356

BATTLE OF ANGOSTURA OR BUENA VISTA.

in that quarter, they were opposed by our infantry and riflemen, who disputed successfully every inch of ground, until night closed and obliged the Mexicans to retire. General Taylor, fearing an attack from the cavalry upon Saltillo, immediately departed with a suitable escort to provide for its safety, and left General Wool to command during his absence.

After day dawn, on the 23d, Santa Anna again commenced the battle, by an attack upon the left wing, and, for a while, was withstood, until a portion of our forces, after a brave defenee, mistaking an order to retire, for an order to retreat, became suddenly panicstruck, and fled from the field. At this moment, Taylor returned from Saltillo, and found the whole left of our position broken, whilst the enemy was pouring his masses of infantry and cavalry along the base of the eastern mountains towards our rear.

Meanwhile the battery in the road had repulsed the Mexican column sent against it, and spared three of its guns for service on the upper plain. The regiment, on the right of the stream, had been brought over to the left bank with its cannons, and was now, in position with two other regiments, facing the mountains, between which and this force, was a gap, through whose opening, the Mexicans steadily advanced under a dreadful fire. Nearly all the artillery had been concentrated at the same place, while, in other parts of the field and nearer to the hacienda of Buena Vista, in the American rear, were bodies of our cavalry, engaged in conflict with the advancing foe.

As Taylor approached this disastrous scene, he met the fugitives, and speedily made his dispositions to stop the carnage. With a regiment from Mississippi, he restrained a charge of Mexican cavalry, and ordered all the artillery, save four guns, to the rear to drive back the exulting Mexicans. This manoeuvre was perfectly successful, and, so dreadfully was the enemy cut up by the new attack, that Santa Anna, availed himself of a ruse, by a flag of truce, in order to suspend the action, whilst he withdrew his men. The transfer of so large a portion of Taylor's most efficient troops to the rear of his original line, had greatly weakened his front, in the best positions, where the inequalities of ground sustained his feeble numbers. Santa Anna was not unmindful of the advantage he had gained by these untoward events, and prepared all his best reserves, which were now brought for the first time into action, for another attack. Taylor had with him three regiments and four pieces of artillery. His front was rather towards the mountain than the open pass, while his back was towards the road

MEXICAN RETREAT

along the stream.

On his right was the whole Mexican army; on his left, far off in the rear, were the troops that had repulsed and cut up the Mexican column; and the great effort, upon whose success all depended, was to bring these dispersed squadrons again into action, whilst he maintained the position against the assault of the fresh reserves. As Santa Anna advanced with his inspirited columns, he was met by regiments of infantry, which stood firm, until, overwhelmed by numbers and driven into a ravine, they were cruelly slaughtered. After the American infantry had been overcome, the last hope was in the artillery, and, with this, the Mexican advance was effectually stopped and the battle won.

The whole day had been spent in fighting, and when night came, the field was covered with dead. It was an anxious season for our battered troops, and whilst all were solicitous for the event of a contest, which it was supposed would be renewed on the morrow, the greatest efforts were not only made to inspirit the troops who had borne the brunt of two days' battle, but to bring up reinforcements of artillery and cavalry that had been stationed between Saltillo and Monterey. At day dawn, however, on the 24th, the enemy was found to have retreated.

This wonderful battle saved the north of Mexico and the valley of the Rio Grande; for Miñon and Urrea were already in our rear with regular troops and bands of rancheros, ready to cut up our flying army, and descend upon our slender garrisons. Urrea captured a valuable wagon train at Ramos, in the neighborhood of Monterey. From the 22d to the 26th of February, he continually threatened our weakened outposts, and from that period until the 7th of March inflicted severe injuries upon our trains and convoys from the gulf. In the meantime Santa Anna retreated to San Luis Potosi with the fragments of his fine army, and not long after, General Taylor retired from a field of service, in which he was no longer permitted to advance, or required except for garrison duty.

In the months of October and November, 1846, Tobasco and Tampico had yielded to our navy; the former after a severe attack conducted by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, and the latter without bloodshed.

CHAPTER XI.

1846-1847.

SANTA ANNA'S RETURN

CHANGES HIS

EXECUTIVE.

PRINCIPLES.

CONSTITUTION OF 1824 RESTORED

SALAS

PAREDES.

— PLANS OF SALAS AND SANTA ANNA -HIS LETTER TO AL

MONTE
SHIP

HIS VIEWS OF THE WAR

COMMANDS THE ARMY.

REFUSES THE DICTATORSTATE OF PARTIES IN MEXMODERADOS-SANTA ANNA AT SAN LUIS.

ICO PUROS

TROVERSY WITH THE CHURCH. POLKO REVOLUTION IN THE CAPITAL VICE PRESIDENCY SUPPRESSED-IMPORTANT DECREE.

WHEN General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna landed from the steamer Arab, after having been permitted to pass the line of our blockading fleet at Vera Cruz he was received by only a few friends. His reception was in fact not a public one, nor marked by enthusiasm.

By the revolution which overthrew Paredes, General Salas came into the exercise of the chief executive authority, and as soon as Santa Anna arrived he despatched three high officers to welcome him, among whom was Valentin Gomez Farias, a renowned leader of the federalist party, in former days a bitter foe of the exiled chief. Santa Anna, in his communications with the revolutionists from Cuba, had confessed his political mistake, in former years, in advocating the central system. "The love of provincial liberty," said he, in a letter to a friend dated in Havana on the 8th of March, 1846, "being firmly rooted in the minds of all, and the democratic principle predominating every where, nothing can be established in a solid manner in the country, which does not conform to these tendencies, nor can we without them attain either order, peace, prosperity or respectability among foreign nations. "To draw every thing to the centre, and thus to give unity of action to the republic as I at one time deemed best, is no longer possible; nay, more, I say it is dangerous; it is contrary to the object I proposed to myself in the unitarian system, because we thereby expose ourselves to the separation of the northern departments which are most clamorous for freedom of internal administration.

I therefore urge you to use all your influence to reconcile the liberals, communicating with Señor Farias and his