Battle of the Mount of Crosses
The battle of Monte de las Cruces was a military confrontation that occurred in Monte de las Cruces, near Toluca, in the municipality of Ocoyoacac, State of Mexico, on October 30, 1810, between the forces of the Insurgent Army, led by Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Ignacio Allende and Juan Aldama against the forces loyal to the Spanish Crown, commanded by Colonel Torcuato Trujillo.
After triumphing in the storming of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, on September 28 the Insurgents headed for Valladolid and later took Toluca on October 25. The Viceroy of New Spain, Francisco Xavier Venegas, ordered General Trujillo, who enjoyed great prestige for his participation in the Battle of Bailén, to lead the few royalist garrisons in the capital, and with them he would undertake an attempt to deal with the separatists. On the morning of October 30, they were caught up in a place near the capital known as Monte de las Cruces. The royalists were defeated by the more than 80,000 insurgents, who obtained much of the Spanish weapons and were one step away from taking Mexico City, but for unknown reasons, Hidalgo decided not to enter Mexico and retreat to Bajío, where the On November 7, Félix María Calleja inflicted the first insurgent defeat in the battle of Aculco, a fact that distanced Hidalgo de Allende, since the insurgent leaders took different routes; the first went to Valladolid and the second to Guanajuato.
Background
The political situation in Spain, invaded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1808, led to a series of conflicts in Mexico and other Latin American countries, which gave rise to the Spanish-American War of Independence. The Viceroyalty of New Spain experienced the political crisis in Mexico in 1808, exacerbated by the Valladolid Conspiracy and the Querétaro Conspiracy, in 1809 and 1810, respectively. On September 16, the priest of Dolores, Guanajuato, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla launched the Grito de Dolores, with which the Mexican War of Independence formally began. On September 28 they entered Guanajuato after a thunderous battle in which many combatants on both sides of the war were killed. Without any resistance, Generalissimo Hidalgo took Valladolid on October 17, from where he planned to enter Toluca and then seize the capital city. It was in this context that the battle of Monte de las Cruces took place, which many historians consider the first formal warfare between the insurgents, since the previous one, the Taking of Granaditas, is taken into account more as a riot than as a a battle.
While Venegas was trying to organize troops in the capital, the commanding general of San Luis Potosí, Félix María Calleja del Rey, left his territory at the head of 600 infantry, 2,000 horses and four artillery pieces, and met with the mayor of Puebla, Manuel de Flon in Queretaro. With the unified command of both forces, the royalist army of operations, strong with 2,000 infantry, 7,000 horses and 12 artillery pieces, marched to besiege the insurgents in Valladolid, but having news that San Juan del Río was being attacked by the Villagranes guerrillas, head off his column heading towards Spain.
Venegas, who had ungarrisoned the capital by sending a large part of his garrison to Manuel Flon's division to Querétaro, assembled a strong and select division of 2,000 men under the command of the young Torcuato Trujillo, recently promoted to colonel, as best he could. he orders to entrench himself in Toluca to resist the advance of the insurgents and prevent them from entering the Valley of Mexico at all costs. This force was made up of the infantry corps of the Tres Villas Regiment and the cavalry of the Spanish Dragoons Regiment, without artillery, with Major José Mendívil and Captains Antonio Bringas and Agustín de Iturbide as Trujillo's subordinates. Only the Urban Commerce Regiment and Fernando VII's Regiment of Distinguished Patriots remained garrisoned in the capital, corps that would never engage in combat throughout the campaign.
The insurgent advance
After failing to stop the independentistas in Ixtlahuaca, Trujillo and his division retreat to Toluca, awaiting a possible attack by Hidalgo's forces.
Thus, Trujillo left on October 28 to reconnoitre the road to the north, finding that a strong detachment that he had placed at the head of the San Bernabé bridge, over the Lerma river, had been overwhelmed by the division of Mariano Jiménez, who was advancing like a whirlwind on Toluca.
Weak and without knowing anything about the strength of the enemy that he must face, Colonel Trujillo abandoned Toluca and retired to Lerma, a town where he fortified himself, closing with ditches and trenches the road that leads from Toluca to this town, intercepting in this way the highway of Mexico City.
On October 29, however, the priest Viana warned him that the insurgents could cross the Atengo bridge, to the south, to take the road from Santiago Tianguistengo to Cuajimalpa, surround the mountains cutting off the retreat of the royalists and falling on the capital by surprise, as if arriving after a walk.
Alarmed by the news, Trujillo sends a detachment to Tianguistengo, south of Lerma, previously ordering the bridge to be destroyed. However, a strong division under the command of Mariano Jiménez had already crossed the bridge, disrupting the royalist outposts, heading for Cuajimalpa, behind the Sierra de Toluca, already in the heart of the Valley of Mexico.
While this is happening, the bulk of Hidalgo's troops draw Trujillo's attention from his front and right, along the Toluca road; Furthermore, knowing the real strength of the insurgents, the royalist colonel understood his faults, although late, and leaving guards and staggered detachments, left at the end of this day to take up positions on Monte de las Cruces, where Ignacio Allende arrived with his cavalry regiments. thirty minutes later.
Trujillo quickly executes this movement that is a complete withdrawal, almost a flight, leaving Colonel José Mendívil compromised in Lerma in command of the Tres Villas Regiment, who beats a retreat with verve and discretion towards the royalist column interned in the mountain, making heavy fire on the disorderly ranks of the insurgents, where there is no Spanish bullet that does not sow death. In his Hidalgo's book, Nueva vida del Héroe, the historian Gustavo G. Velásquez reports that on Monday, October 29, when the insurgents arrived in Tianguistenco, they continued to receive support from the militias of the surrounding people. During his stay in Tianguistenco, the priest Hidalgo received solidarity and loyalty from the towns of Texcalyacac and Calimaya. The priest Hidalgo had managed to arouse the yearning for freedom, so much so that, even if it was only with sticks and work tools, people took their orders from him. There the priest Hidalgo posted on a stone bench, harangued the troops. The insurgents advanced along four routes, one that leads through Capulhuac, Ocoyoacac and San Jerónimo Acazulco and the Salazar plains and the other that goes along the old road that goes to Capulhuac, San Miguel Almaya, Atlapulco and the plains that lead to Mexico and the other to the town of Xalatlalco and Atlapulco and Mount of Crosses. The contingent that crossed the Lerma bridge advanced to the Jajalpa hacienda.
On the night of this October 29, the two armies camped one in front of the other, the royalist chief having chosen the skirt of the hill known as Las Peñas, rocky bottom and thick forest of the narrow plateau, inept disposition of Colonel Trujillo because it was dominated on the flanks by various heights covered with oyameles, ocotes and other trees.
At dawn, Trujillo then receives a report from Viceroy Venegas:
Three hundred years of triumphs and conquests of Spanish weapons in these regions contemplate us... To overcome or die is our currency. If it is up to you to pay that price at that point, you will have the glory of having anticipated me a few hours to consummate such a pleasant holocaust: I will not be able to survive the beggar of being overcome by such vile and femented people.Francisco Xavier Venegas de Saavedra, virrey de la Nueva España
Allende's battle plan had so far been skillfully put together, and it was easy if he could, and in part did, move quickly enough to surprise or encircle the enemy. Mariano Jiménez had to continue with his flanking movement, enveloping the enemy on the left, closing his retreat in Cuajimalpa, while Allende pursued him head-on, not without falsely drawing his attention to the north. This plan was executed very imperfectly, but it was enough to win the terrible battle.
The Battle
On the morning of October 30, 1810, an advance division under the command of Abasolo sent a charge to the vanguard of the royalists to recognize the resistance force of the enemy. The insurgent irregulars maintained their advance head-on, heroically resisting three consecutive volleys from the royalist musketry, but finally the column broke down and returned to their positions. It was half past eight in the morning.
At that moment, Colonel Torcuato Trujillo received good relief. Viceroy Venegas had news of his desperate position in front of Cuajimalpa and sent him aid consisting of two four-pound artillery pieces, served by sailors under the command of Marine Artillery Lieutenant Juan Bautista de Ustoris, fifty horsemen from the haciendas of the rich Spaniard Gabriel de Yermo and three hundred and thirty well-armed mulattoes. This made the Spanish leader and his hosts take great courage, who could not resist another attack by the independents without artillery, nor could they take the offensive, since it would be running to a speedy and useless death.
For his part, General Ignacio Allende did not despair and trained his troops in battle. On the left he places five companies of the best of the Celaya Regiment, the Valladolid Provincial Regiment and the Guanajuato Volunteer Battalion; on the right, General Juan Aldama forms the Regiment of the Queen and the Dragons of Pátzcuaro; in the center, the bravest, most skilled and best armed charros, ranchers and cowboys on horseback, who left their farms to fight for independence, a compact and strong nucleus; to the rear, the fearsome Regiment of the Prince, as well as three squadrons of charros lazadores and cazadores on horseback, as a strong reserve and boost the attack.
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and Ignacio Allende divided the command of the reserve, with Juan Aldama commanding the cavalry on the right, Colonel Narciso María de La Canal the infantry on the left, and Abasolo commanding the front.
Opposite, Trujillo, already animated with his two fire hydrants and his four hundred reinforcement men, hides his cannons among the undergrowth of the forest. He launched the insurgent column at the vanguard for the charge, thundering at that moment the musketry and the shots of the Spanish artillery. The insurgent army paused for a moment, but resisted and despised the enemy bullets and advanced firmly towards the royalist trenches, running into the forces of José Mendívil and the Tres Villas Regiment and engaging in bayonet combat.
Suddenly, there was a waver on the part of the royalists. It was that to the extreme left of him, at the top of some hills, was the insurgent general Mariano Jiménez in command of three thousand Indians and a cannon, completely flanking the Spanish battle, dominating the nucleus and the reserves of Trujillo.
Then, the Spanish colonel changed the order of battle. He placed Captain Antonio Bringas on the left with Yermo's horsemen and two companies of the Tres Villas Regiment; On the right he commanded Lieutenant Agustín de Iturbide with the remaining companies of the same corps, and in the center the mulattoes of the militia and dragoons on foot of the Spain Regiment, under the command of José Mendívil.
In that instant, the fighting broke out across the entire battlefront. Trujillo unsuccessfully tries to contain Jiménez's division with his reserves, seeing one of his cannons already dismounted and Lieutenant Ustoris wounded by a shell grenade.
The attack became stronger and stronger by the insurgents, who called the Mexicans royalists, inviting them to surrender, promising them places in their ranks. However, a group of charros, armed with ropes, made their way with spears through the mass of Spanish dragoons, and reaching the other cannon that was still firing on the insurgent force, lassoing it, they took it at the head of the chair to the insurgent camp, where he was immediately served against the royalists.
In vain, Agustín de Iturbide launched himself at the head of a platoon of brave men from the Tres Villas Regiment in search of the captured cannon, as he was suddenly stopped by the infantrymen of Valladolid, engaging in serious combat with bladed weapons.
Half an hour later, the remains of Trujillo's division fled through the mountains, closely pursued by the insurgents' cavalry. The Spanish defeat was complete. Torcuato Trujillo makes his way through the enemy dragons, accompanied by Iturbide and about fifty fugitives, the rest of his grenade troops. He arrives at Cuajimalpa where he becomes strong, but rudely attacked he has to abandon this Venta and continue to Santa Fe, until the independent horsemen continued the pursuit.
Later Events
The insurgents were eager to enter Mexico City, then described by German traveler Alexander von Humboldt as "The City of Palaces." But Hidalgo decided to send Mariano Abasolo and Jiménez as emissaries on November 1 to negotiate with Venegas for the peaceful handover of the city to the rebel troops. The viceroy, far from accepting an agreement, was about to shoot the businessmen, except for the intervention of the archbishop of Mexico and former viceroy, Francisco Xavier de Lizana y Beaumont. But Hidalgo began to reflect and ordered the march of the Insurgent Army on the night of November 3, not towards the capital, but towards the Bajío, where on November 7 Calleja caught up with them in San Jerónimo Aculco, a place where they were defeated, done known as the battle of Aculco. After the defeat, a rift arose between Hidalgo and Allende, for which the priest of Dolores decided to retire to Valladolid, thus accentuating the differences and the estrangement with Allende, who even tried to poison him.
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