Texas: A Novel by Michener James A

Author:Michener, James A. [Michener, James A.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Contemporary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Action & Adventure, Family Saga, Contemporary, Sagas, Historical, Domestic Life, Women's Fiction, Genre Fiction, Literature & Fiction
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Published: 2014-01-21T08:00:00+00:00

On the evening after the great battle at Buena Vista, when the Mexicans had stood within six inches or six minutes of an astounding victory, General Santa Anna had convened a meeting of his officers, and such is the strangeness of battle that approximately identical questions were being asked.

‘Can we crush them in the morning?’ the one-legged Napoleon asked. ‘Our lancers, all our cavalry, they did what they could this afternoon.’

‘Can they repeat?’

Silence. No one dared tell the dictator of Mexico, the commander in chief, the Benemérito de la Patria, El Supremo, that something was impossible, but it was clear even to him that the mexicano cavalry had shot its bolt. It had been a gallant bolt, one of the best, but it was finished.

‘The infantry?’

More silence. No other infantry in the world suffered the disadvantages that were the common lot of the peasants who formed the bulk of any Santa Anna army. Conscripted at gunpoint, they marched barefoot, clad only in thin cotton shirts even in the dead of winter—like now. And they bled and shivered and died of dysentery, for their army provided no field hospitals to accompany them and no medicines to soften the dreadful fevers they contracted. Despite these deprivations and the lack of food, they were obedient and brave, and when they started running at an enemy line they usually breached it. Such soldiers had defeated Spaniards, Frenchmen, Americans and other Mexicans, and if ordered on the morrow to attack the weakened American lines, they would do so, until their bodies piled higher than a small tree.

But their officers stood silent, for they knew that because of supply problems, those faithful soldiers shivering in the wintry blast had eaten nothing for nearly thirty hours. They would obey orders and start toward the norteamericano lines tomorrow, that was certain, but they might well collapse before they got there, and not necessarily from enemy gunfire.

To the surprise of everyone in his tent, Santa Anna changed the course of his discussion and said most abruptly: ‘We had a great victory today, did we not?’

‘Yes, General.’

‘And we overran six or seven headquarters positions, did we not?’

‘We did.’

‘Did we capture many enemy flags?’

‘We did. Cortés alone has seven. I saw them.’

‘Let Cortés speak for himself.’ The gallant lancer was sent for, and Santa Anna asked: ‘Did you capture enemy flags?’

‘Yes, General, seven.’

‘Any other trophies?’

‘Many. Many.’

Santa Anna now turned to the one man he knew he could trust in any adversity, a man who had always given straight answers: ‘Garza, can we defeat them tomorrow?’

‘Unquestionably.’

‘Why do you say that, when these others …’

‘Because I know what’s going on over there.’ He pointed north, toward Saltillo and the American lines: ‘They’re holding a meeting like this, and they know they’ve been defeated.’

‘Will they retreat, do you think?’

Now Garza had to pause, for in his careful study of the norteamericanos he had perceived that Zachary Taylor was not the clever kind of general who saw things in big design. He was a man who took a position and held on to it until he was knocked off.

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