Negrete's division could now be employed in the pursuit of Albino García. Orders were brought him from Cruz by Iturbide to march at once. It was arranged that on the 15th of May at ten o'clock in the morning he should attack Albino García, covering the roads leading from Parangues and Yurira to the valley of Santiago; and that García Conde should at the same hour come upon the enemy's camp from the Celaya side, thus cutting off escape. In order not to awaken suspicion, García Conde tarried in Silao,[1] where on the 1st of May he received information from Captain Esquivel, commanding at Irapuato, that he was surrounded by numerous parties of Albino García's. Conde at once despatched Villalba with one battalion, 100 dragoons, and two cannon. The rebel chief, who had been all day assailing the town with 4,000 cavalry and seven pieces of artillery, on learning of their approach retired to the hacienda de las Animas, a league distant, whence two of his lieutenants kept up a skirmish with Villalba's force.[2] Meantime Albino García marched against Celaya, and was repulsed.[3]
- ↑ Official reports of May 11th and 16th. Gaz. de Mex., 1812, iii. 733-9, 769-71.
- ↑ Villalba, being told by Esquivel that the people of the San Jacinto rancho were friendly to the insurrection, ordered Lieut. Gutierrez to put them all to the sword, an order which he afterward modified by sparing the women and children; but as all the men but one had fled, on him alone must fall the vengeance of the realm. Alaman, Hist. Mex., iii. 188.
- ↑ The vecinos of Celaya, Irapuato, and other towns, instead of making so strenuous a resistance, would have joined the revolution if the junta soberana had been able to keep in check the guerrilla chiefs. The comandante at Irapuato, José" Ma Esquivel, was decidedly in favor of independence. In after years he was several times a member of the legislature, and once vice-governor of Guanajuato, and died as one of the justices of her supreme court. Id., iii. 189-90.
were incinerated forty days after. His house in San Pedro Piedra Gorda was razed to the ground and sown with salt. Thus we see what it was to be a patriot in those days. It must be confessed that in the city of Mexico more decency was shown. The execution took place the 23d of May, all the garrison being out under arms to see it. Gaz. de Mex., 1812, iii. 639-40; Castillo, Negrete, Mex., v. 57-63, 78; Bustamante, Cuadro Hist., i. 145; Zerecero, Rev. Mex., 185-90; Alaman, Hist. Mej., iii. 185-6; Mora, Mex. y sus Rev., iv. 439-43. At the time of his capture Torres had 400 men with him, all of whom perished, many of them being burned alive, Merino having ordered some barns in which they had sought refuge to be set on fire. Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., iv. 147-8.
