Great Events in the History of North and South America

by Charles A. Goodrich

Mexico was, at this time, in a highly critical condition—the prevailing disaffection had reached it, and was producing its fruits of weakness and division. The forces collected for its defence were wholly inadequate to the object.

In this juncture of affairs, Hidalgo might doubtless have seized on the capital; indeed, many were anxiously awaiting his approach, as its deliverer. After an anxious night, great was the surprise the next morning, on the part of the people, when they saw the assailants retiring. The cause of Hidalgo's strange retrograde movement has never been satisfactorily ascertained.

From this period, sad reverses awaited him. When he had arrived at Aculco, on his retreat, he was attacked, on the 7th of November, by Calleja, who, with the main part of the Spanish army, had previously reached the capital. Of the royal troops, six thousand were disciplined veterans, and their imposing appearance alone was sufficient to frighten Hidalgo's Indians. These fled at the first fire; the regular troops being thus left unsupported, were unable long to stand the attack. Pursued by the royalists with great fury, the slaughter became immense; ten thousand of the independents, in the official report of Calleja, were said to have been killed, wounded, and taken prisoners. Hidalgo, having retreated to Guanaxuato, was, on the 29th of November, attacked again by Calleja, and driven from his position, with the loss of twenty-five pieces of cannon and several valuable officers.

"Hidalgo retreated to Valladolid, where he caused eighty Europeans to be beheaded, and proceeded thence to Guadalaxara; he made another triumphal entrance into that city, on the 24th of November. Here he committed another act of cold-blooded massacre, which has left a foul blot on his name. All the Europeans having been thrown into prison, Hidalgo determined to destroy them. Without trial or previous examination, they were taken out in small parties, and conducted under the veil of night to retired parts of the neighboring mountains, where between seven and eight hundred were butchered in secret. This remorseless act of barbarity, besides being wholly unjustifiable by the rules of war, was impolitic in the extreme. It prevented many respectable Creoles from joining the insurgents; and as it drove the Spaniards to despair, it furnished them at the same time with an excuse for any atrocities which they chose to commit."

Hidalgo continued to retreat towards Saltillo. By this time, his forces were reduced to about four thousand men; and arriving at Saltillo, a distance of nearly five hundred miles from the Mexican capital, he left the army, and with several officers sought the frontiers of the United States, with the intention of purchasing arms and military stores. He was destined, however, to be the victim of treachery. One of his subordinates in office had the baseness to arrest him, for the purpose of securing a pardon for himself. The leader, unsuspicious of danger when attacked, was easily overcome and taken. It was on the 21st of March, 1811, that Hidalgo and his followers were made prisoners. Many of them were executed on the field of action the next day. Hidalgo and a few others were not put to death until the 27th of July following.

Continuation of the War by the Patriot Chiefs.—The revolution had evidently taken deep hold on the minds of the people. The fate of Hidalgo did not dispirit the chiefs of the patriot cause. The prominent of these, Rayon, a lawyer, Villagran, and Morelos, a priest, now assumed the responsibility of directing the storm. The principal of these was Morelos, and to an account of his movements we confine ourselves.

From small beginnings Morelos possessed, at length, an efficient army, and was obeyed throughout nearly the entire southern coast of Mexico. On taking the field, town after town was taken, and victory succeeded to victory. His course, moreover, was marked by the humane treatment of his prisoners in every instance. Morelos had now great reason to hope for success in his noble enterprise, while the inhabitants were ready to aid him in every possible way. In this state, it was deemed necessary to oppose to him the greatest captain of the governmental forces, and Calleja was summoned to defend the capital.

Calleja, soon after his arrival at Mexico, attacked the army of Morelos at Quantla; but after a severe action, he was repulsed, and obliged to retreat, leaving five hundred dead on the field of battle. But what he could not effect by storm, he now attempted to accomplish by siege. For seventy-five days he continued to besiege Morelos, who was determined, if possible, to hold out; but all hopes of obtaining provisions being, at length, extinguished, Morelos resolved to evacuate the place, which he effected on the night of the 2d of May, 1811. Most of the inhabitants marched out with the army. When Calleja discovered the movement, he commenced a spirited attack upon them, and four thousand of the patriots were slain. It was during the events attending the siege of Quantla, that Victoria and Bravo, both young men, began to distinguish themselves in the cause of independence. Guerréro likewise, in the successful defence of a neighboring town, began his long and perilous career.

Following the affair at Quantla, Morelos engaged in numerous encounters with divisions of the enemy, and, for a time, was victorious; but he was at length taken, and doomed to execution. Just prior to his death, he uttered the following simple, but affecting prayer: 'Lord, if I have done well, thou knowest it; if ill, to thy infinite mercy I commend my soul.' He then bound a handkerchief over his eyes, gave the signal to the soldiers to fire, and met death with as much composure as he had ever shown when facing it on the field of battle.

Decline of the Revolution.—After the death of Morelos, no leader was found whose influence was sufficient to combine the efforts of the insurgents, and secure harmony among the chiefs. The cause of the revolution, therefore, declined apace. Teran, Guerréro, Rayon, Torrés, Bravo, and Victoria, commanding in different parts of the country, were mostly, in the course of two or three years, overcome, and taken prisoners. The story of Victoria is one of uncommon interest. The province of Vera Cruz was the field of his operations, and it was not until after a struggle of two years, that this formidable insurgent chief was disarmed of his power to harass the viceroy, Apadoca. He lost many of his followers in battle, others deserted him, and he was left, in the end, literally alone. No threats and no promises of preferment could induce him to offer his submission to the government. Unattended by a single friend, he sought the solitude and security of the mountains, and was lost for several years to his country.