In the region of Puebla and southern Vera Cruz the insurgent guerrillas continued their depredations, never missing an opportunity to injure the enemy. Daily encounters occurred with varied success on either side, though the trains, which were constantly attacked, generally succeeded in getting through safely.[1] In January and early in February General Nicolás Bravo long delayed a convoy on its way to Vera Cruz in charge of Olazábal, who was attacked by the revolutionists in the rear, and forced to leave the silver for a time at Perote, though he passed through to Vera Cruz with provisions without any serious loss.[2]
Having returned to Perote he started on the 1st of March from Jalapa with the silver and 4,000 mules which he conveyed safely to Vera Cruz, destroying on his way the enemy's camp at Paso Moral. On the 14th he arrived again at Jalapa with a large return train of merchandise, having reduced to ashes another camp of the revolutionists at San Bernardo, and taken the fortified town of Antigua which was also burned.[3] Bravo now proceeded to Tlalixcoyan, and thence with 400 infantry and 200 horsemen to Alvarado, then governed by the naval lieutenant Gonzalo Ulloa, the capture of which he attempted on the 30th of April, but being repulsed with twenty-five killed and many wounded, he retired to Coscomatepec.[4] A little later the naval lieutenant Juan
- ↑ The commanding officers of royalist parties invariably claimed the victory in all such encounters, none of which attained the rank of a battle. Gaz. de Mex., 1813, iv. 81-3, 93-4, 159-61, 209-11, 353-578, passim, 927-30, 983-8, 1268-70; Alaman, Hist,. Méj., iii. 443-4; Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., v. 15.
- ↑ In the fight the famous mulatto captain Zuzúnaga lost his life. Olazábal reported his casualties at 10 killed and 30 wounded. Gaz. de Mex., 1813, iv. 242-4. Mendíbil, Resum. Hist., 174, gives the absurd version that Olazábal lost 500 men out of the 1,500 with whom he attacked Bravo, who had 300 Indians and 200 horsemen.
- ↑ Olazábal thought that so prejudicial a town should not exist. Id., 306-8, 346-8; Torrente, Revol. Hist. Am., i. 433.
- ↑ Bravo's report in Mendíbil, Resúm. Hist. 178. Ulloa's report in Gaz. de Mex., 1813, iv. 648-50, 1272-5. Torrente has it that the garrison was only of 200 men, and the assailants were about 1,500. Revol. Hist. Am., i. 435.
from the enemy's bombardment, and that no man of the garrison was either killed, wounded, or even contused. Gaz. de Mex., 1813, iv. 1351-4.
