through the lungs-but the fort is taken-the road is gained and the flying army of Santa Anna is pursued in all directions. On the river batteries in front, Pillow's attack is not successful. The batteries enfilade our men, and after bravely fighting, they are drawn back; but their effort is not lost. The corps of General La Vega is kept employed till Cerro Gordo has fallen. Then he surrenders, with three thousand men prisoners of war. Santa Anna, with Almonte, Canalizo, and eight thousand have escaped, leaving carriages and baggage behind, and are now on the road to Jalapa. The sun is at noon, and the battle is ended; but the pursuit continues. The reserve division of Worth comes up, passes Twiggs, and hurries rapidly on after the confused and flying Mexicans; nor does he stop till Jalapa appears in sight! On the 19th of April, from Plan del Rio, Scott announces to the War Department, that he is embarrassed with the results of victory! Three thousand prisoners, forty-three pieces of bronze artillery manufactured at Seville, five thousand stand of arms, five generals, with the munitions and materials of an army, captured in a single battle, are the fruits of victory, and demand the earnest care of the conquering general! The men must be paroled; the small-arms must be destroyed; we have not men to take care of them. Such was THE BATTLE OF CERRO GORDO. In the skill with which it was planned, in the formidable defences to be surmounted, in the heroism of the attack, and in the magnitude of results, with which of American battles will it not compare? There were almost impassable obstacles, surmounted by skill; there were almost impregnable ACCOUNT OF AN EYE-WITNESS. 193 batteries, stormed by valor; there were thousands of prisoners captured, and an army destroyed; there was a road to the capital laid open, and towns and cities taken in the long vista of a victorious march! The Mexican empire lies under the feet of the conqueror, and again is the Aztec compelled to witness the triumphs of power, and utter by the ruins of the Past, the mournings of the Present! Look around you upon the battle-field, now that the dark chariot of war has driven by! Hear the description of one who has been to look upon the dead. "A dragoon we encountered on the way kindly offered to be our guide, and from him we learned the positions of the different armies, their divisions and subdivisions. As winding around the hills by the National road, the enemy's intrenchments, their barricaded heights, strong forts, and well-defended passes came in view, we halted, and gazed for several moments in mute amazement. No one, from reading the newspaper accounts or the reports of the generals, can form a proper idea of the advantages possessed by the enemy in his chosen position. The battle, I knew it had been fought and won by our troops; yet it seemed, in its bare, still reality, a dream. I could not shake off this feeling as I rode along the enemy's lines of intrenchments, entered his dismantled forts and magazines, and looked from his chosen heights upon the paths up which our troops rushed into the jaws of death. "Passing down the ravine where the National Guard had three times attempted to dislodge the mounted riflemen, who, supported by the howitzer battery, literally rained death ainong their ranks, I was obliged to turn back and retrace my steps. The gorge was choked up with the mangled bodies of the flower of the Mexican ar my. The wolf-dog and the buzzard howled and screamed as I rode by, and the stench was too sickening to be endured. Returning to the National road, we passed a large number of cannon taken by our troops, and saw piles of muskets charred with fire in heaps, where they had been heaped and burned. "All along the road were the bodies of Mexican lancers and their horses, cut down by Colonel Harney's dragoons, when these fire-eaters chased Santa Anna and his retreating troops into and beyond Jalapa. Almost every man's skull was literally split open with the sabres of our horsemen, and they lay stretched upon the ground in ghastly groups." From this sad scenery of war, as exhibited in the relics of a battle-field, we must hasten on with the gallant general, who renewed with yet deeper verdure the laurels of Niagara on the summits of Cerro Gordo. Scott was no distant spectator of the combat. He had called others to the field, and he shared its dangers himself. Having prepared all things for the storm of the tower, (called by the Mexicans the Telegraph,) he took post at the point Col. Harney charged, and under the heavy fire of the enemy's artillery. There he witnessed the gallant charge, and there he encouraged the troops. It was then that he thus addressed Colonel Harney, (between whom and himself there had been some coolness :) "Colonel Harney, I can not now adequately express my admiration of your gallant achievement, but at the proper time I shall take great pleasure in thanking you in proper terms." Harney, with the modesty of true valor, claimed the praise as due to his officers and men. At this time Captain Patten, an excellent officer of the |