Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/267

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
BRIDGE OF CALDERON.
251

paratively well organized force with the rabble he had lately led, he felt confident of victory.[1] At sunset he halted at the bridge of Tololotlan, six leagues from the city, and having received fresh information of Calleja's advance, he again convoked a council, at which the same questions were discussed with the same result. Proceeding on the following morning, he occupied the bridge of Calderon, and took up a strong position commanding the approach to Guadalajara. On a steep height on the left side of the river a battery of sixty-seven guns was planted. This position

Battle-Field Of The Bridge Of Calderon.[2]

was almost inaccessible in front, was protected in the rear by a deep barranca, and nearly surrounded the open ground on which Calleja would have to advance his troops. Flanking this main battery, minor ones

  1. 'Repitió muchas veces que iba a almorzar en el puente de Calderon, a comer en Queretaro, y a cenar en Mexico.' Cavillo Sermon, 136. Negrete in making mention of this boast remarks: 'Creo que esto no pasa de una vulgaridad.' Mex. Sig. XIX., iii. 4. See also Calleja, in Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., ii. 300. This bridge is over a small affluent of the rio Grande de Lerma, about five leagues to the north-east of the bridge of Tololotlan.
  2. This plan is taken from the work of Torrente, who copied it from a draft which was in the war department at Madrid. Bustamante reproduced it in his Cuad. Hist., i. 188-9. Alaman, Hist. Mej., ii. 584.