his command in line, facing the enemy's cavalry, and prepared to receive their charge. At seeing this they suddenly halted, and shortly afterwards retired. The major continued to hold his command on the left flank, until the battle was won, changing his position from time to time, with every movement of the cavalry. Iuring the whole time, his men behaved with coolness and bravery; and notwithstanding the number and rapidity of their evolutions, they succeeded, chiefly through the indefatigable exertions of Captain Hardee, in avoiding all confusion. The major was joined, soon after the commencement of the action, by Lieutenant-Colonel Moore, who, although declining the command, remained with him during the day. Colonel Harney, who was unwell, also came upon the field during the action, and after observing the arrangements, expressed himself satisfied, and left Sumner to execute them, "for which," archly observes the major, in his report, "I am deeply obliged to hira."

HE repulse of the second brigade enabled Colonel Duncan to reopen his battery upon the Casa Mata, which the enemy, after a short and well-directed fire, aban. doned. The Americans rushed into the works with loud cheers, seized the cannon, and turned them upon their former owners.

The enemy was now driven from every part of the field, leaving his strong lines in possession of the assailants. The quantity of stores within the two principal works fell far short of what had been anticipated, thus proving false many

of the reports previously received upon that subject. In obedience to the commands of General Scott, the Casa Mata was blown up, and such of the captured ammunition as could not be used, together with the cannon-moulds found in Molino del Rey, was destroyed.

Thus, after several hours incessant cannonading and fighting, the Americans stormed and carried an entire line of strong fortresses, defended by fourteen thousand men, securing eight hundred prisoners, all the guns, a large quantity of small arms, ammunition and other stores. Fifty-two commissioned officers were among the taken. Generals Valdarez and Leon, the second and third in command, were killed. The total loss of the enemy was about three thousand, e clusive of two thousand who deserted after the rout.

COMMENDATION OF OFFICERS.

T

561

HESE great results were not ob.ained without a proportionate loss on the part of the victors. Besides being numerically great, the list of killed and wounded embraced the names of some of the brightest ornaments of the service. Of the first, were Captains Merrill, E. K. Smith, Ayres, and Lieutenants Strong, Farry, Burwell, and Burbank. "All of these gallant men," says General Worth, "fell as, when it pleased God, they would have wished to fall, fighting bravely at the head of their troops, leaving a bright example to the service, and spotless names to the cherished recollections of comrades." Among the wounded were brevet Major Wright, Captains Mason, Walker, and Cady, and Lieutenants Shackleford, Daniels, Clarke, Snelling, and Foster, all of whom highly distinguished themselves.

The conduct of both cavalry and artillery was admirable; and the same meed of praise is due to Sumner's dragoons. General Cadwalader rendered most efficient service, and received the encomiums of General Worth. Among the other officers similarly noticed, were Colonel Garland, Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan, brevet Colonel McIntosh, Captains Huger and Drum, Lieutenants Kirkham, Nichols, and Thorne, (the latter of whom captured a regimental standard,) and the officers of Cadwalader's brigade. Worth withdrew his brigade to Tacubaya. The operations of the day had thrown the enemy on the defensive, and left no further obstruction to an attack upon the city, save the castle of Chapultepec. Knowing the strength of this fortress, General Scott wisely refrained from an immediate attack, preferring to give his troops the repose which they so much needed, rather than risk disabling his army by over exertion. The dead were collected and buried, the wounded rendered comfortable, and each division, with its officers, quartered where they could be protected from the weather.

two days, the storming of the castle is the only occurrence which is capable of separate description. The difficulty of conveying an adequate idea of the actions of August has been formerly mentioned; but the events of Contreras and Churubusco are simple when compared to those attending the taking of the capital. The plan of

attack in the latter brought out the abilities of every officer in the army, simultaneously, and, with but few exceptions, in independent commands.

Immediately after the victory of the 8th, General Scott commenced a series of strict and daring reconnoissances of the ground in the vicinity of the capital, and the principal works of the enemy. These were conducted by the able engineers, Captain Lee, and Lieutenants Stephens, Tower, and Beauregard. This service was, in point of danger, equal to battle, stations being frequently chosen within full range of the enemy's batteries, and even within musketry range of the works. The observations were directed principally to the southern defences, the strongly fortified gates of Piedad, San Antonio, San Angel, or Niño Perdido, and Paseo de la Vega. These presented a chain of ditches, intrenchments, gullies, breastworks, towers, and mines, appalling to any general save one of the first military genius and experience. "This city," says the American commander, while speaking of these defences, "stands on a slight swell of ground, near the centre of an irregular basin, and is girdled with a ditch in its greatest extent—a navigable canal of great breadth and depth-very difficult to bridge in the presence of an enemy, and serving at once for drainage, custom-house purposes, and military defence, having eight entrances or gates, over arches, each of which we found defended by a system of strong works, that seemed to require nothing but some men and guns to be impregnable.

"Outside and within the cross-fires of those gates, we found, to the south, other obstacles but little less formidable. All the approaches near the city are over elevated causeways, cut in many places, (to oppose us,) and flanked on both sides by ditches, also of unusual dimensions. The numerous cross-roads are flanked in like manner, having bridges at the intersections, recently broken. The meadows thus checkered are, moreover, in many spots, under water or marshy; for, it will be remembered, we were in the midst of the wet season, though with less rain than usual, and we could not wait for the fall of the neighbouring lakes, and the consequent drainage of the wet grounds at the edge of the city-the lowest in the whole basin."

An attack upon the city in this quarter would perhaps have been successful; but it would have been at a loss greater than has ever yet been experienced by an American army. General Scott, therefore, with that regard to the lives of his soldiers which has ever formed a prominent feature in his character, and rejecting the vain glory acquired by gaining a great battle at any expense, promptly determined to avoid the network of obstacles on the south, and seek less unfavourable approaches by a sudden inversion towards the west