— on the right and bold foothills close on the left. Spaces of firm ground there were. At one time venerable olive trees formed an arch over the road; once the troops camped in a fine grove, and some ledgv, rocky spurs had to be crossed. But for much of the way, although the weather had been remarkably dry for the midst of the rainy season, the story, as Scott had anticipated, was "mud, mud, mud." Now and then a man would slip and sink to his waist in a bog-hole; in places the track was quite overflowed; the chilly, torrential rains of almost every afternoon increased the difficulties; and the labor of getting several miles of wagons and heavy guns along such a route was almost incredible. Besides, the troops had to be ready at all hours for attack — frontal, rear or flank. But early in the afternoon of the seventeenth Harney and Worth's advance reached San Agustín, a delightful place full of handsome gardens and orchards; and the next day the rest of the troops joined them — "ready," as a soldier put it, "for anything except a thrashing."[1]
But again, where were the Mexicans? With so many works to construct, Santa Anna could hardly be censured for leaving unfortified — especially as both an inner and an outer line were made ready against any forces using it — a route that seemed to be quite impracticable for an army train; but he might have placed upon it a few light guns and a body of skirmishers, -who could have embarrassed the Americans greatly. This, however, with his usual over-confidence and faulty judgment, he neglected to do. Yet he was not idle. On the fourteenth he knew the Americans were talking of a march to San Agustín; and though he suspected this language might be a blind, he not only sent additional forces to that quarter, but ordered Alvarez to follow Scott, should such a movement occur, and be ready to fall upon him bravely should he attack a fortified position; and when the movement actually began on the following day, though Santa Anna misinterpreted its aim, he promptly took further defensive steps on that line.[2]
One result was a slight brush between Alvarez and Twiggs after the latter moved from Chalco on the sixteenth; but Alvarez soon found so many difficulties in the road pursued by the Americans and so little food or pasturage left in their rear, that he once more abandoned his appointed field of
