Set-backs for Mexican Independence

The war was prosecuted against the Independents with vigor and with circumstances of the most barbarous and refined cruelty.

Continuing Mexican Independence,
our selection from Notes on Mexico by Joel R. Poinsett published in 1822. The selection is presented in six easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Mexican Independence.

Time: 1815
Place: Mexico

In the meantime the Royalists, under General Cruz, defeated the Independents at Zamora, and recovered possession of Valladolid, whose inhabitants were treated with great barbarity.

Hidalgo continued his retreat until he reached Guadalajara, when he drew up his army in an advantageous position at the Puente de Calderon, eleven leagues from the city of Guadalajara, and waited the attack of Calleja. Here an obstinate battle was fought on January 17, 1811, which ended in the total defeat and dispersion of the Independents. After remaining a short time at Zacatecas, Hidalgo retreated to San Luis Potosi, intending to retire to Texas and there reorganize his army. He was closely followed by Calleja and by a division of Spanish troops under the command of Ochoa, to intercept Hidalgo’s retreat, and, thus hemmed in on all sides, he was betrayed by Bustamante, one of his own officers, and made prisoner with all his staff. They were suddenly attacked at Acatita de Bajan on March 21, 1811, and, being taken by surprise, were easily vanquished. Fifty of his officers were executed on the field of battle. Hidalgo and Allende, with eight or ten others, were removed to Chihuahua, where, after the form of a trial, Hidalgo was shot on June 20, 1811, having been deprived of his priest’s orders previous to his execution. Allende and the other officers were executed on June 20th. The death of Hidalgo did not check the progress of the revolution in other parts of the kingdom.

Rayon, a lawyer of great influence, formed a junta at Zitaquaro and endeavored to introduce some order and subordination among the Independents. Calleja, to whose activity and courage the suppression of this formidable revolt is attributed, marched against the forces collected at Zitaquaro, and after an engagement which lasted three hours succeeded in driving the parties from all their posts and in taking this important place. By a solemn decree the property of the inhabitants of this town was confiscated and the town itself razed to the ground.

Notwithstanding these losses, the Independents continued to carry on a desultory warfare. The Junta took refuge in Zultepec, and Morelos, a priest, organized a large force, and was victorious in several actions fought in the south against the Royalists. Calleja marched against him, and at length succeeded in driving him from Quautla-Amilpa, a town which had been strongly fortified by Morelos. Compelled to evacuate this place, by famine, the Independents were harassed in their retreat by Calleja, who says, in his dispatches to the Viceroy, that “an ex tent of seven leagues was covered with the dead bodies of the enemy.” The principal sufferers were the unarmed inhabitants of the town, who, warned by the fate of Zitaquaro, were eager to escape from the persecutions and cruelties of the bloodthirsty Calleja.

Such was the spirit of the people that Morelos was soon able to act again offensively. He successively captured the towns of Chilapa, Tehuacan, Orizaba, and Oaxaca, and shortly after Acapulco fell into his power. Guerillas of the Independents under Guadalupe Victoria (an assumed name) extended to the country between Xalapa and Vera Cruz, and occupied all the strongholds there. Don Manuel Teran had a respectable force in the Province of Puebla. Ossourno, with another division, was spreading terror and confusion in the Province of Mexico, while a Doctor Coss, a priest, with Rayon, Bustamante, Liceaga, and other brave officers, occupied a great part of the provinces of Guanajuato, Valladolid, Zacatecas, and New Galicia.

Morelos at this period convened a congress, composed of forty members, which assembled at Apatzinjan, in the Province of Valladolid. A constitution was framed and accepted by the provinces in possession of the Independents, and they shortly after made proposals to suspend hostilities and to enter into a treaty with the Royalists, which were rejected with scorn and insult.

Calleja was appointed viceroy, with the title of Conde de Calderon, and the war was prosecuted against the Independents with vigor and with circumstances of the most barbarous and refined cruelty.

Morelos soon found that by delegating the authority to a congress at this critical period he had very much augmented the difficulties of his situation. No sooner did he or his officers form any military plan, than its merits became a matter of discussion in Congress, and all confidence between the military and civil authorities was destroyed.

Morelos made an unsuccessful attack on Valladolid, and in the retreat, Matamoros, a priest, who had throughout this con test displayed great valor and considerable military talent, was defeated and fell into the hands of the Royalists. Offers and menaces were resorted to by Morelos, to save the life of this officer, but in vain — he was degraded and shot.

Compelled to evacuate the Province of Valladolid, Morelos resolved to transfer his headquarters to the city of Tehuacan, in the Province of Puebla, where Teran had a respectable division. The Congress, together with the most respectable inhabitants of that part of the country, determined to accompany the Independent forces; and the expedition of Morelos is said rather to have resembled the emigration of a vast body of people than the march of an army. The Royalists hovered about this crowd without at tacking it, until, learning that Morelos had separated himself from the main body of his army, and with a small division of cavalry lay at a place called Tepecuacuilco, they attacked him on November 5, 1815. After a short combat his troops were defeated and he himself taken prisoner. He was conducted to Mexico, degraded and shot on December 22, 1815, at San Cristobal, in the neighborhood of the capital.

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