from which he could see the hill surmounted with artillery and defended by a large army. Castillo then moved his camp opposite the town. During the night of June 5th he directed Enriquez with the cazadores de Lovera and the grenadiers and cazadores de Méjico and Tres Villas to ascend the hill by the Tenancingo road, while Calvillo distracted the enemy's attention by threatening to assail the town, and Aguirre feigned an attack on the Veladero, a point defended by the cura Correa. No precautions against surprise had been taken by the insurgents, and the first intimation they had of an attack was when they saw close upon their batteries Enriquez with his troops guided by Vicente Filisola at the head of the cazadores de Méjico. At the sound of the trumpets of the cazadores de Lovera, which the insurgents heard for the first time, a panic seized them, and without making the slightest resistance they turned and fled. Calvillo then occupied the town, and Aguirre captured the Veladero.[1] The insurgents sustained a heavy loss. Among the killed were colonels Camacho and Anaya. The royalist casualties were only a few wounded.
The defeat at Tenango deeply affected the friends of the revolution in the cities occupied by the viceregal government, and greatly lowered the prestige of the cause. Indeed, the members of the secret clubs had expected the forces at Tenango to march on the capital, and so end the struggle. Now all was bitter disappointment.
The victorious Castillo hastened to take advantage of the enemy's defeat, despatching next day José
- ↑ The insurgent account, not entitled to credence, says that only 500 men defended the hill and town, and that they lost barely 60 men from the 2d to the 6th. El Ilustrador Am., 1812, June 13, no. 6; Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., iv. 232. The royalists found much war material and provisions; also a quantity of printed matter, and Rayon's correspondence. The latter fled down a ravine; but the young men, among them two lawyers that left Mexico to join him and had not yet learned to run away, were taken, and together with the other prisoners were shot. Among those thus put to death was the vicar of the place, Father Tirado, who being fond of hunting had a fowling piece in his house. Bustamante, Cuadro Hist., ii. 125; Alaman, Hist. Mex., iii. 145-6; Rivera, Gob. Mex., ii. 41.
