Soldiers of Conquest (28 page)

“Yes, sir, and another ten or so to the capital,” Lee added.

“We don't know if the road is passable for our wagons and heavy artillery,” Scott said. “However Colonel Duncan and Lieutenant Beauregard should return from scouting it by tomorrow and then we will have that information.”

Grant, with Worth's division, looked down from the high mountain pass upon a vast valley brim-full of dense, gray mist, under which Mexico City lay hidden. He was disappointed in the view, not at the appearance of the valley for it looked intriguingly like an immense inland sea of unfathomable depth, but rather as a military officer, he would have preferred to see Mexico City from the vantage point of this elevated location.

Worth signaled the advance and led his men down into the mist, which at an elevation of two miles was damp and cold, and toward the hidden and unknown land beneath. Three thousand feet lower, the men broke through the bottom of the mist and spread in front of them lay a broad, flat valley that reminded Grant of a giant green garden. Surrounding the valley on all sides were brown, steep-sided mountains. Under the all-encompassing shadow caused by the thick layer of over-hanging mist, only the nearer objects were distinct, the more distant ones lost in the larger features of the landscape.

After another hour of marching and with the encampments of Twiggs and Quitman in sight, a patrol of cavalry galloped up and informed the general as to where he should camp. Worth marched another three miles to a little town on the shore of a shallow lake, both lake and town named Chalco, where he ordered his caravan to halt and the men to fall out of ranks.

Grant sensed rain threatening and hurried his quartermaster wagons to an open area where his men quickly began to set up tents for their tired and muddy comrades. The commissary officer hastened up with his wagons and soon had his field kitchen erected, cooking stoves unloaded and fires burning, pots and pans rattling, and cooks and their helpers sorting though Grant's wagons for food stuffs. After this warm meal, Grant's brigade had only four days of hard bread for rations. The entire army was in the same condition, and would continue so until the quartermasters could go foraging.

*

By first light, Grant had dressed, eaten his ration, and stood smoking a cigarette and watching his brigade come to life. This was the fifth morning since he had arrived in the valley. The discovery that Santa-Anna had built a formidable defense at El Penon had caused General Scott to move Worth's, Pillow's, and Quitman's divisions twenty seven miles to the west in an attempt to find a route that would allow the Americans to flank the Mexican general. Twiggs had his division drawn up in a threatening manner before El Penon to hold Santa-Anna in place while Scott positioned the remainder of his army.

Grant saw Worth, and Major Seth Horton at the head of a platoon of his Dragoons riding toward Garland's headquarters. Knowing something was in the wind, he joined with the other junior officers and drifted toward Garland.

Worth finished his discussion with Garland and rode away, leaving behind the men that had come with him. Garland turned to his officers and spoke to one of them.

“Captain Branham, form up your company and go with Major Horton and the engineers to investigate the defenses of San Antonio.”

“Yes, sir.”

Grant started back to the camp area of his men. He stopped part way there and surveyed Branham's soldiers forming into ranks. Within three or four minutes the force of Americans was pushing north along the Acapulco Road toward San Antonio lying two miles distant.

Grant felt a powerful itch to go along. Without a conscious decision to act upon the urge, he reversed course and walked up to Garland still watching after the men marching off.

Grant saluted. “Colonel Garland, I request permission to go with Major Horton to San Antonio. I'm free for the next few hours from my duties.”

“Lieutenant, there's enough of the men if there's no fighting, and too many if they should all be killed,” Garland replied. He pivoted about and went off across the camp in the direction of the artillery company.

Grant stared after the colonel and thinking that hadn't been much of an answer to his request. Did the colonel say no? Not directly, merely saying that the number of men was large enough. Well, since he hadn't forbidden Grant going along, then he'd interpret the words as it suited him.

He saddled his horse and galloped up the Acapulco Road after the men now some half-mile away. The road ran on a raised causeway flanked by the waters of Lake Xochimilco on the right and on the left the Pedregal, an ancient lava field about five miles wide of volcanic rock and scoria broken into every possible form of jagged, sharp ridges and deep fissures. Both the lake and the Pedregal would be quite difficult for men to cross, and most certainly impassable for cavalry or artillery.

Grant overtook the Americans and worked his steed up through the marching infantry to ride beside Major Horton. Grant knew Horton from having fought beside him when both were with General Taylor on the Rio Grande, and liked the fellow.

Horton lifted his hand in greeting to Grant. “Maybe we'll get to see a little fighting after all these weeks of just drilling, or sitting on our butts,” he said with a look of anticipation.

“Yes, sir. It's bound to happen soon now.”

They marched along the causeway and a few minutes later San Antonio came into clear view ahead. From maps he had acquired in his foraging, Grant knew that the road continued straight ahead to Churubusco and onward to the capital.

Horton halted his Dragoons a few hundred yards from San Antonio, and Branham's infantry came to a stop behind them. Sitting side by side, Horton and Grant lifted their glasses. San Antonio was a great feudal hacienda lying astride the road and standing on flat land which was only a little above the water level of Lake Xochimico. It consisted of several solidly built stone buildings on about three acres of ground with everything surrounded by a strong wall made of large pieces of lava rock. The two main buildings were two stories and the remainder single story. Tall pepper trees and silver leafed poplars shaded most every building.

The hacienda had been built as a major defense to block the Acapulco Road against invaders, and as Grant studied it though his glasses, judged it had been well constructed. A large Mexican flag floated from the top of the main building. He saw enemy riflemen lining the walls and the parapets on top of the two, long main buildings. The snouts of many cannon were visible pointing along the road toward the Americans.

Smoke jetted out from the top of the walls of the hacienda as heavy artillery began to fire. The first ball struck Horton full in the chest, crushing his ribs and breaking his spine. He was lifted from the saddle, carried backward off the horse, and dropped on the ground in two pieces, the body divided just below the rib cage. More solid shot came shrieking at the Americans and another seven men fell, and as many horses.

With Horton dead, the Dragoons were without an officer. Grant spun his horse to face them and shouted to reverse course. Captain Branham yelled at his foot soldiers. The full force of Americans, the Dragoons hard on the heels of the foot soldiers, beat a hasty retreat with cannon balls bouncing along the road after them and mangling the legs of men and horses and dropping them onto the roadway. Grant knew the Mexicans had pre-aimed their guns on the road and that was responsible for so much damage being done so quickly to the Americans. If the Mexican gunners had been wiser and used exploding canisters or grapeshot instead of solid shot, they could have decimated their enemy. As for poor Horton, he had wanted a fight and a little excitement. He had found a gruesome death instead. A man should be careful what he wished for.

Branham halted the Americans when out of cannon range and ordered men to bring back the wounded and dead. The chosen men stacked their arms. One of them tied a piece of white cloth to a limb he broke from a bush growing beside the road. Then holding the flag high and hoping the Mexicans didn't fire upon them, the men went warily along the causeway. The Mexicans held their fire.

Grant along with the three engineers and the line officers raised their glasses to complete their inspection of the heavily defended hacienda. He knew that with the lava field on one side and the lake waters on the opposite, San Antonio could not be flanked. If it were to be taken, it would have to be done by frontal assault. Worse yet, with no space for cavalry to maneuver, the attack would have to be made by infantry alone, and their movement must be along a narrow, level causeway with every inch covered by Mexican artillery and musket fire. He believed the hacienda should be by-passed and another route to the city found.

The Pedregal lay in front of Lee as a contorted black sea with its waves of frozen lava cracked and shattered into sword sharp rock slabs, and crevasses twice as deep as the height of a tall man. The strong odor of volcanic ash riding on the west wind came to him. From his viewpoint the fearsome lava flow seemed impassable to man and weapons. But he must be certain of that.

Captain Branham and Lieutenant Grant had returned from probing the defenses of San Antonio and reported the strength of the fortress hacienda and the impossibility of turning it because of Lake Xochimilco and the Pedregal. Lee had requested Scott to allow him to search for a route across the southern end of the lava to the San Angel Road. If he could find a way, they could strike San Antonio by surprise from the rear.

He called out to the lieutenant commanding the escort of infantry and led slowly onto the lava. In the distance some two miles away, the volcanic hill Zacatepec rose about three hundred feet above the lava. The hill would be his first objective. From its top, he should be able to see to the far side of the lava field.

By avoiding the gaping fissures too wide to jump, and circling around the worst of the jagged mounds of rock, the men picked a way across the lava. Now and again a slab slid under a foot and threw a man, or a sharp edge tripped him and he fell. The men cursed the lava. Still Lee saw that infantrymen on foot and carrying hand weapons could navigate the Pedregal.

The lava field rose gradually to the base of Zacatepec and there Lee stopped with his escort. The hill was cone shaped, made of volcanic cinders and larger chunks of hardened lava, and quite steep. He directed the escort to wait for him, and set out to climb the hill.

The going was tortuous with the loose cinders sliding away from beneath his boots. At times he had to bend forward and make his way up by using both hands and feet. The exertion was worthwhile for as he rose higher, more and more of the lava flow came into view. He halted to catch his breath and look around.

A bullet came at Lee with a savage whine, landing with a splatter of lead against a rock by his feet. A second ball struck and glanced away with a whirring sound. Another sang by close to his ear. He ducked and scrambled to the side around the hill and out of the line of fire. Below him, his men leveled their muskets and returned the gunfire of the Mexicans who had seemed to appear magically out of the rocks a couple of hundred yards farther west.

Lee hurried to the top of the hill. He hadn't expected the presence of the Mexicans so far out on the lava. From the high point he saw them moving away west across the lava to escape the American musket fire. Some one and one-half miles farther away, the San Angel Road was in sight. To his dismay, infantry and artillery were visible moving south from the direction of the capital. Wily Santa-Anna had anticipated Scott's effort to turn San Antonio by shifting his army west and was staying one step ahead by marching part of his army to block the action.

Lee tracked the movement of men and weapons and determined the enemy was establishing a defensive position beyond the lava field on a hill between the villages of San Geronimo to the north and Contreras on the south. He checked his map and saw the name of the hill was Padierna. From what he could see, the hill stood alone and exposed and could possibly be taken. Scott must be quickly made aware of the situation and the enemy struck before they became strongly entrenched.

Lee swung his glass back to follow the Mexicans retreating before the fire of his escort, and to examine the lava they crossed. One thing was obvious, if Mexican soldiers could come so deeply into the lava and move so easily over it, then with work to fill in the crevices and flatten the lava piles, the Pedregal could be crossed not only with men but also artillery. He hurried down from the hill.

*

“Since the Mexican infantrymen can make their way over the lava from the San Angel Road to Zacatepec and we can cross from the Acapulco Road to the same hill, then we can cross the entire width of it,” Lee said in winding up his report of exploring the Pedregal and observing the hill near Contreras being fortified by the Mexicans.

Upon Lee's return to headquarters, Scott had called a council of war with the generals of his four divisions and his staff officers. Twiggs was present due to Scott having called his division to San Augustin to consolidate the army.

“I'm certain that I can build a road suitable for moving both men and artillery,” Lee added.

“Artillery?” Scott said, liking what he heard.

“Yes, sir,” Lee replied. “With enough men, I can get it built before Santa-Anna can become too strongly entrenched in his new position near Contreras.” Scott's keen military mind had immediately recognized the several possibilities that artillery meant as to how Santa-Anna could be assaulted. Lee knew Scott's tactics had been flawless so far, and on a personal basis, he liked the old general ever more as he had led the army into the mountains of the enemy.

“Then do it,” Scott said with a warrior's gleam in his eyes. “How many men do you need?”

“Five hundred added to my engineers.”

“You'll have them,” Scott said. “Now some information that I've received from Dominguez of our Mexican Spy Company that agrees with the major's findings. He has reported that Santa-Anna is moving a major part of his army to the west. And further he has brought two hundred or so of our Irish deserters with him. Catch those bastard deserters if you can.”