[Polybius]

That's just Southern courtesy. ..... Especially the part where a band of less than 10,000 marches up the same road from Veracruz to Mexico City and takes the country. TWICE. (Cortes and then the US Army)

Cortez's army of 600 was recruited in and sailed from Cuba and was later joined by another 1,400 men arriving from Cuba. The army totaled approximately 2,000 men when they captured Mexico City. So, we Cubans will claim braggin' rights for capturing Mexico with the fewest men. ;-)

[VOA]

"So, we Cubans will claim braggin' rights for capturing Mexico with the fewest men. ;-)"

Thanks for the info. I heard about Cortez's exploit in the PBS series
linked below. Pretty amazing stuff to pull off a military win with
those kinds of odds.

http://www.pbs.org/conquistadors/

The other three episodes were pretty good as well. (pretty amazing for PBS)

As for the Mexican-American War, I was suprised that PBS aired their series
on that conflict. I hadn't "connected the dots" until they related that
the US troops trod basically the same road from Veracruz to Mexico City...
and a city of large population like Mexico City couldn't recall history and
energize themselves to squash a force of under 10,000.