Sketches of the campaign in northern Mexico : in eighteen hundred forty-six and seven / by an officer of the First Regiment of Ohio volunteers.

AFFAIRS IN MONTEREY. 289
two thousand cavalry under General Urrea and sixteen hundred infantry under General Vasquez.-* It was soon rumored
at MiIonterey, that a large force had entered the valley, and
was moving upon our line; but being unprovided with cavalry, we were unable to learn anything definite concerning
its strength, position, or designs. The citizens, whose conduct at once underwent a change, could not be prevailed
upon to disclose any particulars, and in their dealings with
us, they assumed a less gracious air and bearing, as if preparing for our defeat. At one time it was rumored that
Santa Anna's whole army had come through the Tula pass
and were in rapid march upon Monterey. Our suspicions
that some hostile movement was about to be executed, were
confirmed by the continued departure of families from the
town; the few schools it contained were broken up and the
children removed to distant villages. Before the 22d of February, Monterey was like a city of the dead. I do not
believe that there were ten Mexicans who remained within
its walls. Not one was to be seen abroad in any quarter.
Never was a city so rapidly and completely evacuated by its
inhabitants of all classes. Every house was closed and the
intense silence that reigned day and night over its empty
streets and vacant plazas, was alone broken at intervals by
* I have never been able to ascertain with certainty, whether the infantry of Vasquez entered the tierra calie~nte with Urrea's brigade of cavalry. It was never displayed before any of our posts, and the probability is that it joined Santa Anna in
his march to Buena Vista. An intercepted letter however, from a Mexican officer
to his wife in Monterey, requesting her to leave the city, as it would soon be
attacked by a column of 5000 men, caused some to infer that the entire division of
observation, swelled to the number stated by rancheros, was at Montemorelas
about the middle of February.