558 



MEXICO. 



Regulcs, who, with nearly three thousand men, 

 continued to oppose the imperialists in Micho- 

 acan. Other successes of less importance were 

 gained by the imperial arms about this time. 

 The guerrilla leader, Figueroa, was routed near 

 Tehuacan ; TJgalde's band was cut to pieces in 

 Queretaro by a detachment of Zouaves ; and at 

 Alamos, in Sonora, Gen. Kosales, the most 

 prominent republican leader in the northwest, 

 was killed, with a number of his officers and 

 men. No reverses, however, seemed to intimi- 

 date the guerrilla bands ; and at the very time 

 when Arteaga experienced his defeat in Micho- 

 acan, a party of four hundred of them seized 

 the Vera Cruz Railroad at Tejeira, a few miles 

 distant from Orizaba. The trains were stopped, 

 and the passengers taken some three miles from 

 the station, where the Spanish, Mexican, Ger- 

 man, and American travellers were released, 

 while the French, civil and military, were put 

 to death after several hours of dreadful torture. 

 "It appears," says the "Journal" of Orizaba, 

 " that the French seized by the guerrillas were 

 fourteen, five officers, seven sergeants and sol- 

 diers, and two civilians. All have suffered a 

 most horrible death, preceded by some hours 

 of agony. The pen will not describe the bar- 

 barous outrages committed on these unfortu- 

 nate men, and decency imposes complete silence. 

 After suffering the fate of 'Abelard,' and re- 

 maining in this condition for some time, they 

 were riddled by stabs and then cut to pieces." 



Undeterred by the ill success of their attempt 

 upon Mataraoras in the spring, the republicans 

 organized another attack in October. On the 

 19th of that month Gen. Escobedo, recently 

 appointed by Juarez commander-in-chief in the 

 northern States, aided by Cortinas and Canales, 

 invested the town with three thousand men and 

 twelve guns. The garrison, numbering about 

 seventeen hundred, was under command of 

 Mejia, and had a great superiority in artillery. 

 On the 25th Escobedo hazarded an assault upon 

 the defences of the town, which, though suc- 

 cessful at first, was finally repulsed with loss. 

 The siege continued, however, for some time 

 longer, although every day lessened the chances 

 of capturing the place. Meanwhile intelligence 

 reached Escobedo from Col. Trevenio, com- 

 manding a republican force in the neighborhood 

 of Monterey, that the French had evacuated 

 that place, leaving in the forts only a few hun- 

 dred troops. Escobedo immediately hurried to 

 Monterey, and on November 24th took posses- 

 sion of the town. The French' troops in the 

 mean time had started on their return from Sal- 

 tillo, to which place they had marched, and the 

 advance of two hundred men reached Fort 

 Obispado, in the vicinity of Monterey, on the 

 morning of the 25th. The liberal commander, 

 hearing of this, and realizing his inability to 

 contend with the combined forces, ordered the 

 immediate evacuation of the place, which was 

 accomplished with insignificant loss, though the 

 column was pursued for a short distance by a 

 detachment of mounted Frenchmen. Escobedo 



continued his retreat to Camargo, on the Rio 

 Grande, where he arrived in the beginning of 

 December. Before this time the siege of Mata- 

 moras had been abandoned, although Cortinas 

 and his band still hovered around the outskirts 

 of the town. 



The presence of a large United States force at 

 Brownsville, opposite Matamoras, subsequent 

 to May, excited serious apprehensions in the 

 imperial commander at the latter place, as both 

 troops and officers were known to sympathize 

 with the Mexican liberal party. Naturally 

 enough, great sensitiveness was felt by both 

 liberals and imperialists with reference to an 

 observance of the neutrality laws by the United 

 States authorities on the Rio Grande ; and 

 during the siege of Matamoras, in- October and 

 November, complaints were almost daily sent 

 from both parties to Maj.-Gen. "Weitzel, com- 

 manding at Brownsville. Investigation, how- 

 ever, invariably showed that these \vere un- 

 founded, or were based upon trivial occurrences, 

 which the narrowness of the river and the long 

 line of occupation rendered it impossible to pre- 

 vent. On November 6th, the officer in com- 

 mand of the French squadron off the Rio 

 Grande sent a communication to Gen. Weitzel, 

 directly accusing him of furnishing men, stores, 

 and munitions of war to Escobedo's troops. 

 The letter was immediately returned to the 

 writer, on the ground that it was couched in 

 disrespectful language. A few days later Mejia 

 complained to Weitzel that the steamboat An- 

 tonia, on her passage up the river to Matamo- 

 ras, had been fired upon from the Texan shore, 

 to which the American general replied that 

 there was no satisfactory evidence that the fir- 

 ing had proceeded from the Texan side of the 

 river, and that he had always endeavored, as 

 far as lay in his power, to prevent any violation 

 of neutrality by officers or soldiers ot his com- 

 mand. "You complain," he said, ''that my 

 officers and men affiliate with the liberals and 

 welcome them. This is not strange. The lib- 

 erals claim that they fight for their freedom. 

 Their cause, then, is one that has awakened the 

 warmest sympathies in every American breast. 

 It would be as impossible for me to prevent 

 this, even if I felt so disposed, as it would be to 

 stop the motion of the earth. But I do not 

 feel so disposed. During our late war the offi- 

 cers and men of French and English men-of- 

 war lying in ports in our military possession, 

 affiliated continually and exclusively witli our 

 enemies (as at New Orleans and Norfolk), and 

 yet it was not thought necessary to communi- 

 cate with them on the subject. They wore 

 permitted to choose their own associates." He 

 subsequently remonstrated with Mejia against 

 the impressment of American citizens into the 

 imperial service, and not receiving a satisfac- 

 tory reply, announced, in accordance with in- 

 structions from Gen. Sheridan, commanding 

 the Military Division of the Gulf, that if such 

 outrages should be repeated, no excuses or 

 personal apologies would be accepted, lie also 



