of the line, according to the same authority, appears to have been 5,136 of all classes. There was, moreover, a large body of irregulars besides the volunteers in Matamoros.
In view of Arista's statement that 4,000 men were reunited in Matamoros after the affair of May 9th, I consider it not unreasonable to conclude that in the battle of Resaca de la Palma at any rate the Mexican force was not less than 5,000 men.
The result of the action at Palo Alto was due to the superiority of the American artillery over that of the Mexicans,[1] and Arista's obstinacy in contending so long with that arm against the advice of his generals, his troops being exposed in line to a fire which decimated portions of them. It would seem that his jealousy of Ampudia caused him to listen to no suggestion, however sound. Moreover, he directed his guns entirely against the American batteries, while those of the enemy were trained against his men, which explains the great disparity in mortality.[2] The
- ↑ 'Nuestras piezas de mayor calibre se les tenia que dar elevacion para que alcanzaran, y las pequeñas era una ridiculeza el dispararlas.' Campaña contra Amer. del Norte, 15. The distance between the two lines was from 600 to 700 yards.
- ↑ 'The great disproportion in the loss of the two armies arose from this
37 pages, and ends at Linares in June 1846. It was published in Mexico the samė year. Ampudia expresses the same views in his manifesto already quoted, the title of which is El Ciudadano General Pedro de Ampudia Ante el Tribunal respetable de la Opinion Pública, San Luis Potosí, 1846, pp. 27. He supports his statements by copies of 15 documents signed by different military officers; among them are Arista's instructions to Ampudia, dated April 10, 1846, on the occasion of his superseding the latter. Ampudia gives a brief sketch of his own previous military career from 1834. In Bustamante, Nuevo Bernal Diaz, ii. 16-37, is found an account more violently expressed. The writer, Miguel María Fernandez, a friend of Bustamante, without mincing matters, on page 19 says of Arista: 'Hasta el último soldado distingue una infame intriga, y una alma negra en este general cobarde y picaro.' Bustamante loses no opportunity of publishing any statement, however ridiculous, derogatory to Arista. In a Boletin de Noticias, which he edited in Mexico at this time, will be found many such absurd reports, as that Arista sold cattle and provisions to the enemy, and that he had cartridges without ball manufactured for his troops. In his Nuevo Bernal Diaz del Castillo, ó sea Historia de la invasion de los Anglo-Americanos en México, Mexico, 1847, vol. i., ii., pp. 162 and 235, he supplies — ii. 21-37 — a number of documents furnished him by Ampudia, tending to prove that Arista sold cattle to the Americans, held treasonable correspondence with Taylor, and displayed personal cowardice in the battles of May 8th and 9th. With regard to the work itself, it is a disorderly collection of documentary and newspaper scraps, interspersed with squibs and the compiler's own comments.
