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MILITARY SYSTEM.
officially stated that the work met with no obstacles. Men voluntarily enlisted, and wealthy persons aided with their pecuniary means.[1]
After completing the organization of the provincial regiments, the government had of these troops about 10,000 men, which, added to 5,000 of the regular force, made 15,000, of whom about 4,000 were light cavalry and dragoons, and the rest infantry. There were also three companies of artillerymen,[2] mustering about 400, the companies of negroes and colored men of Vera Cruz, one battalion of infantry, and two companies of volunteers in the same city.[3]
- ↑ The wealthy contributed not only money but gave their own and their sons' services. Gaz. Mex. (1795), vii. 7-8, 14-16, 22-4, 33-5, 66-8, 95-6, 119-20, 174-8. The marqués de Branciforte was prompted by his insatiable avarice rather than by loyalty. He sold commissions at his own prices, pretending to apply the money to the purchase of arms for the regiments, which he never did. The purchasers wanted the fuero militar, so as not to be under the jurisdiction of the common law courts. They were of little use when fighting days came. Bustamante, Medidas, MS., 57.
- ↑ The artillery corps, down to the end of the Spanish domination, consisted of a few regular and provincial companies, there being a very limited number of fortified places and some poor redoubts on the coasts and frontiers. The sub-inspection was in charge of the viceroy, and the direct command under an officer sent from Spain. The factories and everything connected with this branch of the service were finally governed by the regulation of December 10, 1807. Mex. Mem. Guerra, 1835, 10.
- ↑ Branciforte, Instruc., MS., 22-3. The following list appears in an official work: Infantry regiments: Mexico, Puebla, Tlascala, Córdoba, Orizaba, and Jalapa (the last three places forming one), Valladolid, Celaya, and Toluca; battalions of Guanajuato and Oajaca, 412 men each; militia of Tabasco, 9 companies of free colored men, and one of cavalry of Spanish volunteers, 1,018 strong; 22 companies mixed of infantry and cavalry on the Mexican Gulf coasts; 2 companies of negroes and colored men of Vera Cruz; light cavalry regiments, Santiago de Querétaro and Principe; dragoon regiments, Puebla, San Luis, San Cárlos; dragoons de la Reina; lancers of Vera Cruz; dragoons of Michoacan; cavalry on the frontier of Sierra Gorda; dragoons on the frontier of San Luis de Colotlan, being 9 companies with 720 men; cavalry on the frontier of the colony of Nuevo Santander, being 6 companies with 360 men. In Yucatan, one battalion of volunteers of Mérida, another of whites of Campeche; 2 divisions of colored sharp-shooters of Mérida and Campeche, each division with 8 companies. Colon, Juzgados Milit., ii. 527-8. In forming the urban companies of Vera Cruz it was agreed that when necessary the citizens should be armed, the ayuntamiento furnishing 500 men, and the real consulado 500 more, for whom the government provided 1,000 muskets. Azanza, Instruc., MS., 172-3; Marquina, Instruc. (1803), in Instruc. Vir., 184. Humboldt, Essai Polit., ii. 811-25; Id., Versuch, v. 30-51, 55, gives in 1804: regular force, 9,919, and militia, 22,277, adding that of the 32,196 the number of disciplined troops scarcely amounted to 8,000 or 10,000, of whom 3,000 or 4,000 had considerable military experience, namely, the cavalry stationed in Sonora, Nueva Vizcaya, and Nueva Galicia, nearly all of whom were natives of the northern provinces—tall, robust mountaineers, accustomed to all weathers and hardships. Humboldt, Tabla Estadística
