Lieutenant Grant smiled again.
“No doubt he has. I rather surmise that he thought of it at Puebla. I know he was busy gathering information. But by all reports from our spies and from the natives the route around south of Lake Chalco is very bad, with lava rocks and sharp ridges and bogs. It is so bad that the Mexicans themselves rarely use it, and General Santa Anna has paid little attention to it.”
“The same way he didn’t pay much attention to that first hill at Cerro Gordo,” said Jerry.
“Cerro Gordo ought to have taught him, but apparently it didn’t. He’s fairly good at tactics and poor at strategy. General Scott shines in both. I have an idea,” continued the lieutenant; and he suddenly asked: “Can you keep a secret, boy?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Very well. Do so. I am telling you a secret—or what may be a secret. It is quite likely that the march upon the City of Mexico will be made by the south. Captain Lee, of the engineers, has reconnoitred the trail around the lake to San Augustine and thinks it passable.”
“And we won’t have to fight, sir?”
“Oh, we’ll have fighting enough and to spare. There are defenses over on the Acapulco road, and Santa Anna will find out what we’re up to. It’s simply a question whether he’ll dare move his forces in time and leave the eastern approaches weakened. You see Tlalpam, or San Augustine? North on the road to the city there is the town of San Antonio, which probably has strong batteries; and then Churubusco, four miles from the city. After these are taken, we should have to fight a way through the interior line of defenses connected with the city walls. But at San Augustine we shall be within nine miles of the city and have the choice of several roads. Yes,” smiled the lieutenant, folding the map, “we shall be kept busy, officers, men and boys.”
The Third Division, under General Pillow, bringing the new infantry regiments and the Voltigeurs, arrived this afternoon. They all passed on through Chalco and encamped two miles south at Chimalpa. Now if the attacks were to be made from the east, then the Second Division and the Quitman Volunteers and Marines would get in first, because they already were on the main road. This put the First and Third Divisions in the rear again, which was not pleasing to them. But Jerry, hearing the talk, smiled to himself, for he thought that he and Lieutenant Grant knew different.
And thus it came about; for—