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Chapter 81 Mexico's Wrath
Chapter 81 Mexico's Wrath
"If there is a hell on Earth then it is Arizona."- Colonel Juan Barrera 1862
"I think the Rio Grand River campaign was a blessing in many ways. Despite all the hardships that our men went it was those battles that finally woke up Texas to the myth of Mexican meekness and the sheer fact that these aren't Santa Anna's boys anymore."- General Albert Sidney Johnston 1871
"Since when did Chinos exist in California?"- Captain Roman Vasquez 1862
California: After the Battle of Fort Alacorn the California Expedition made quick haste towards California proper in an effort to conquer as much of Southern California as possible in anticipation of the arrival of eventual reinforcements from Juarez. Due to the high temperatures in Baja California the Expedition was able to make for a quick time with little chance of snowfall that plagued other campaigns such as the Kansas theater in the American Civil War. At the same time though the Texas Rangers were on the move and on December 4th, Captain Esteban Hidalgo arrived at the coastal town of Tijuana to relay information that the Mexicans were in California and they were on their way to Monterrey. Unfortunately for Texas they had already sent multiple units eastward towards the Rio Grande in an effort to both liberate the Rio Grande Republic and secure the borders with Mexico. Sonora was too lightly populated and developed during that day and age for there too have been a perceived threat, much less an amphibious invasion by Mexico. Scrambling as fast as he could, Governor John B. Weller recalled nearly half of the regiments sent and sent a telegram to Austin to ask them for increased aid in order to meet the new threat. While California reorganized and began the process of a second mobilization to meet the Mexican threat, the Mexicans arrived first.
On January 13th the California Expedition under Colonel Domingo Valentin approached the outskirts of Tijuana. With Texas Rangers having been deployed throughout the state and along the eastern border with Sonora, the Californian militia were unaware of when exactly the Mexicans would arrive and were caught with their figurative pants down. Colonel Valentin was able to set up an artillery emplacement on the outskirts and began an bombardment at daylight, promptly awaking the sleepy town. In opposition was 2,300 men of the California 5th under Lieutenant Colonel Jedidiah Rutherford who had been sent to Tijuana to keep an eye out for the Mexicans. The battle took place for two days as the Texans scrambled to put up a proper defense against the well trained professional troops of the California expedition. It was during the fighting that the two sides began to show their difference in quality as Rutherford's men were mostly volunteers while Valentin had the command of a professional regular regiment. In the end what set the outcome of the battle was the difference in artillery with Valentin having 33 artillery (capturing 8 from fort Alacorn) while the Texans had only ten. After an assault on the town had cost heavy casualties to 1/4th of the Texan defenders, Lieutenant Colonel Rutherford decided to surrender to Colonel Valentin in an effort to prevent an outcome of being surrounded and overrun. For the next few weeks the California expedition rested and prepared their men for another assault on San Diego which they would use as their FOB in Southern California due to its economic value and proximity towards the Ocean. On the other side panic had spread throughout California at the news of the twin Mexican victories. A small refugee movement had begun with many from Southern California fleeing to the central and Northern cities such as Monterrey, Sacramento, and San Francisco in order to escape the feared Mexican rampage. On January 29th the California Expedition would continue once more with a small group of over 200 Tejanos from Baja California added to the ranks due to the inspiration of Juarez's goal of Pan-Mexican Unification. On February 2nd, the California Expedition arrived at San Diego to a city with much higher defenses than Tijuana and a greater amount of defenders with 3,500 men. The First Battle of San Diego would consume the better part of three weeks as the city came under assault multiple times with close house-to-house fighting along with several dances of cavalry on the California plains and an artillery war for control of the port. The goal of the Texans would be to not totally defeat the Mexicans immediately, but wait for reinforcements so that they could begin a counterattack to kick them out of California. After three weeks of fighting relief did came, though it was in the form of green-uniformed troops fighting under the Mexican Eagle. After the Conquest of the Rio Grande, President Juarez gave orders to Brigadier General Enrico Pena to lead 6,000 men, a good portion of the able bodied male population of Sonora, to enter into California and reinforce Colonel Valentin's group. On February 25th Mexican Cavalry made a grand entrance on the outskirts of the city and proceeded to wipe out a company of Texan infantry. Pena's 40 canons joined the artillery and worsened the bombardment of the city, causing many houses to crumble and some fires to let loose. Realizing that he was outnumbered and that the Battle for California would need to be fought another day, Colonel George S. Evans ordered for a full retreat outside the city to Los Angeles. Roughly 1,946 Texans were able to escape while the rest had either died, were critically wounded, or were left to oversee the surrender with the Mayor of San Diego. As sunset rose on February 26th, the Mexican Eagle was flying high above the city of San Diego for the first time in 25 years as the Mexican soldiers celebrated in Jubilation for their glorious victories. General Pena gave a grand speech, detailing how this would be the beginning of the end for Texas. Yet Tijuana and San Diego were defeats that did far from demoralize Texas, instead they lit up a fire in the hearts of the Californians as Brigadier General Patrick Edward Connor set about planning a campaign for a grand reclamation of the Commonwealth. The Texans would return.
View attachment 321512
Mexican Brigadier General Enrico Pena marching into San Diego with his subordinates.
Arizona: Out of all the campaigns within the Mexican War the most senseless and perhaps the most bizarre is that of the Arizona campaign. Back then in the 1860's besides for a few trade stops in between Albuquerque and California, Arizona was an arid wasteland with little to offer in the form of civilization. Without the wonders of modern irrigation there was little incentive to colonize the Commonwealth and only the ancient Pueblo and Spanish irrigation techniques offered any kind of life to begin with. In the beginning of Juan Seguin's first term there had been plans to introduce development to Arizona by the way of the Transcontinental Railroad with plans to hopefully connect to California by 1865. The start of the Mexican War and the threat to the border halted any development with potential labor going to the front lines and investors were frightened from pouring any capitol to the project. Besides the trade links between the two halves of the Republic, Arizona had little to not strategic value. The fact was lost entirely though in the mind of Benito Juarez.
When Juarez had made promises of Unification with all of Mexico he meant it in a literal sense. Every single piece of territory that ever belonged to Mexico or New Spain would go back to control under Mexico City and the Mexican War would be the start of just that. For each Republic there were plans for a necessary invasion and control of all of its territory during the war to restore Mexican honor. This plan had worked out so far with the Rio Grande, but at the same time was a necessity as all its towns were spread out across from the states while the Northern arid portions were needed to keep under control to ward off Texas and prepare for an invasion across the Rio Grande river. Yet instead of focusing solely on Texas or California, Juarez made a point to invade all the Commonwealths at the same time and this included Arizona. Most of Juarez's higher ranking generals pleaded in vain to try and persuade the President to give up Arizona as the land was worthless in their eyes. However Juarez would have none of it. He argued that by capturing Arizona, Mexico would be able to reach Deseret and convince the Mormons to rebel like they did only a few years ago. At the same time they could cut off trade and coordination between California and Texas proper, making for a divide and conquer strategy for the Republic. At the end of the day Juarez's stubbornness won out and the Arizona expedition was a go. A regiment of 4,000 Mexican troops were deployed under the command of Colonel Juan Barrera with the goal of capturing the capitol of Phoenix. It would be the start of several months of hell for everyone involved.
Rio Grande River: At roughly 1,254 miles of territory, the Rio Grand river was a mighty work of nature that had provided a good amount of food and trade for Texans and citizens of the Rio Grande living in the region. The sheer length of the river along with its massive depth presented a truly grand obstacle for Juarez's quest for unification. However if the Mexican forces were able to cross the Rio Grande then the path would be open to Texas and the hopeful conquest of Austin. Luckily for the Texans the Rio Grande was one of the most militarized regions in the Republic due to the chaotic nature of the former Rio Grande Republic, widespread existence of outlaws among the frontier, and raids by hostile Apache tribe during the year. There had already been hundreds of rangers along with a few professional battalions being deployed among the river, these were soon met by tens of thousands of Texans as they pledged to defend their borders against the Mexican menace. Yet despite the preparations, both sides were helped and hindered by the double edged sword of the large stretch of territory along the river. Mainly in that it would prevent the enemy from massing their numbers in large formations, but require the capture of several towns with a distance of several hundred miles between them.
The first major battle of the campaign was the Battle of El Judilo on January 17th in Coahuila where Brigadier General Albert Sidney Johnston invaded Coahuila with 7,000 Texans in an effort to "liberate" Satillo from the Mexican forces. Upon their entrance into the remote Coahuilan village they were met by 12,000 men under the command of General Ignacio Zaragoza who arrived first due to an early warning by the Republican Gard. When the Texans first engaged in battle they had expected an easy victory even with the numerical inferiority due to their past engagements with the Mexicans. It was this arrogance that cost them as the Mexicans were mostly made up of regulars and they fought with exact precision and fine detail, shocking the Texans in the first half of the battle due to their prowess. The battle took place for a majority of the day during the latter portions Johnston was able to reorganize his troops and use the Rangers to cut large holes in the Mexican formations. In the end the battle was a draw as both sides took significant losses with 945 casualties for the Texans and 1,678 casualties for Mexico while neither side could press an advantage. For President Juan Seguin the battle was a wake up call to the real threat of the Mexicans and the chance that they could actually conquer Texas this time around. Afterwords Johnston was ordered back by Major General William Travis to the Texan side as the Texans prepared for a larger defense and adjusted their invasion plans to meet the new quality of their foes. February was a virtual bloodbath as heavy skirmished filled the Rio Grande river with blood as both sides tested each others defenses. The next to make a move was Mexico as a two prong assault was launched on both Brownsville and Laredo to enter into Texas. Both battles resulted in Texan victories with Brownsville being defended thanks to the assistance of the Texas Navy and the river monitors RTS Sabine and RTS El Paso along with the Texans greater numerical advantage of 15,000 to 12,000. Meanwhile the Battle of Brownsville served to be a redemption for Johnston as he was able to use recent flooding of the Rio Grande to his advantage in defense with Mexican cavalry being essentially neutered while Texan sharpshooters formed multiple emplacements to provide continuous fire on the approaching Mexican forces. Following the victories the Texans performed a counterattack with Nuevo Laredo, Matamortos, and Reynosa being captured by the end of March. Yet all was not well on the Rio Grande with the Battle of El Paso taking place with the ongoing Siege of El Paso. Since the middle of November the border town had been besieged with 7,500 Mexican troops surrounding the town and its 4000. Mexican cavalry and skirmisher infantry continued to deny use of the Rio Grande without extensive bloodshed while supplies with Albuquerque were cut off by hostile Apache. Most of the French garrison had been pulled farther south to protect the Gulf region which left the town poor on regular troops. ON April 13th Colonel Walter Heinz surrendered to Brigadier General Phillipe Castanzo. The Mexicans suffered 653 killed, 421 wounded during the battle while the Texans suffered 295 killed and 287 wounded with the rest captured. While the Gulf Coast had been protected the gateway to the west had been opened. The future of Texas laid in the balance as 1862 dragged on, the end of the year determining if it would survive or be conquered by their former masters.
View attachment 321555View attachment 321556
Texan Dragoons crossing the Rio Grande (Left) Mexican forces marching into El Paso (Right)
Yucatan: In the fall of 1861 a ferocious war broke out in the Yucatan Jungle in the districts of Chiapas and Tobasco. After three months of fierce fighting between countrymen in the districts over allegiances to both the Yucatan and Mexico, the situation would get worse as 50,000 Mexican troops mad their way across the borders in a self-proclaimed crusade of liberation. While it at first appeared that the Mexican patriots were wiped out after the arrival of the Yucatan Army, thousands of citizens who had been neutral at first now flocked to the banners of the Mexican Eagle as they now had a realistic chance of obtaining unification with the homeland and freedom from the Yucatan Creoles and the Mayan Indians. When the fighting broke out in 1861 there was a long period of a stalemate in the Yucatan. A virtual civil war had broken out in the districts as it became Creole vs. Creole and Mexican vs. Yucatan. Often entire villages would wage war against each other through makeshift militias before an armed force on either side would be able to arrive. Ethnic violence broke out in the countryside as rogue Mexican units massacred Mayan villages for having "betrayed" the Mexican state to form their own nation, while Mayan extremists would retaliate on the same level, mirroring the brutal methods of the Apache in the North. With a nearly equal amount of troops on both sides, and varying amounts of support in each country for one nation, there was no clear victor in the Yucatan. Eventually however the tide began to turn in the favor of the Mexicans as the Mexican Army had been consistently drilled by trained professionals of the British Army since the end of the Second Civil War while many of its men, whether volunteer or regular, were veterans of the harsh years of instability within the nation. On the opposite side existed the Yucatan who while having decent arms thanks to trade and support from both Texas and France, had a overall lower level of quality for their men. The fault in this lie in the past of Yucatan warfare as they had often relied on quantity over quality for their doctrine and their victories had against less than compotent foes such as the Central American nations and the Armies of the Santa Anna regime. In contrast Texas had daily experience fighting hostile Indians and had an officer corps made up of a good number of West Point graduates and European officers. On February 1st Tuxtla was captured, following by Villahermosa on March 9th. Mexico would've soon marched on Merida had it not been for the efforts of General Ignacio Rojas who stopped the Mexican advance at the Battle of Ciudad del Carmen on March 18th where the Yucatan defenders were able to outmatch the Mexicans in firepower thanks to close support by both the Texan and the Yucatan Navy's in providing continuous bombardments on the liens of General Fierro, allowing a window for a Yucatan counterattack which cost the Mexicans 3,600 casualties. A similar success came about in Guatemala where Mayan guerillas were able to disrupt the supply lines of the Mexican columns in the Jungles, forcing them to head back into Chiapas. While the Mexicans had stopped it came at a heavy price as the Yucatan suffered over 9,000 casualties and had lost two of their most economically developed districts. It would take a miracle on the Texan front for the Yucatan to be able to gain the confidence to launch a large offensive to reclaim their land.
View attachment 321511
Mexican troops marching into Villahermosa
"If there is a hell on Earth then it is Arizona."- Colonel Juan Barrera 1862
"I think the Rio Grand River campaign was a blessing in many ways. Despite all the hardships that our men went it was those battles that finally woke up Texas to the myth of Mexican meekness and the sheer fact that these aren't Santa Anna's boys anymore."- General Albert Sidney Johnston 1871
"Since when did Chinos exist in California?"- Captain Roman Vasquez 1862
California: After the Battle of Fort Alacorn the California Expedition made quick haste towards California proper in an effort to conquer as much of Southern California as possible in anticipation of the arrival of eventual reinforcements from Juarez. Due to the high temperatures in Baja California the Expedition was able to make for a quick time with little chance of snowfall that plagued other campaigns such as the Kansas theater in the American Civil War. At the same time though the Texas Rangers were on the move and on December 4th, Captain Esteban Hidalgo arrived at the coastal town of Tijuana to relay information that the Mexicans were in California and they were on their way to Monterrey. Unfortunately for Texas they had already sent multiple units eastward towards the Rio Grande in an effort to both liberate the Rio Grande Republic and secure the borders with Mexico. Sonora was too lightly populated and developed during that day and age for there too have been a perceived threat, much less an amphibious invasion by Mexico. Scrambling as fast as he could, Governor John B. Weller recalled nearly half of the regiments sent and sent a telegram to Austin to ask them for increased aid in order to meet the new threat. While California reorganized and began the process of a second mobilization to meet the Mexican threat, the Mexicans arrived first.
On January 13th the California Expedition under Colonel Domingo Valentin approached the outskirts of Tijuana. With Texas Rangers having been deployed throughout the state and along the eastern border with Sonora, the Californian militia were unaware of when exactly the Mexicans would arrive and were caught with their figurative pants down. Colonel Valentin was able to set up an artillery emplacement on the outskirts and began an bombardment at daylight, promptly awaking the sleepy town. In opposition was 2,300 men of the California 5th under Lieutenant Colonel Jedidiah Rutherford who had been sent to Tijuana to keep an eye out for the Mexicans. The battle took place for two days as the Texans scrambled to put up a proper defense against the well trained professional troops of the California expedition. It was during the fighting that the two sides began to show their difference in quality as Rutherford's men were mostly volunteers while Valentin had the command of a professional regular regiment. In the end what set the outcome of the battle was the difference in artillery with Valentin having 33 artillery (capturing 8 from fort Alacorn) while the Texans had only ten. After an assault on the town had cost heavy casualties to 1/4th of the Texan defenders, Lieutenant Colonel Rutherford decided to surrender to Colonel Valentin in an effort to prevent an outcome of being surrounded and overrun. For the next few weeks the California expedition rested and prepared their men for another assault on San Diego which they would use as their FOB in Southern California due to its economic value and proximity towards the Ocean. On the other side panic had spread throughout California at the news of the twin Mexican victories. A small refugee movement had begun with many from Southern California fleeing to the central and Northern cities such as Monterrey, Sacramento, and San Francisco in order to escape the feared Mexican rampage. On January 29th the California Expedition would continue once more with a small group of over 200 Tejanos from Baja California added to the ranks due to the inspiration of Juarez's goal of Pan-Mexican Unification. On February 2nd, the California Expedition arrived at San Diego to a city with much higher defenses than Tijuana and a greater amount of defenders with 3,500 men. The First Battle of San Diego would consume the better part of three weeks as the city came under assault multiple times with close house-to-house fighting along with several dances of cavalry on the California plains and an artillery war for control of the port. The goal of the Texans would be to not totally defeat the Mexicans immediately, but wait for reinforcements so that they could begin a counterattack to kick them out of California. After three weeks of fighting relief did came, though it was in the form of green-uniformed troops fighting under the Mexican Eagle. After the Conquest of the Rio Grande, President Juarez gave orders to Brigadier General Enrico Pena to lead 6,000 men, a good portion of the able bodied male population of Sonora, to enter into California and reinforce Colonel Valentin's group. On February 25th Mexican Cavalry made a grand entrance on the outskirts of the city and proceeded to wipe out a company of Texan infantry. Pena's 40 canons joined the artillery and worsened the bombardment of the city, causing many houses to crumble and some fires to let loose. Realizing that he was outnumbered and that the Battle for California would need to be fought another day, Colonel George S. Evans ordered for a full retreat outside the city to Los Angeles. Roughly 1,946 Texans were able to escape while the rest had either died, were critically wounded, or were left to oversee the surrender with the Mayor of San Diego. As sunset rose on February 26th, the Mexican Eagle was flying high above the city of San Diego for the first time in 25 years as the Mexican soldiers celebrated in Jubilation for their glorious victories. General Pena gave a grand speech, detailing how this would be the beginning of the end for Texas. Yet Tijuana and San Diego were defeats that did far from demoralize Texas, instead they lit up a fire in the hearts of the Californians as Brigadier General Patrick Edward Connor set about planning a campaign for a grand reclamation of the Commonwealth. The Texans would return.
View attachment 321512
Mexican Brigadier General Enrico Pena marching into San Diego with his subordinates.
Arizona: Out of all the campaigns within the Mexican War the most senseless and perhaps the most bizarre is that of the Arizona campaign. Back then in the 1860's besides for a few trade stops in between Albuquerque and California, Arizona was an arid wasteland with little to offer in the form of civilization. Without the wonders of modern irrigation there was little incentive to colonize the Commonwealth and only the ancient Pueblo and Spanish irrigation techniques offered any kind of life to begin with. In the beginning of Juan Seguin's first term there had been plans to introduce development to Arizona by the way of the Transcontinental Railroad with plans to hopefully connect to California by 1865. The start of the Mexican War and the threat to the border halted any development with potential labor going to the front lines and investors were frightened from pouring any capitol to the project. Besides the trade links between the two halves of the Republic, Arizona had little to not strategic value. The fact was lost entirely though in the mind of Benito Juarez.
When Juarez had made promises of Unification with all of Mexico he meant it in a literal sense. Every single piece of territory that ever belonged to Mexico or New Spain would go back to control under Mexico City and the Mexican War would be the start of just that. For each Republic there were plans for a necessary invasion and control of all of its territory during the war to restore Mexican honor. This plan had worked out so far with the Rio Grande, but at the same time was a necessity as all its towns were spread out across from the states while the Northern arid portions were needed to keep under control to ward off Texas and prepare for an invasion across the Rio Grande river. Yet instead of focusing solely on Texas or California, Juarez made a point to invade all the Commonwealths at the same time and this included Arizona. Most of Juarez's higher ranking generals pleaded in vain to try and persuade the President to give up Arizona as the land was worthless in their eyes. However Juarez would have none of it. He argued that by capturing Arizona, Mexico would be able to reach Deseret and convince the Mormons to rebel like they did only a few years ago. At the same time they could cut off trade and coordination between California and Texas proper, making for a divide and conquer strategy for the Republic. At the end of the day Juarez's stubbornness won out and the Arizona expedition was a go. A regiment of 4,000 Mexican troops were deployed under the command of Colonel Juan Barrera with the goal of capturing the capitol of Phoenix. It would be the start of several months of hell for everyone involved.
Rio Grande River: At roughly 1,254 miles of territory, the Rio Grand river was a mighty work of nature that had provided a good amount of food and trade for Texans and citizens of the Rio Grande living in the region. The sheer length of the river along with its massive depth presented a truly grand obstacle for Juarez's quest for unification. However if the Mexican forces were able to cross the Rio Grande then the path would be open to Texas and the hopeful conquest of Austin. Luckily for the Texans the Rio Grande was one of the most militarized regions in the Republic due to the chaotic nature of the former Rio Grande Republic, widespread existence of outlaws among the frontier, and raids by hostile Apache tribe during the year. There had already been hundreds of rangers along with a few professional battalions being deployed among the river, these were soon met by tens of thousands of Texans as they pledged to defend their borders against the Mexican menace. Yet despite the preparations, both sides were helped and hindered by the double edged sword of the large stretch of territory along the river. Mainly in that it would prevent the enemy from massing their numbers in large formations, but require the capture of several towns with a distance of several hundred miles between them.
The first major battle of the campaign was the Battle of El Judilo on January 17th in Coahuila where Brigadier General Albert Sidney Johnston invaded Coahuila with 7,000 Texans in an effort to "liberate" Satillo from the Mexican forces. Upon their entrance into the remote Coahuilan village they were met by 12,000 men under the command of General Ignacio Zaragoza who arrived first due to an early warning by the Republican Gard. When the Texans first engaged in battle they had expected an easy victory even with the numerical inferiority due to their past engagements with the Mexicans. It was this arrogance that cost them as the Mexicans were mostly made up of regulars and they fought with exact precision and fine detail, shocking the Texans in the first half of the battle due to their prowess. The battle took place for a majority of the day during the latter portions Johnston was able to reorganize his troops and use the Rangers to cut large holes in the Mexican formations. In the end the battle was a draw as both sides took significant losses with 945 casualties for the Texans and 1,678 casualties for Mexico while neither side could press an advantage. For President Juan Seguin the battle was a wake up call to the real threat of the Mexicans and the chance that they could actually conquer Texas this time around. Afterwords Johnston was ordered back by Major General William Travis to the Texan side as the Texans prepared for a larger defense and adjusted their invasion plans to meet the new quality of their foes. February was a virtual bloodbath as heavy skirmished filled the Rio Grande river with blood as both sides tested each others defenses. The next to make a move was Mexico as a two prong assault was launched on both Brownsville and Laredo to enter into Texas. Both battles resulted in Texan victories with Brownsville being defended thanks to the assistance of the Texas Navy and the river monitors RTS Sabine and RTS El Paso along with the Texans greater numerical advantage of 15,000 to 12,000. Meanwhile the Battle of Brownsville served to be a redemption for Johnston as he was able to use recent flooding of the Rio Grande to his advantage in defense with Mexican cavalry being essentially neutered while Texan sharpshooters formed multiple emplacements to provide continuous fire on the approaching Mexican forces. Following the victories the Texans performed a counterattack with Nuevo Laredo, Matamortos, and Reynosa being captured by the end of March. Yet all was not well on the Rio Grande with the Battle of El Paso taking place with the ongoing Siege of El Paso. Since the middle of November the border town had been besieged with 7,500 Mexican troops surrounding the town and its 4000. Mexican cavalry and skirmisher infantry continued to deny use of the Rio Grande without extensive bloodshed while supplies with Albuquerque were cut off by hostile Apache. Most of the French garrison had been pulled farther south to protect the Gulf region which left the town poor on regular troops. ON April 13th Colonel Walter Heinz surrendered to Brigadier General Phillipe Castanzo. The Mexicans suffered 653 killed, 421 wounded during the battle while the Texans suffered 295 killed and 287 wounded with the rest captured. While the Gulf Coast had been protected the gateway to the west had been opened. The future of Texas laid in the balance as 1862 dragged on, the end of the year determining if it would survive or be conquered by their former masters.
View attachment 321555View attachment 321556
Texan Dragoons crossing the Rio Grande (Left) Mexican forces marching into El Paso (Right)
Yucatan: In the fall of 1861 a ferocious war broke out in the Yucatan Jungle in the districts of Chiapas and Tobasco. After three months of fierce fighting between countrymen in the districts over allegiances to both the Yucatan and Mexico, the situation would get worse as 50,000 Mexican troops mad their way across the borders in a self-proclaimed crusade of liberation. While it at first appeared that the Mexican patriots were wiped out after the arrival of the Yucatan Army, thousands of citizens who had been neutral at first now flocked to the banners of the Mexican Eagle as they now had a realistic chance of obtaining unification with the homeland and freedom from the Yucatan Creoles and the Mayan Indians. When the fighting broke out in 1861 there was a long period of a stalemate in the Yucatan. A virtual civil war had broken out in the districts as it became Creole vs. Creole and Mexican vs. Yucatan. Often entire villages would wage war against each other through makeshift militias before an armed force on either side would be able to arrive. Ethnic violence broke out in the countryside as rogue Mexican units massacred Mayan villages for having "betrayed" the Mexican state to form their own nation, while Mayan extremists would retaliate on the same level, mirroring the brutal methods of the Apache in the North. With a nearly equal amount of troops on both sides, and varying amounts of support in each country for one nation, there was no clear victor in the Yucatan. Eventually however the tide began to turn in the favor of the Mexicans as the Mexican Army had been consistently drilled by trained professionals of the British Army since the end of the Second Civil War while many of its men, whether volunteer or regular, were veterans of the harsh years of instability within the nation. On the opposite side existed the Yucatan who while having decent arms thanks to trade and support from both Texas and France, had a overall lower level of quality for their men. The fault in this lie in the past of Yucatan warfare as they had often relied on quantity over quality for their doctrine and their victories had against less than compotent foes such as the Central American nations and the Armies of the Santa Anna regime. In contrast Texas had daily experience fighting hostile Indians and had an officer corps made up of a good number of West Point graduates and European officers. On February 1st Tuxtla was captured, following by Villahermosa on March 9th. Mexico would've soon marched on Merida had it not been for the efforts of General Ignacio Rojas who stopped the Mexican advance at the Battle of Ciudad del Carmen on March 18th where the Yucatan defenders were able to outmatch the Mexicans in firepower thanks to close support by both the Texan and the Yucatan Navy's in providing continuous bombardments on the liens of General Fierro, allowing a window for a Yucatan counterattack which cost the Mexicans 3,600 casualties. A similar success came about in Guatemala where Mayan guerillas were able to disrupt the supply lines of the Mexican columns in the Jungles, forcing them to head back into Chiapas. While the Mexicans had stopped it came at a heavy price as the Yucatan suffered over 9,000 casualties and had lost two of their most economically developed districts. It would take a miracle on the Texan front for the Yucatan to be able to gain the confidence to launch a large offensive to reclaim their land.
View attachment 321511
Mexican troops marching into Villahermosa
- Kaiser Chris
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