376 



PEROTE AND PUEBLA YIELD SANTA ANNA 



which places were abandoned by the Mexicans without firing a gun. 

 General Worth took possession of Perote on the 22d of April, and 

 received from Colonel Velasquez, who had been left in charge of the 

 fortress or castle of San Carlos de Perote by his retreating country- 

 men, 54 guns and mortars of iron and bronze, 11,065 cannon balls, 

 14,300 bombs and hand grenades, and 500 muskets. On capturing 

 the post he learned that the rout at Cerro Gordo had been complete. 

 Three thousand cavalry passed the strong hold of Perote in deplora- 

 ble plight, while not more than two thousand disarmed and famish- 

 ing infantry had returned towards their homes in the central regions 

 of Mexico. From Perote Worth advanced towards Puebla on the 

 direct road to the capital. 



Thus was Mexico again reduced to extreme distress by the loss 

 of two important battles, the destruction of her third army raised 

 for this war, and the capture of her most valuable artillery and mu- 

 nitions. But the national spirit of resistance was not subdued. If 

 the government could no longer restrain the invaders by organized 

 armies, it resolved to imitate the example of the mother country 

 during Napoleon's invasion, and to rouse the people to the forma- 

 tion of guerilla bands under daring and reckless officers. Bold as 

 was this effort of patriotic despair, and cruelly successful as it subse- 

 quently proved against individuals or detached parties of the Ameri- 

 cans, it could effect nothing material against the great body of the 

 consolidated army. Meanwhile the master spirit of the nation — 

 Santa Anna — had not been idle in the midst of his disheartening 

 reverses. In little more than two weeks, he gathered nearly three 

 thousand men from the fragments of his broken army, and marched 

 to Puebla, where he received notice of Worth's advance from Pe- 

 rote. Sallying forth immediately with his force, he attacked the 

 American general at Amozoque, but, finding himself unable to 

 check his career, returned with a loss of nearly ninety killed and 

 wounded. On the 22d of May, Puebla yielded submissively to 

 General Worth, and Santa Anna retreated in the direction of the 

 national capital, halting at San Martin Tesmalucan, and again at 

 Ayotla, about twenty miles from Mexico. Here he learned that the 

 city was in double fear of the immediate assault of the victorious 

 Americans and of his supposed intention to defend it within its 

 own walls, a project which the people believed would only result, in 

 the present disastrous condition of affairs, in the slaughter of its 

 citizens and ruin of their property. The commander-in-chief halted 

 therefore at Ayotla, and playing dexterously on the hopes and fears 

 of the people in a long despatch addressed to the minister of war, 



