Blogger’s Note: As early as the late 1970s and early 1980s, the schools I attended in the UK were already teaching boys and girls “keyboarding-skills” in preparation for an assumed “Computer Revolution” that was just around the corner. This evolved from the practice of traditional “Dictation” – which consisted of a teacher reading-out a well-known written text – with the class tasked with “correctly” writing-down by hand (pen onto paper) what was heard. The new development of “typing” involved hours of sitting in-front of a traditional typewriter and learning to “touch-type” – without looking at the keys. This was a dramatic shift in British culture, as up until that time, the sexist attitudes of the time considered “typing” strictly a “female” occupation – linked to working as a “Secretary” in an Office. The point is that societies change – because that is what societies do. Ironically, all the leading far-right ideologues today – are confirmed keyboard warriors – who think nothing of assuming the keyboarding activity that was once considered a “female” prerogative! As for myself, I learned “London Chamber of Commerce” (LLC) and “Royal Society of Arts” (RSA) copy-typing and audio-typing skills to the Advanced level (I also, as a child, passed the Elementary “Pittman’s” copy-typing examination).
Wearing headphones, and without looking at the text, we would sit in-front of our typewriters and render into typed-script the texts that were piped through to us. This is exactly what I have had to do with the following extract – as I am “listening” to the audio-version of this book. I have rendered the following text into British English and used Oxford grammar and punctuation. This skill involves spelling, judging full-stops, paragraphs, exclamations, quotes, changes in context and shifts in emphasis, etc, and to convey the understanding implicit within the text. I have had to research Spanish names and Mexican geography. The following events hinge around the biography of Robert E Lee and unfold throughout late 1847 – in what is today the US State of Texas – but which was then an area of Mexican land lying to the East of that country. Much of the Western United States was annexed from Mexico in the Peace Settlement between the two countries in 1848. Robert E Lee was of the opinion that the US invasion of Mexico was unjust even though he (Jefferson Davis and many others) fought in it – as professional soldiers. Indeed, many who would become famous as Confederate Generals – cut their teeth in this war.
Many of my broader Irish relatives migrated to the US from Ireland during the 19th century – and are listed as joining the armies of both the North (Union) and South (Confederacy). I am currently engaged in a research project regarding the issue of Black, Chinese, and Native American soldiers who fought in Confederate Regiments – all in the name of “freedom”. Irish people always related to the Black Cause (the Irish had worked alongside Black slaves as indentured labourers for decades) and their association with the Confederacy raises certain questions (my own Irish relatives gravitated toward the “Grey” as they referred to the Confederate Cause). Since the early 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan has associated the 19th century Confederate Cause with that of its 20th century White Supremacy – and have projected an entirely different (racist) paradigm onto the Confederate Cause. Right up until the last Confederate Veterans died (in the early 20th century) – the message of the KKK was vehemently denied and rejected by genuine Confederacy Memorial groups. After this, with the rise of Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany, White (racist) Americans led by the KKK hijacked the Confederate Cause and converted it toward their own nefarious ends. This is how it stands today – with Black people taking on this KKK narrative and attacking everything “Confederate”. Matters are not helped by stupid White Americans who actively link modern notions of White Supremacy (an ideology that did not exist during the American Civil War) with the Confederate Cause. In the actions of the St Patrick Battalion of 1847 – perhaps we can perceive the ambivalence the Irish originally possessed toward the American status quo, in preparation to their aligning with the Confederate Cause. ACW (16.9.2024)
‘Reports credited Santa Anna with as many as 45,000, and he had had at least four months to build defences at every approach to the city, and even to cast from the city’s church-bells large calibre cannons to replace those he had lost. At this point, Scott had just over 12,000 men, was cut-off from any possibility of retreat or supply, and forced to live off the land. What is more, Santa Anna had the advantage of interior lines. Wherever he was attacked on the periphery of Mexico City, he could quickly rush reinforcements there. Although Santa Anna was a competent military leader, he lacked Scott’s genius for manoeuvre and professional skill. He was a formidable organiser, and a charismatic figure to his soldiers. Indeed, his greatest weakness was not in the military sphere, he had no secure footing in the treacherous quicksand of Mexican politics. One reason why the war dragged on is that nobody in Mexico wanted to accept the responsibility for negotiating a peace. The way ahead from San Augustine was not easily discernible. Scott could not stay there long, since his animals would soon eat-up the available forage and with every hour that went by, Santa Anna would further reinforce the city from the South – now that he knew the direction the American Army would attack. A direct advance up the Acapulco Road to the Hacienda of San Antonio – about five-miles away from San Augustine – was the shortest way to Mexico City, but it presented great risk. San Antonio was heavily fortified, and the Americans could not manoeuvre off the road. On the one-side there were the broken razor-sharp rocks of the Pedregal lava-field – and on the other side was soft marshy ground criss-crossed by ditches in which the guns would surely sink up until their wheel-hubs. Scott decided that if he could circle his army around the Pedregal and advance up its Westside – along the San Angel Road – he would be in a position to come up behind San Antonio.
A reconnaissance across the Pedregal – however hazardous – might find a trail or a road shortening the distance. He sent Worth’s Division forward a short-way up the Acapulco Road to hold the attention of the defenders of San Antonio – and ordered Lee to cross Pedregal and see what he could find. Lee at once determined that there was a track of sorts around the Pedregal, passable for Infantry and with some work it could be made practicable for Artillery. Then Lee pushed-on until he reached an eminence known as Zacatepec – where he encountered a large Mexican force which exchanged shots and withdrew. Lee and his Escort captured five prisoners, and Lee took the opportunity of climbing to the top of Zacatepec. From there, he was able to see the enemy was in a strong position on the San Angel Road, near the village of Padierna. Lee concluded that if the Mexicans could cross the South-Western part of the lava-field by a rough mule-path, then the Americans could surely cross it in the opposite direction, and attack the Mexican position from the rear. He returned to San Augustine to report his findings to Scott. Scott, as was his custom, held a Council of War, heard-out all his Commanders, and then decided in favour of Lee’s suggestion. Lee was to lead a force of Pioneers with picks and shovels over the Pedregal, to make the path suitable for the artillery. By the afternoon of August 19th, Lee had extended the track as far as he could, his Pioneers were coming under fire from the Mexican position above the village of Padierna, on the San Angel Road, which was believed to consist of about 5,000 men and over 20 guns, and assumed to be under the Command of General Gabriel Valencia, one of Santa Anna’s better Commanders.
Again, serving as a kind of trail-blazer, Lee crossed the Pedregal, found General Twiggs, and with Twiggs’ consent, led one Regiment of Twiggs’ Division forward to drive-off the enemy, and then picked a site on rising ground near the edge of a ravine, and less than thirty yards from the Mexicans, for several batteries of American Artillery, one of them Commanded by Thomas J Jackson, who would become famous as “Stonewall Jackson”. Lee stayed with the Artillery during the heavy exchange of gunfire, in the course of which, the Officer standing beside him, the nephew of Lee’s old friend – Joe Johnston – lost a leg, and shortly afterward died of his wound. This was, in Nelson’s famous words, “warm work”, in the course of which Lee had plenty of opportunity to demonstrate a steely calmness under fire. Lee’s physical bravery and indifference to danger, were by no means unusual, indeed, these were the basic requirements of military leadership, in the age when lying-down or taking-cover was unthinkable. Since troops had to stand upright in their ranks, even under the heaviest fire, because it was impossible to reload a musket with a ramrod almost four-feet long – except whilst standing. While their Officers were expected to lead them into attack sword-drawn, on foot, or still more vulnerably, mounted! Throughout Lee’s military career, his total lack of concern for his own safety, even as a famous General in the Civil War, when mounted on “Traveller” and wearing his famous pearl-grey hat, he was at once instantly recognisable and a perfect target, was remarked on with admiration or horrified concern, by very brave men indeed! There are, of course, plenty of men in any army, who can screw their courage to the sticking-point, but Lee was not among them. Like his father’s, his courage was instinctive, unforced, and natural – and it required no effort of will. He seemed to have no fear at all. Nor as was the case with some men, did courage come at the cost of obliterating rational thought. He was among the first to recognise that a frontal attack against the Mexican position would prove impassable because of the ravine in-front of it – which could be swept by Mexican gunfire – and to suggest instead using a faint track to the North crossing over the Pedregal, that would bring American troops down behind Pedregal – crossing the San Angel Road – and cutting General Valencia off from any retreat to Mexico City.
Unfortunately, as more and more American troops arrived on the scene, a confused front attack began, which failed, just as Lee expected. As a result of old quarrels and rivalries between General Twiggs and General Pillow, neither of whom apparently paid attention to Napoleon’s famous maxim of “A well-established maxim of war is not to do anything which your enemy wishes and for the single reason that he does so wish. You should, therefore, avoid a field of battle which he has reconnoitred and studied. You should be still more careful to avoid one which he has fortified and where he has entrenched himself. A corollary of this principle is, never to attack in front a position which admits of being turned”. (Transcriber – the short French language quote in the audio-recording is not clear and so I have inserted the full Napoleon quote). The attacks against General Velancia’s centre deteriorated into a bloody stalemate, with small bodies of troops attacking – but no attempt was made to concentrate them for one big attack. Nevertheless, by the afternoon, more than 3,000 American troops had crossed the Western-corner of the Pedregal – unseen thanks to Lee – and were massing half a mile to the North, near the Mexican position, around the Indian village of San Jeronimo. This area was separated and concealed from the left-flank of General Valencia’s position, by a ravine and a hill, covered with corn and a thick under-brush. It was at this point that a large Mexican force, estimated at as many as 8,000-12,000 men, was seen descending the San Angel Road, less than a mile away from San Jeronimo. Santa Anna, hearing the noise of battle on his right from the other side of the Pedregal, had marched the bulk of his forces from their position North of San Antonio- around the lava-field. It was at once clear that the Americans at San Jeronimo might be crushed between General Valencia’s earth-works and Santa Anna’s advancing forces.
Fortunately, night fell and with it came a violent tropical rain-storm. Even more fortunately for the Americans, Brigadier-General Persifor P Smith, a remarkably steady man, arrived to assume Command of the American forces to the West of the Pedregal. Smith was apparently not shaken by the fact that he was surrounded and had fewer than 4,000 troops with which to face the possibility of a combined attack from something between 13,000-17,000 men the next day. He summoned Lee, who had scattered the land between San Jeronimo and General Valencia’s position, and found it unguarded, and decided to ignore the large body of Mexican troops to his North, and attack General Valencia’s left-flank at first-light. It would obviously be helpful if the American troops in front of Valencia staged a strong demonstration in the morning, but Smith had no-way of communicating this to them. So, Lee volunteered to ride across the Pedregal by night, to the Hill of Zacatepec – where he expected to find Scott. Lee set-out at 8 o’clock, unable to observe any of the landmarks, and guided only by his excellent sense of direction, and by the occasional lightning-flashes. Before climbing onto the black-lava wilderness of the Pedregal, Lee encountered a large body of American troops searching for the way to reach Smith. He sent one of his escorts to show them the quickest route to San Jeronimo, then preceded on across the Pedregal, moving through jagged formations of razor-sharp rocks, and waiting for lightning-flashes to reveal crevasses, so he could work his way around them. When he finally reached Zacatepec – drenched and sore – it was only to find that Scott had gone back to San Augustine! Lee did not hesitate, he went on another 3 miles across the Pedregal, reported to Scott at 11 o’clock, made his way across the Pedregal in pitch darkness to Zacatepec, explained Smith’s predicament and Scott’s Orders, guided American troops to the position where he had stood 24-hours earlier, and at dawn led them into heavy enemy-fire at the front of General Valencia’s position – in a demonstration intended to mask Smith’s attack!
For several minutes men fell all-around Lee, as Valencia concentrated his attention on the threat in-front of him. Then Lee saw Smith’s men charging the Mexican force from their undefended rear, bayonets-fixed and in less than 17 minutes, the whole of General Valencia’s elaborately dug earthworks was over-run. Four Mexican Generals and twenty guns were captured – 700 Mexican troops were killed and 800 were taken prisoner. A victory so quick and unexpected that it shook the confidence of Santa Anna’s larger force to the North – which dissolved as the survivors ran-back in panic with tales of their defeat. General Scott hailed Lee’s crossing of the Pedregal as the greatest feat of physical and moral courage of the campaign – but Lee’s services on the battlefield had hardly begun! Despite Scott’s weight and his ponderous manner, the General provided an object lesson of how-to follow-up a victory quickly. The instant he saw the Mexicans had been defeated to the West of the Pedregal, Scott withdrew the bulk of his troops to the East, and sent them up the Acapulco Road to attack San Antonio – while pressing those who remained on the lava-field to attack to the North. A well-executed pincer-movement carried-out despite the exhaustion of the men. He sent Lee on ahead to reconnoitre the road to the North. Lee rode forward and discovered that Santa Anna had abandoned his carefully prepared position at San Antonio, and was making a vigorous stand at Churubusco, about 2 miles North – while most of his disorganised forces retreated into Mexico City.
The centre of the Mexican position was a heavily-fortified Convent South-West of the Churubusco Canal – protecting a well-planned bridge-head with a deep, wet ditch dug around it – almost like a moat. Scott decided to attack the Mexican position at once, whilst sending two Divisions to attack North of the Canal in a flanking-movement – intended to cut-off the enemy’s retreat. He instructed Lee, who had ridden ahead and examined the position carefully, to lead the two Divisions and select a position for them – despite the fact that Lee was a mere Captain of Engineers. Lee himself described the action that followed in a letter to Mary: ‘Discovering a large mass of Infantry on the Churubusco Bridge – and apprehending a fire from batteries to defend the rear – I drew-out toward the city of Mexico until I reached a hamlet on the Mexican Road, about three-fourths of a mile in the rear of the Bridge.” There was a mass of Cavalry on the Road and as the American troops formed a line at an oblique angle to the Road, the Mexicans pushed their own line further to their right in order not to be out-flanked. “Our troops now being hotly engaged, and somewhat pressed”, Lee wrote, “I urged forward the Howitzer Battery which very promptly brought the pieces to bear on the head of the column with good effect.” Still, the Americans were still greatly out-numbered and Lee rode back to Scott to ask for reinforcements. He led them back to where the fight was hottest, but owing to the boggy ground they still could not out-flank the Mexicans. And there was nothing for it but a frontal attack on the Road – in which Lee took part – under constant heavy-fire! Just as the Americans reached the Road, the troops to the South of the Churubusco Canal carried the Convent and the bridge-head and the enemy broke – the survivors retreating to Mexico City. The fight at the fortified Convent had been particularly bloody, for it was defended by the 204 remaining members of the San Patricio – St Patrick Battalion – consisting of deserters from US Army – the bulk of them Irish Catholic immigrants who felt they had been bullied and persecuted because of their religion and who expected no mercy if they surrendered or were captured – Nor did they receive any. Fifty who survived the fierce hand-to-hand fighting inside the Convent were hanged – including one who had lost both-legs – and was carried in a wheelbarrow from his hospital bed to the gallows. Lee had been on foot or mounted for 36 hours without rest, had crossed the Pedregal three-times – and had fought in three battles! His superiors, in agreement for once about something, joined in praising his skill and personal daring…
Lee spent the night inspecting the Batteries, and making sure the damage caused by Mexican return-fire was quickly repaired. By now he had gone 48-hours without sleep – but his orders were to guide General Pillow’s Division in its attack on the Western-face of Chapultepec. He set-out with the leading parties as soon as the bombardment ceased at 8 O’clock in the morning on September 13th – exposed to artillery-fire, musket-fire, and a novelty for the day – buried land-mines, most of which fortunately did not go-off! He watched whilst the scaling-ladders were brought up and the storming-parties were pushed-back with heavy casualties. He re-grouped the troops, and the second-attempt was successful. Lee, himself, climbed-up the steep slope to the terraces on top, accompanied by Lieutenant James Longstreet who would be his Corps Commander on the right on the fatal third-day of the Battle of Gettysburg! And by Lieutenant George E Pickett whose Division would make the Attack on Cemetery-Ridge – the last act in that great heroic tragedy! At some point in the assault – Lee was lightly wounded – but he managed to help the wounded General Pillow to safety, then climb to summit in time to see the American-flag raised!
The fortress itself, turned-out not to be as formidable as feared, it had been built as a palace and did not offer much in the way of protection to the Mexican soldiers who took refuge there. The huge building was taken room-by-room, many of the American soldiers running-wild, looting and hunting-down the now defenceless Mexicans, in retaliation for the atrocities at Molino del Rey! But knowing what we do about Lee, we may be sure that he was among those firmly restoring order and discipline to the troops, since he never mentioned it, he was probably not aware of the actions of the 50-100 (accounts differ) Cadets of the Mexican Military Academy – who became Mexico’s famous “Niños Héroes”! Six of them fought to their death – and the last boy (Juan Escutia) wrapped himself in the Mexican flag that had flown over Chapultepec and flung himself from the parapet to his death – rather than let it fall into the hands of the hated Yankees! As Lee watched the Stars and Stripes raised over Chapultepec to replace the Mexican flag, the 50 captured soldiers of the St Patrick Battalion of deserters, who had been condemned to death, were hanged after waiting for two-hours in the sun, a noose around each neck, as the battle was fought. Thirty of them were hanged in full view of the battle, each of them standing on the back of a mule-drawn cart, hands tied behind them, the noose already fastened to the immensely long cross-piece of a huge mass-gallows, built for the purpose, on a low hill-top facing the fortress. At the moment when the American flag was raised above a cloud of black-smoke around Chapultepec – teamsters whipped the mules and the deserters dropped to their death amid the sound of cheering from their former comrades-in-arms.
Michael Korda: Clouds of Glory – The Life and Legend of Robert E Lee (2014) – Chapter 7
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 