Scott had marched westward on April 2,…
April 1847 CE
Scott had marched westward on April 2, 1847, toward Mexico City with eighty-five hundred healthy troops, while Santa Anna had set up a defensive position in a canyon around the main road about fifty miles (eighty kilometers) north-west of Veracruz, near the hamlet of Cerro Gordo.
Santa Anna has entrenched with twelve thousand troops, and artillery that are trained on the road, where he expects Scott to appear.
However, Scott has sent twenty-six hundred mounted dragoons ahead and they reach the pass on April 12.
The Mexican artillery prematurely fires on them and therefore reveal their positions, beginning the Battle of Cerro Gordo.