a large force under Lieutenant-colonel Zarzosa, to recover the villas of Córdoba and Orizaba, where the government had 60,000 bales of tobacco, but two thirds of his troops deserted to the enemy.[1] Herrera was now joined at Tepeaca by Bravo, against whom the viceroy had sent Hevia with a strong division. Here they were attacked by Hevia, and after a severe engagement, in which the loss on both sides was serious, Herrera abandoned Tepeaca, and followed by Hevia, retreated through San Andrés Chalchicomula on April 29th[2] to Orizaba and Córdoba, while Bravo went to the plains of Apam and occupied Zacatlan. Hevia, in attempting to capture Córdoba, lost his life, and the assailants, on the arrival of reënforcements to the besieged under Santa Anna, and a body of deserters from Jalapa, beat a hasty retreat to Puebla.[3] Santa Anna entered Jalapa almost without opposition on the 29th of May, thereby obtaining a valuable supply of arms and ammunition.[4]
Perote was also for a time in great danger of capture, but was relieved by Samaniego on the 11th of June, notwithstanding Santa Anna's efforts to prevent him.[5] The latter's next step was to attack Vera Cruz, the only other place in the province still held by the government. Previous to his march from Jalapa he issued a grandiloquent proclamation,[6] which, though little understood by the troops, greatly animated them.
- ↑ Hevia's last rep. in Gaz. de Mex., 1821, xii. 489-90. Among the prominent officers who joined Herrera were two sons of the conde de la Cadena, a son of the marqués de Sierra Nevada, and Lieut-col Miota.
- ↑ Herrera's report in Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., v. 192-4; Hevia 'a in Gaz. de Mex., 1821, xii. 419-25; Dicc. Univ. Hist. Geog., x. 536.
- ↑ A diary of the operations was published in Jalapa by Isassi, which was copied by Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., v. 194-9; Id., Supl. to Cavo, Tres Siglos, iv. 213-18; Castillo y Luna's Rep., in Gaz. de Mex., 1821, xii. 555-68; Mex. Bosquejo Revol., 94; Orizava, Ocurr., 149-55.
- ↑ Several cannon and upwards of 1,000 muskets. Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., v. 199-200.
- ↑ Viña's rep. in Gaz. de Mex., 1821, xii. 617, 727-30.
- ↑ Drawn up by C. M. Bustamante, who had joined him. It was a unique document, in which the idea was for the first time advanced that Mexico was the heir of the rights and grievances of Montezuma's subjects, and her soldiers were called upon to avenge the Mexican eagle, which was trampled under foot three centuries ago on the plains of Otumba. Cuad. Hist., v. 200-1.
