The American army was delayed long at Puebla.  Several regiments of volunteers, who had engaged only for a short term of service, demanded their discharge, and reinforcements were slow in arriving.

August 7.

It was not until the first week in August that Scott was able to move upon the capital.  The army now numbered 14,000 men.  Several hundred were sick in hospital, and 600 convalescents, together with 600 effectives, were left to garrison Puebla.  The field force was organised in four divisions:  the first, under Major-General Worth; the second, under Major-General Twiggs; the third, to which Magruder’s battery was attached, under Major-General Pillow; the fourth (volunteers and marines), under Major-General Pierce.  Four field batteries, a small brigade of dragoons, and a still smaller siege train* (* Two 24-pounders, two 8-inch howitzers, and two light pieces.  Ripley’s History of the Mexican War.) made up a total of 11,500 officers and men.  During the three months that his enemy was idle at Puebla, Santa Anna had reorganised his army; and 30,000 Mexicans, including a formidable body of cavalry, fine horsemen and well trained,* (* It is said, however, that their horses were little more than ponies, and far too light for a charge.  Semmes’ Campaign of General Scott.) and a large number of heavy batteries, were now ready to oppose the advance of the invaders.

On August 10 the American army crossed the Rio Frio Mountains, 10,000 feet above the sea, the highest point between the Atlantic and the Pacific, and as the troops descended the western slopes the valley of Mexico first broke upon their view.  There, beneath the shadow of her mighty mountains, capped with eternal snows, stood

The Imperial city, her far circling walls,
Her garden groves, and stately palaces.

There lay the broad plain of Tenochtitlan, with all its wealth of light and colour, the verdure of the forest, the warmer hues of the great corn-fields, ripening to the harvest, and the sheen and sparkle of the distant lakes.  There it lay, as it burst upon the awe-struck vision of Cortez and his companions, “bathed in the golden sunshine, stretched out as it were in slumber, in the arms of the giant hills.”

On every hand were the signs of a teeming population.  White villages and substantial haciendas glistened in the woodlands; roads broad and well-travelled crossed the level; and in the clear atmosphere of those lofty altitudes the vast size of the city was plainly visible.  The whole army of Mexico formed the garrison; hills crowned with batteries commanded the approaches, while a network of canals on either flank and a broad area of deep water enhanced the difficulties of manoeuvre.  The line of communication, far too long to be maintained by the small force at Scott’s disposal, had already been abandoned.  The army depended for subsistence on what it could purchase in the country; the sick and wounded were carried with the troops, and there