permitted to take the place, Diaz would march on the capital, allowing no time to prepare the resources so much needed at Querétaro Marquez hoped by a timely defeat of this commander to bring on a most favorable change for the empire; he could then return to the capital with Noriega's troops and the war material in Puebla, raise more forces, which might be also augmented by the prisoners taken, and then, with a large train of artillery, money, and plenty of ammunition, march to the aid of Querétaro, and force the republicans to abandon the siege. The republicans looked upon this plan as the only one that could give the imperialists the victory, and were therefore anxious that Diaz should take possession of Puebla before Marquez could succor it.[1]
Marquez started on the 30th of March from Mexico, with 3,480 men[2] and 17 pieces of artillery, taking the route of the Llanos de Apam, as it afforded greater facility for manœuvring with cavalry. At the hacienda of Soltepec he received on the 2d of April the alarming news that Puebla had fallen, and that the imperialists were concentrated upon the fortified hills of Loreto and Guadalupe. On the next day the hussars were despatched to Huamantla to ascertain what had really occurred at Puebla. From that and other
- ↑ The republican general, Gonzalez, an eye-witness, said in a letter of Sept. 15, 1867, to a newspaper of Mexico, that if Diaz had been repulsed from Puebla, 'Marquez, 15 days later, could have marched on Querétaro with 14,000 men and 60 or 80 pieces of artillery,' and compelled the besieging army to beat a retreat, and break up. Marquez' right to go to Puebla in the face of Maximilian's instructions has been questioned. But even allowing that his orders were positive to return to Querétaro at once with the funds he could gather and the garrison of the capital, it is doubtful, from a military standpoint that he could leave Puebla to its fate. He had only 5,000 men. Had he attempted to go back, without affording relief to that town, it would have surrendered at once, and then Diaz, with the forces of Leyva, Cuellar, Lalanne, and others, together with Guadarrama's 4,000 men, would have annihilated him, and the fall both of Mexico and Querétaro must follow. Zamacois, Hist. Méj., xviii. 1184 7.
- ↑ His force has been variously estimated at 4,000 and 5,000, but the number given in the text is believed to be correct, as follows: infantry, 2,001; cavalry, 1,281; artillery, 198. Peza and Pradillo, Maxim., 112-4. The news received at the republican headquarters was that Marquez had marched with 1,900 picked men of infantry and 1,600 horse. In a letter from him to Noriega at Puebla, dated March 27th, he promises to go to his aid with 8,000 men of all arms. Diaz, Porf., Biog., 105, 124.
