Ahead of the Army Read online

  Produced by Roger Frank and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  AHEAD OF THE ARMY

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

  IT WAS SEVERE WORK, BUT IT WAS DONE WITH EAGER ENTHUSIASM(See page 277)]

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

  AHEAD OF THE ARMY

  by W. O. STODDARD

  AUTHOR OF "THE ERRAND BOY OF ANDREW JACKSON," "JACK MORGAN,""THE NOANK'S LOG," ETC.

  ILLUSTRATED BYC. CHASE EMERSON

  BOSTONLOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

  COPYRIGHT, 1903, by LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Published June, 1903

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

  PREFACE

  Lest any one should suspect exaggeration in the pictures of Mexicanaffairs in the old time, which are presented by Senor Carfora, it may bewell to offer a few facts by way of explanation. During sixty-threeyears of the national life of the Republic of Mexico, from theestablishment of its independence in 1821 to the year 1884, nearly allof its successive changes of government were accompanied by more or lessviolence and bloodshed. There have been fifty-five Mexican Presidents;at one revolutionary period, four within three months, and to this listmust be added two emperors and one regency. Both of the emperors wereshot, so were several of the Presidents, and nearly all of the othersincurred the penalty of banishment. How this came to be so will possiblybe better understood by the young Americans who will kindly travel withSenor Carfora and his generals and his two armies, commanded for him byGeneral Scott and General Santa Anna. It is the wish of the author thatall his young friends may cultivate a deeper and kinder interest in thewonderful land of Anahuac and its people. The now peaceful and rapidlyimproving republic of the South is, in fact, only a kind of youngerbrother of the United States. Mexico has no more sincere well-wisherthan

  William O. Stoddard.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

  CONTENTS Page

  Far-away Guns 11The Race of the Goshawk 22The Fortune of War 47Completely Stranded 69The Work of the Norther 84Forward, March 99The Land of the Montezumas 119Out of the Tierra Caliente 136Leaving the Hacienda 157Pictures of the Past 167Ned's News 181A Storm Coming 193The Revolution 207The Despatch-bearer 221Under Fire 240General Scott and His Army 254The Mountain Passes 267Senor Carfora Trapped 281The Stars and Stripes in Tenochtitlan 294

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

  ILLUSTRATIONS Page

  It was severe work, but it was done with eager enthusiasm Frontispiece"Do you see that? What does it mean?" 30"We have orders to take care of you" 114Ned saw a long, bright blade of a lance pointed at his bosom 286

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------