User:NoAmGeogSoc/Sandbox14
El Pedregal (historic) (Mexican war, or Distrito Federal, Mexico)
What is the definition of Pedregal. It means rocky ground or place full of stones.
El Pedregal is the site of an event in the Mexican War. Advance scounting by Captain Robert E. Lee, located a paassage through the area, and allowed American army to advance to then engage Mexican army at Contraras, as a prelude to the Battle of Churubusco. Robert E. Lee. Cited as a extremely brave thing to do, by commanding General Winfield Scott. Part of Robert E. Lee history/legend.
Sites of Mexican War. How to locate. a) triangular region. b) Main road from Mexico City divided into two branches at Churubusco. Other branch running near Contreras. Between these two roads, and a ridge of hills south of San Augustin extended a triangular region knows as the Pedrigal. There was a track across it leading from San Augustine to the main road to the City of Mexico.
We need to locate the San Augustin. How to do this. Sites in spanish explanations of the mexican war.
Here is a web page of maps of R.E. Lee from VMI, which are the maps that he used in the Mexican War. At least one of them is the environs of Mexico City. http://www.vmi.edu/archives.aspx?id=4294968301 Not yet examined.This person may be able to help. # 15, # 17
Mary Laura Kludy Archives Assistant Ph: (540) 464-7516 Fax: (540) 464-7089 archives@vmi.edu Preston Library Lexington, Virginia 24450
See maps in files of Bill Personal, Wikipedia, Pedregal. South of Churubusco is San Augustine Del Las Cuevas. Also the americans approached Mexico from the east, and then dipped south, I think to get around Laguna de Xochimilco, and Laguna de Chalco.
See sites marked on Google Earth.
The Battle of Contreras The U.S. launched two major assaults on August 20, 1847, as part of General Winfield Scott’s sophisticated strategy to neutralize the 36,000-man army assembled by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to defend Mexico City. The principal Mexican positions covered two roads heading to the city. A fortified Hacienda in the town of San Antonio (See my "Map near Mexico City") covered the easternmost approach, while the town of San Angel covered the westernmost(See my "Map near Mexico City"). Between them to the south lay a vast, seemingly impenetrable lava field, El Pedrégal.
General Gabriel Valencia, on the Mexican right flank, abandoned his assigned post and moved four miles down the road to the town of Contreras (Not on my map), placing this rough terrain between him and the Mexican left. A premature, ill-advised, and unsuccessful August 18 attack by generals Gideon Pillow and David Twiggs revealed American intentions to isolate and destroy Valencia. Santa Anna rushed Valencia reinforcements rather than recalling him to the more defensible positions at San Angel.
The next day, American scouts found a way to emerge from El Pedrégal a little farther north, thus cutting the road to Mexico City and isolating Valencia from additional reinforcements. Scott realized that once Valencia’s command fell, Pillow and Twiggs could race north to the Rio Churubusco and gain the rear of the Mexican forces facing the rest of the American army. Scott prepared to advance.
At dawn on August 20, Pillow renewed his attack on Valencia’s front and elements of Twiggs’ command attacked the rear position of the Mexican force. Valencia’s 5,000-man army quickly melted away, a portion heading toward San Angel, the bulk simply quitting the field. By 6 a.m. Pillow and Twiggs started their troops toward the Rio Churubusco, and Scott ordered an attack against the Hacienda at San Antonio.
http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/war/contreras.html
Tlalpan is one of the sixteen administrative boroughs (called “delegaciones” in Spanish) of the Federal District of Mexico City. It is the largest borough, with over eighty percent under conservation as forest and other ecologically sensitive area.
Bosque de Tlalpan The Bosque de Tlalpan, also called the Parque Nacional Bosque de Pedregal, is fully surrounded by urban area, just south of the Anillo Periférico and between the highways heading to Cuernavaca and to Picacho-Ajusco. The Bosque de Tlalpan is filled with pines, oyamel fir, cedars, holm oaks and eucalyptus trees, which grow on a solidified lava bed. Wildlife includes eagles, falcons, squirrels and the Mexican Mouse Opossum. It has been open to the public since 1968. It has parking, restaurants and food stalls in cabins, playgrounds its own Casa de Cultura or cultural center.[33] One of the attractions in the park is the Tenantono Pyramid, which is located in a remote area of the park.[1] Better known is the old Casa de la Bombas. This is an early 20th century structure originally built in Colonia Condesa, Tlalpan to house a pump used to extract water from the ground. It ceased being a pump station in 1940 and laid vacant until 1975, when it was disassembled and moved to the Bosque. However, it was not reassembled until 1986 as part of a larger structure which now serves as a “Casa de Cultura” or cultural center. The façade of the center is made of volcanic stone called “chiluca” in French style, which was popular when it was originally built. The additions combine modern and Neoclassical elements but the interior is completely modern. The main areas are the gallery and the forum which host exhibitions and other events. There are also a number of workshops for dance, drama, music, literature and other arts. It is also the home of the Orquesta Juvenil de Tlalpan (Youth Orchestra of Tlalpan) .[34] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlalpan
The most striking among them was his midnight crossing of the lava-fields before Contreras. On the 19th of August, 1847, Scott's army lay in and around San Augustin, a place situated on a branch of the main road running south from the city of Mexico. This road divided into two at Churubusco, the other branch running near Contreras. Between these two roads and a ridge of hills south of San Augustin extended a triangular region known as the Pedregal, and about as ugly a place to cross as any ground could well be. It was made up of a vast spread of volcanic rock and scoriae, rent and broken into a thousand forms, and with sharp ridges and deep fissures, making it very difficult for foot-soldiers to get over, and quite impassable for cavalry or artillery. It was like a sea of hardened lava, with no signs of vegetation except a few clumps of bushes and dwarf trees that found footing in the rocks. The only road across it was a difficult, crooked, and barely passable pathway, little better than a mule track, leading from San Augustin to the main road from the city of Mexico. On the plateau beyond this sterile region the Mexicans had gathered in force. Just beyond it General Valencia lay intrenched, with his fine division of about six thousand men and twenty-four guns, commanding the approach from San Augustin. A mile or more north of Contreras lay General Santa Anna, his force holding the main city road. Such was the situation of the respective armies at the date given, with the Pedregal separating them. Captain Lee, who had already done excellent engineering service at Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo, assisted by Lieutenants Beauregard and Tower of the engineers, had carefully reconnoitred the position of the enemy, and on the morning of the 19th the advance from San Augustin began, Captain Lee accompanying the troops in their arduous passage across the Pedregal. One of those present thus describes the exploit: "Late in the morning of the 19th the brigade of which my regiment was a part (Riley's) was sent out from San Augustin in the direction of Contreras. We soon struck a region over which it was said no horses could go, and men only with difficulty. No road was available; my regiment was in advance, my company leading, and its point of direction was a church-spire at or near Contreras. Taking the lead, we soon struck the Pedregal, a field of volcanic rock like boiling scoria suddenly solidified, pathless, precipitous, and generally compelling rapid gait in order to spring from point to point of rock, on which two feet could not rest and which cut through our shoes. A fall on this sharp material would have seriously cut and injured one, whilst the effort to climb some of it cut the hands. "Just before reaching the main road from Contreras to the city of Mexico we reached a watery ravine, the sides of which were nearly perpendicular, up which I had to be pushed and then to pull others. On looking back over this bed of lava or scoria, I saw the troops, much scattered, picking their way very slowly; while of my own company, some eighty or ninety strong, only five men crossed with me or during some twenty minutes after. "With these five I examined the country beyond, and struck upon the small guard of a paymaster's park, which, from the character of the country over which we had passed, was deemed perfectly safe from capture. My men gained a paymaster's chest well filled with bags of silver dollars, and the firing and fuss we made both frightened the guard with the belief that the infernals were upon them and made our men hasten to our support. "Before sundown all of Riley's, and I believe of Cadwallader's, Smith's, and Pierce's brigades, were over, and by nine o' clock a council of war, presided over by Persifer Smith and counselled by Captain R. E. Lee, was held at the church. I have always understood that what was devised and finally determined upon was suggested by Captain Lee; at all events, the council was closed by his saying that he desired to return to General Scott with the decision of General Smith, and that, as it was late, the decision must be given as soon as possible, since General Scott wished him to return in time to give directions for co-operation. During the council, and for hours after, the rain fell in torrents, whilst the darkness was so intense that one could move only by groping. To illustrate: my company again led the way to gain the Mexican rear, and when, after two hours of motion, light broke sufficiently to enable us to see a companion a few feet off, we had not moved four hundred yards, and the only persons present were half a dozen officers and one guide." Much is said of the perils of war and of the courage necessary to face them. But who would not rather face a firing-line of infantry in full daylight than to venture alone in such a dark and stormy night as was this upon such a perilous and threatening region as the Pedregal, in which a misstep in the darkness would surely lead to wounds and perhaps to death. Its crossing, under such conditions, might well be deemed impossible, had not Captain Lee succeeded, borne up by his strong sense of duty, in this daring enterprise. General Scott, who was very anxious to know the position of the advance forces, had sent out seven officers about sundown with instructions to the troops at Contreras, but they had all returned, completely baffled by the insuperable difficulties of the way. Not a man except Robert E. Lee had the daring, skill, and persistence to cross this region of volcanic knife-blades on that night of rain and gloom. The writer above quoted from says, "History gives him the credit of having succeeded, but it has always seemed incredible to me when I recollect the distance amid darkness and storm, and the dangers of the Pedregal which he must have traversed. Scarcely a step could be taken without danger of death ; but that to him, a true soldier, was the willing risk of duty in a good cause." General Scott adds his testimony to this by saying, after mentioning the failure of the officers sent out by him, "But the gallant and indefatigable Captain Lee, of the engineers, who has been constantly with the operating forces, is just in from Shields, Smith, Cadwallader, etc., to report, and to request that a powerful diversion be made against the centre of the intrenched camp to-morrow morning." Scott subsequently gave the following testimony to the same effect: "Captain Lee, engineers, came to me from the hamlet (Contreras) with a message from Brigadier-General Smith, about midnight. He, having passed over the difficult ground by daylight, found it just possible to return to San Augustin in the dark,—the greatest feat of physical and moral courage performed by any individual, in my knowledge, pending the campaign." This praise is certainly not misapplied, when we remember that Lee passed over miles of the kind of ground above described in a pitch-dark night, without light or companion, with no guide but the wind as it drove the pelting rain against his face, or an occasional flash of lightning, and with the danger of falling into the hands of Valencia or Santa Anna if he should happen to stray to the right or the left. It is doubtful if another man in the army would have succeeded in such an enterprise, if any one had had the courage to attempt it. It took a man of the caliber which Robert E. Lee afterward proved himself to possess to perform such a deed of daring. We may briefly describe Lee's connection with the subsequent events. He bore an important part in the operations against the Mexicans, guiding the troops when they set out about three o'clock in the morning on a tedious march through darkness, rain, and mud; an elevation in the rear of the enemy's forces being gained about sunrise. An assault was at once made on the surprised Mexicans, their entrenchments were stormed, and in seventeen minutes after the charge began they were in full flight and the American flag was floating proudly above their works.
During the march on Mexico City, the U.S. army under Major General Winfield Scott found its way north blocked by a strong Mexican force at the "El Peñon" (near the current airport of Mexico City). Scott settled down at "Peña Pobre" on the southwest of Mexico City, and from Zacatepetl hill, sent a force west across the "Pedregal", a lava field, to the town of San Jerónimo to flank the Valencia's Mexican position at "Rancho Padierna", on Contreras. Mexican commander and President Antonio López de Santa Anna dispatched the Army of the North of about 5,000 soldiers under Gabriel Valencia to flank the Americans. The Battle of Contreras or Padierna began on August 19 of 1847, and culminated at dawn on August 20, on the outskirts of Mexico City, at Padierna, among the neighborhoods of San Ángel, Contreras and Tlalpan (currently in the area between San Jerónimo, the neighborhood Heroes of Padierna, Anzaldo Dam in the periphery, and the area that today is ironically called "Placid Gardens" in Mexico City)