his preparations. The government had neglected to provide for the maintenance and equipment of troops. A great portion of his force was composed of raw recruits, undisciplined and unaccustomed to the use of fire-arms. The position at Cerro Gordo was without water; intrenchments had to be thrown up and the army was without the proper implements; the soldiers were hungry and there was little to eat. Nevertheless, this indefatigable leader, without money and most of the ordinary resources for military preparation, collected an army of 9,000 or 10,000 men,[1] with more than forty pieces of artillery. With laborers and implements taken from his hacienda he cut a ditch from it to Cerro Gordo, three leagues in length, supplying abundance of water, and threw up intrenchments and placed batteries on half a dozen important points. And all this was accomplished within twelve days. It is true the works were incomplete and the surrounding ground was not properly cleared, but he maintained that if he had had fifteen days more time, he would have made his position unassailable.[2] He established a depôt, making himself responsible to a merchant of Jalapa for the payment of goods delivered at it. He caused the
- ↑ It is impossible to arrive at the true number. Scott estimated it 'at 12,000 or more.' U. S. Govt Doc., Cong. 30, Ses. 1, Sen. Ex. 1, p. 204. Santa Anna, in his report from Orizaba after the battle of Cerro Gordo, says that he had little over 6,000 men, adding: 'No es pues cierto que se hubiera reunido allí una fuerza de 12 á 14,000 hombres como se ha divulgado con ligereza ó por malicia.' El Razonador, 29 Junio, 1847, p. 3. A Mexican officer writing anonymously in the same periodical — 15 Junio, 1847, p. 1 — makes the same statement. But no mention is here made of the cavalry which Santa Anna in his Apelacion, 35, puts down at 1,500. Roa Bárcena has investigated this question — Recuerdos, 196 — and taking Santa Anna's figures, makes the number 7,000. By assuming 4,000 as representing the number of the infantry which arrived from San Luis Potosí, he increases these figures to 8,000, and lastly by calculations made from Méx., Apunt. Hist. Guerra, 121, 170-83, he swells the number to 9,000. I must add that many of the soldiers who had left Vera Cruz under parole were compelled by Santa Anna to reënter service, and were distributed in the different corps. Id., 169. A writer in El Monitor, 28 Abr., 1847, says: 'No hay hoy quien ignore que el general Santa-Anna tenia en su posicion mas de diez mil hombres.' Gamboa, on page 32 of his Impugnacion al Informe del Señor General Santa-Anna, which was written in refutation of the Apelacion al Buen Criterio de los Nacionales y Estrangeros, copies this remark, and referring to Santa Anna's statements, concludes that at the least he had 8,500 men.
- ↑ 'Quince dias mas habrian bastado para mi intento.' Apelacion, 34.
