軍の先を行くのあらすじ

The story in 11 parts

1. Key idea 1 · free to read

   Far-off guns start a war and a voyage

   In May 1846 the sound of distant cannon rolls over the American camp at Point Isabel on the Texas coast. The guns come from a half-built fort on the Rio Grande. Officers gallop to General Taylor's tent, and the whole army longs to march.

   In one small tent a short, strong second lieutenant wakes and cries out that the war has started. He is Ulysses Grant, and he has never heard an enemy cannon. Mexico says Texas ends at the Nueces River, while the United States says it reaches the Rio Grande, so each side calls the other the invader.

   Then the scene jumps to the Gulf, where the bark Goshawk drives west in a gale. On deck stands Ned Crawford, near the grim English captain Kemp and a sharp-eyed Mexican named Zuroaga. Zuroaga says that President Paredes wants a war to stay in power, and that exiled Santa Anna wants one to come home. The war begins far from Ned, but its guns are already steering his ship.

2. 2

   The cargo below deck endangers everyone aboard

   Ned soon learns what lies under his feet.

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3. 3

   The Goshawk outwits three navies in the dark

   The race begins when a lookout cries that an American sloop of war, the Portsmouth, is bearing down on them.

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4. 4

   Wreck, disguise, and a house in Vera Cruz

   Colonel Guerra, who commands the castle, comes aboard and thanks the visitors for the powder.

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5. 5

   A night ride over the mountains

   The party leaves Vera Cruz at dusk, with a wagon, a carriage and about twenty armed riders.

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6. 6

   A city of plots, books and a ghost

   The party reaches Mexico City, built over the old Aztec capital, and Ned stays with Señora Mercedes Paez.

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7. 7

   A dispatch bearer inside besieged Vera Cruz

   In February 1847 Ned rides back into Mexico City and finds flags flying for Santa Anna's claimed victory at Buena Vista.

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8. 8

   Scott, Grant, Lee and the road around Cerro Gordo

   When Vera Cruz surrenders, Ned climbs the parapet to see the American army march in.

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9. 9

   A divided nation seen through its people

   The first theme is Mexico itself.

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10. 10

    A boy learns by crossing every border

    The third theme is Ned's schooling.

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11. 11

    How a boy's eye turns history into adventure

    Stoddard tells the story in the third person, with a warm, talkative narrator who speaks straight to young readers.

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