The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 77, July 1973 - April, 1974 Page: 37
568 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Mexican War
The ships did not get as close to the castle as Sarony & Major picture.
The close-range fire came from Tattnall's steam gunboats and schooners.
The battle of Cerro Gordo, which began on April 17, 1847, offers an-
other opportunity for evaluation and comparison of the prints. Again Nebel
(fig. 29) is probably the most accurate. The mountain pass at Cerro Gordo
lies between Vera Cruz and Jalapa, on the route to Mexico City. Santa
Anna, less than a month after his defeat at the battle of Buena Vista, had
regrouped his army and picked a good defensive position. He had set his
troops in the pass, with two hills, El Telegrafo and La Atalaya, on his left
and the Rio del Plan on his right. He wanted to force Scott to attack his
strong center. The story of the battle is well known: Captain Robert E. Lee
and the West Point engineers found a bypass on the enemy's flank. General
David Twiggs conducted the advance.43
What Nebel pictures in his lithograph is the attack on the Mexican
batteries on El Tel6grafo Hill on April 18, 1847. The large hill in the back-
ground is El Tel6grafo, where Santa Anna had placed four four-pounders.
There was a small tower on top of the hill, which is not shown in the Nebel
print because it is obscured by cannon and musket smoke. The smaller hill
on the left side of the picture is La Atalaya. The columns of advancing men
ascending El Telegrafo on the right are Colonel Bennett Riley's company.
They have bypassed La Atalaya, where General Twiggs's battery is situated.
The soldiers in the foreground are part of General Worth's division that
was to support Riley. The Nebel print is apparently correct in all particu-
lars. The attack began at 7 A.M.; the lithograph even appears to be shaded
to indicate an early morning scene.
The work of other printmakers is quite a contrast to Nebel's. Sarony &
Major (fig. 30) apparently knew that the battle took place on a hill, but
did not realize that Santa Anna's defenses were much more primitive than
they showed. There was no such fortress on the location as is pictured in
the Sarony & Major print. Baillie (fig. 31) errs in that he has the Amer-
icans attacking from the wrong side of the hill. The Mexican camp was
between the river and the hill. That is probably where Santa Anna was-
not in the location that Baillie depicts. Baillie does capture the probable
good humor with which Americans reflected upon this battle, because the
victory was such a surprise to Santa Anna that he lost his carriage, cash,
papers, dinner, and wooden leg. Currier illustrates (fig. 32) close-in fight-
ing on the hill that could have occurred, but little reliable information can
43Smith, War with Mexico, II, 49-54, 349-352; Kendall, United States and Mexico,
23-25.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 77, July 1973 - April, 1974, periodical, 1973/1974; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117148/m1/55/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.