without waiting for the left, ordered his cavalry, supported by the grenadiers, to charge. The left column soon came up, and the independents, abandoning their first line and the artillery there placed, retreated to the second. The fight here became very hot; the dragoons of Mexico were forced to give way, and their lieutenant-colonel, Moran, had his horse killed under him. Manuel Flon, a son of the conde de la Cadena, who commanded a squadron of Puebla cavalry, met with a like adventure. Whilst this was going on, mules, men, and women were all making their escape with as much tobacco as they could carry, all taking the side road toward Tehuacan. Morelos and his soldiers were finally forced to do likewise. The scattered revolutionists came together again by previous appointment at the town of Chapulco, on the way to Tehuacan. Galeana, whose horse was killed, escaped capture by hiding himself in the hollow trunk of an old cork tree. Águila reported him among the killed, and Morelos had also given him up as lost till he reappeared the next day.[1]
Morelos remained in Tehuacan only seven days. With 2,500 men from Izúcar under Matamoros, 2,000 from the Mizteca under Miguel and Victor Bravo, and 500 collected at Chapulco, he had about 5,000 soldiers, with whom, and 40 pieces of artillery of various calibre, he started for Oajaca,[2] making slow
- ↑ Aguila's report of Nov. 5th from Orizaba, in Gaz. de Mex., 1812, iii. 1186, 1211-15. This account, Alaman says, was corroborated later by Benigno Bustamante, who in this action was Águila's aid. Hist. Méj., iii. 312-16. According to Morelos' declaration at his trial, he then had only 800 men, and lost 40 of them, together with four or five cannon, besides some ammunition, a few muskets, etc. Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., ii. 184-6; Id., Elogio Morelos, 13-15; Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., vi. 26. The royalist force was much larger, and had seven killed and 25 wounded. Águila said Morelos was completely routed; and it was even rumored that he had been wounded and Arroyo killed. But the result was really unimportant; Morelos got together the next day 500 of his scattered men and returned to Tehuacan in good order, having saved nearly all his muskets, a matter of no small importance to him. Águila went to Orizaba, whence he sent some assistance to Andrade, who was greatly beset by the insurgents at Córdoba.
- ↑ He kept the utmost secrecy respecting his destination. There were various surmises, and he aided to keep up the doubt with a letter of Nov. 1st from Cuicatlan to the cura Sanchez, left in Tehuacan with a small number of men, saying that the great heat and scarcity of provisions compelled him to go
