vices in the plains of Apam, had meantime been made colonel, and afterward appointed military commander of the province of Puebla.[1]
The assault was sustained with great vigor for five hours, but the royalists could make no impression upon the plaza, the entrances to which were closed by barricades. Soto, mortally wounded, at last gave orders to retreat, delegating the command to Captain Mariano Ortiz. The retreat was equally disastrous. Ortiz was killed at the head of his men while endeavoring to repulse the pursuing revolutionists, and the remnant of the division, amounting to less than two hundred men, entered Puebla on the 19th, the rest being killed, captured, or dispersed.[2]
Puebla now lay almost at the mercy of Morelos, dependent as it was for its defence only upon the disspirited remnant of Soto's force. But he chose rather to sweep clean the territory as he advanced, and leave no hostile force in his rear. He therefore proceeded to Cuautla, and entered it without resistance on the 25th of December, the comandante Garcilaso having fled at his approach. From Cuautla Morelos continued his triumphal march to Tasco in order to unite with Galeana, who had been equally successful in his expedition against that town, which he took after a vigorous defence maintained by the comandante Mariano García Rios. Rios, after sustaining himself for two days, capitulated on the condition that the lives of himself and his troops should be spared, but Morelos, on his arrival on the 31st, pronounced the capitulation null, on the ground that Rios had continued firing after it had been concluded, and he, with fif-
- ↑ Gaz. de Mex., 1811, ii. 1056, 1214.
- ↑ Soto died the same day and was buried on the 20th, in the cathedral at Puebla. His attack on Izúcar was regarded as rash by the government. See the report of the alférez de navio, Pedro Micheo, who brought off the defeated troops, in Gaz. de Mex., 1811, ii. 1209-14; also, Cavo, Tres Siglos, iii. 382-3; Alaman, Hist. Mex., ii. 431-4. From a fragment of a communication of the viceroy, dated december 20, 1811, it appears that on the 18th the royalists collected at Atlixco to the number of 150 only, Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., iii. 436. About 70 prisoners were taken, nearly all of whom were set at liberty. Id., vi. 22.
