Patterson, and Worth.  The importance of escaping the vomito was so great that as soon as transportation enough could be got together to move a division the advance was commenced.  On the 8th of April, Twiggs’s division started for Jalapa.  He was followed very soon by Patterson, with his division.  General Worth was to bring up the rear with his command as soon as transportation enough was assembled to carry six days’ rations for his troops with the necessary ammunition and camp and garrison equipage.  It was the 13th of April before this division left Vera Cruz.

The leading division ran against the enemy at Cerro Gordo, some fifty miles west, on the road to Jalapa, and went into camp at Plan del Rio, about three miles from the fortifications.  General Patterson reached Plan del Rio with his division soon after Twiggs arrived.  The two were then secure against an attack from Santa Anna, who commanded the Mexican forces.  At all events they confronted the enemy without reinforcements and without molestation, until the 18th of April.  General Scott had remained at Vera Cruz to hasten preparations for the field; but on the 12th, learning the situation at the front, he hastened on to take personal supervision.  He at once commenced his preparations for the capture of the position held by Santa Anna and of the troops holding it.

Cerro Gordo is one of the higher spurs of the mountains some twelve to fifteen miles east of Jalapa, and Santa Anna had selected this point as the easiest to defend against an invading army.  The road, said to have been built by Cortez, zigzags around the mountain-side and was defended at every turn by artillery.  On either side were deep chasms or mountain walls.  A direct attack along the road was an impossibility.  A flank movement seemed equally impossible.  After the arrival of the commanding-general upon the scene, reconnoissances were sent out to find, or to make, a road by which the rear of the enemy’s works might be reached without a front attack.  These reconnoissances were made under the supervision of Captain Robert E. Lee, assisted by Lieutenants P. G. T. Beauregard, Isaac I. Stevens, Z. B. Tower, G. W. Smith, George B. McClellan, and J. G. Foster, of the corps of engineers, all officers who attained rank and fame, on one side or the other, in the great conflict for the preservation of the unity of the nation.  The reconnoissance was completed, and the labor of cutting out and making roads by the flank of the enemy was effected by the 17th of the month.  This was accomplished without the knowledge of Santa Anna or his army, and over ground where he supposed it impossible.  On the same day General Scott issued his order for the attack on the 18th.