Explore "American Military History, Volume 1" by Richard W. Stewart on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
For the advance on Mexico City, Scott had about 10,000 men. He had none to spare to protect the road from Vera Cruz to Puebla; therefore, his decision to move forward was daring. It meant that he had abandoned his line of communications or, as he phrased it, "thrown away the scabbard." On August 7 Scott moved off with the lead division, followed at a day's march by three divisions with a three-mile-long train of white-topped supply wagons bringing up the rear. Meeting no opposition-a sign that Santa Anna had withdrawn to defend Mexico City-Scott by August 10 was at Ayolta on a high plateau fourteen miles from the city.
Pillow's Attack Advancing through the Woods of Chapultepec, James Walker, 1848