Then, marching inland as Cortez had done
more than three centuries before, the American army, about twelve thousand
strong, soon began to ascend the mountain-slope leading from the torrid
sea-level plain to the high table-land of the old Aztec realm.
Sixty miles from Vera Cruz the American forces came to the mountain-pass
of Cerro Gordo, where Santa Anna, the president of Mexico, awaited the
invaders with an army of thirteen thousand men. The heights overhanging
the road bristled with guns, and the lofty hill of Cerro Gordo was
strongly fortified, rendering the place almost impregnable to an attack
from the direction of Vera Cruz. Scott was too able a soldier to waste the
lives of his men in such a perilous assault, and took the wiser plan of
cutting a new road along the mountain-slopes and through ravines out of
sight of the enemy, to the Jalapa road in the Mexican rear. An uphill
charge from this point gave the Americans command of all the minor hills,
leaving to the Mexicans only the height of Cerro Gordo, with its
intrenchments and the strong fortress on its summit.
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