Americans had lost. This was, as yet, the most decisive battle of the war; it forever crushed the power of Mexico in the northern provinces.

But though our gallant soldiers had gained a mighty victory they were not permitted to advance and occupy the country, but were compelled to remain idle, while the forces of Scott were marching on to final triumph. Santa Anna reached San Luis Potosi with but half his army remaining, and this force in a thoroughly demoralized condition. He had no time for rest, for the enemy was already at Vera Cruz, and he must turn upon a new army of the dreaded North Americans. He dispatched a portion of his troops in that direction, and hastened to the capital. There, all was strife. For a month the idiotic men in power had been wasting their energies and the energies of the nation in senseless contentions. Santa Anna calmed the tumults, and impressed the combatants with the necessity of rousing themselves to meet a foreign foe. Unprincipled and unscrupulous as was this man, Santa Anna, he was unquestionably the animating spirit of the defence. The troubles in the capital had arisen from acts of the Puros, or the advanced party, in trying to induce the church