Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 24, 2025
In this hurried and imperfect report I must not omit to say that Brigadier-General Twiggs, in passing the mountain range beyond Cerro Gordo crowned with the tower, detached from his division, as I suggested the day before, a strong force to carry that height which commanded the Jalapa road at the foot, and could not fail, if carried, to cut off the whole or any part of the enemy's forces from a retreat in any direction.
To carry it was a tremendous honor, and he was not half sure that it did not make him, for the time being, a regular member of General Scott's corps of military engineers. He hastened back to the Jalapa highway, and the first advanced post that he came to furnished him with a pony. Then he galloped on to the camps and to the general's headquarters, as if he had been undergoing no fatigue whatever.
On the 8th of April, Twiggs's division started for Jalapa. He was followed very soon by Patterson, with his division. General Worth was to bring up the rear with his command as soon as transportation enough was assembled to carry six days' rations for his troops with the necessary ammunition and camp and garrison equipage. It was the 13th of April before this division left Vera Cruz.
War is a terrible calamity at any time; but when it is carried to that foolish extent of shedding blood, it becomes an intolerable evil, and prudent men show their wisdom by running from it: at least they did so at Jalapa. Jalapa, it may be here remarked, is built on the site of an old Indian village, which was one of the first to enter into alliance with Cortéz.
Several other attacks of a similar character were made, but without success. Major Lally, with his troops and wagon train, arrived at Jalapa thirteen days out from Vera Cruz, when without interruption five days would have been sufficient for the march. Mr. Trist notified the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, August 25th, of the object of his mission, and requested a meeting.
Similar instructions were issued to Major-General Scott on the 3d of April, 1847, who replied from Jalapa on the 20th of May, 1847, that if it be expected "that the Army is to support itself by forced contributions levied upon the country we may ruin and exasperate the inhabitants and starve ourselves." The same discretion was given to him that had been to General Taylor in this respect.
The income of this convent is great, notwithstanding the community is composed of only six religios, though it might well maintain more than a score of them. The guardian of Jalapa is no less vain than the prior of Vera Cruz; but he received us with much kindness, and treated us magnificently, although we were of another order.
The green peering up every where amidst the whitened walls; the graceful form of the trees, where their outline could be traced; the curiously shaped roofs of the old stone churches, with buttresses and towers; the college of San Francisco, a curiously fashioned pile of buildings, standing out above all others; the hill behind the town, the lofty mountain of Perote, on its left flank, on whose top the sky seemed to rest all combined to give credibility to that which has been said of the beauty of Jalapa by an old Spanish author that Jalapa was "a piece of heaven let down to earth."
We do not mean to say that these places are absolutely free from yellow fever and miasmatic illness, but they are so far superior to Vera Cruz in this respect as to be considered health-resorts for the people on the shores of the Gulf. The route to Jalapa from the coast passes through the old national road by the way of Cerro Gordo.
After the battle of Cerro Gordo, our victorious troops pursued the enemy on to Jalapa, where the army halted to bring up its wounded, and prepare for an advance upon the capital of Mexico. The Jalapenos did not receive us inhospitably nor the Jalapenas either. They expected, as a matter of course, that we would sack their beautiful city.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking