sight of the place, and after allowing the army of the centre two days' rest, despatched about 1,500 men—of whom a number were taken out of jail, and others from among the insurgent prisoners—under Colonel Joaquin del Castillo y Bustamante, with seven guns. Castillo tried on the 19th of May to force the pass of Lerma, and failed. The city of Lerma was situated in the middle of the lake formed by the Rio Grande, communicating with Toluca on one side and with the road to Mexico on the other by means of two narrow causeways, one of which was defended by cuts and parapets supported by artillery. Throwing a bridge over the first cut, the assailants captured the parapets, when they encountered other intrenchinents that Castillo had no knowledge of; and the consequence was a precipitate retreat with heavy loss to their en campment in the hacienda of Jajalpa.[1]
The insurgents gave this affair an undue importance, and Rayon was much censured for not taking advantage of his victory.[2] Castillo being reenforced with 400 men, two field-guns, and a howitzer, made a second attack, when Rayon abandoned the position in the night of the 22d of May, retreating with his force and artillery to the strong position of Tenango. Castillo tarried in Lerma only long enough to destroy its defences, reaching Toluca on the 26th of May. After driving away the prowling bands that kept supplies from the town, and having increased his force from the garrison, he marched against Tenango, camping on the 2d of June in the hacienda of San Agustin,
- ↑ This reverse was attributed to lack of skill on Castillo's part, his occupation prior to the war having been that of a trader. Porlier had written that the reënforcements should be sent him by another route, but his letters had been intercepted. Alaman, Hist. Mej., iii. 142-5; Mendíbil, Resúm. Hist., 121-8; El Ilustrador Americano, no. 1, in Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., iv. 174-5.
- ↑ The defenders of the pass were commanded by Juan Manuel Alcántara, a man who could neither read nor write, and who, according to Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., ii. 99, 122-8, sold to Canon Velasco for two horses the glory of having his name inserted in the newspapers of Sultepec as the hero of that action; evidently a false story that of the sale, Velasco's report to Rayon, giving Alcántara full credit for his defence of the position.
