numbers, in the time of danger and of peril. Visits of ceremony were interchanged between General Worth and the civil and ecclesiastical dignitaries of Puebla; the American troops were careful to do nothing that might provoke acts of hostility; yet, after all, their reception was "respectfully and coldly courteous, but without the slightest cordiality."[1]
Mr. Trist, the American Commissioner, and the bearer of the dispatch addressed, as we have seen, by the Secretary of State, on the 15th of April, to the Mexican Minister of Foreign Relations, joined General Scott at Jalapa, on the 14th of May. Colonel Childs was left in command of the city, with the 1st artillery and the 2nd Pennsylvania; Colonel Wynkoop was ordered to garrison the castle of Perote, where a general hospital was established, with a battalion of the 1st Pennsylvania; and on the 22nd instant General Twiggs marched for Puebla with his division, followed by General Scott, on the 23rd.[2] The dispatch brought by Mr. Trist was forwarded to the city of Mexico on the 12th day of June.
Foiled in his attempt to prevent the entrance of General Worth into Puebla, Santa Anna advanced towards Mexico, with the feeble force which he still continued to dignify with the appellation of "the army of the east." His approach was the signal for another disturbance in the capital. On the 20th of April, Con-
- ↑ Official dispatch of General Worth, May 15th, 1847. — While General Scott lay at Puebla with the main body of his army, a plan was concocted for poisoning his men. After the project was discovered, the principal part of the troops were ordered to encamp without the city.
- ↑ After leaving Jalapa, the American army became, in the language of General Scott, "a self-sustaining machine;" and drew its subsistence mainly from the country. The supplies were paid for, however, as had previously been done.
