On the 18th of April this hill, several hundred feet in rugged height, was
assailed in front and rear, the Americans gallantly climbing the steep
rocks in the face of a deadly fire, carrying one barricade after another,
and at length sweeping over the ramparts of the summit fortress and
driving the defenders from their stronghold down the mountain-side. Santa
Anna took with him only eight thousand men in his hasty retreat, leaving
three thousand as prisoners in the American hands, with forty-three pieces
of bronze artillery and a large quantity of ammunition. Within a month
afterwards Scott's army marched into the city of Puebla, on the
table-land, sixty-eight miles from the capital. Here they rested for
several months, awaiting reinforcements.
On August 7 the army resumed its march, now less than eleven thousand
strong, the term of several regiments having expired and their places been
partly filled by untried men, none of whom had ever fired a gun in war. On
they went, up-hill still, passing the remains of the old city of Cholula
with its ruined Aztec pyramid, and toiling through a mountain region till
Rio Frio was reached, fifty miles from Puebla and more than ten thousand
feet above the level of the sea.
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