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CH. VI.]

BOMBARDMENT OF VERA CRUZ.

foreign consuls, etc., to retire from the city; and on the 22d, the investment being completed, and another summons rejected, the bombardment began. Aided by the fleet, which co-operated most effectually with the land forces, Scott maintained for four days, and as many nights, such a terrific rain of fire upon the place, that it was almost converted into a heap of ruins; and the loss of life was fearfully great.

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has been severely spoken of by some writers, who have reviewed the Mexican war in its inception and progress. Military authorities, however, deem that Scott was justified in his determination, and is not liable to censure for the course he adopted. Four hundred of the garrison were killed, and six hundred were wounded; four or five hundred of the inhabitants had perished; and after some negotiation, the terms of surrender were arranged, and on the 29th of March, both the city and the far-famed castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, were surrendered to the victorious army. All the public stores, etc., in the city were delivered up, but perfect protection was guaranteed to the inhabitants.

General Worth was appointed temporary governor of Vera Cruz, and discharged the duties of the post dur

1847.

Three thousand shells, weighing ninety pounds each, and as many round shot, chiefly thirty-two pounders, were thrown into the city during this bombardment. The Mexicans, whose garrison in the city was about three thousand, and in the castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, about one thousand, displayed spirit enough in their resistance; but they were unprovided with artillery fit to cope with that of their assailants, and it would have required a considering the delay necessary to arrange for ably larger force than they possessed, advancing into the interior. General fully to man the batteries and the cita- Scott, as soon as he had made provision del. On the evening of the 24th, a for resuscitating the commerce joint note was addressed to the general- of the port, and effected the in-chief, by the French, Spanish, and necessary arrangements, took up his British consuls, requesting him to sus- line of march, on the 8th of April, for pend hostilities long enough "to enable the city of Mexico, and arrived, with their respective compatriots to leave the greater part of his army, at Plan del the place with their women and chil- Rio on the 14th. He had learned that dren, as well as the Mexican women Santa Anna, having collected what and children." General Scott, however, force he could, had taken up a position felt compelled to refuse this request, on in advance of Jalapa, at the pass of the ground that the neutrals might have Cerro Gordo, with the determination to left the place before the bombardment; stop his progress; and he hastened his and as to the Mexican women and chil- march that he might prevent delay or dren, his summons to the city had been a change of route, either of which disregarded, and now no truce would would certainly prove injurious. be allowed apart from surrender. This, which seemed to be a hard measure,

After several reconnaissances, by which he fully ascertained the strength

of the Mexican front, Scott resolved to cut a passage through the thick chaparral on his right, so as to turn the left flank of the enemy, whose care had been confined to obstructing the main road. To mask this movement, General Twiggs was ordered, on the 17th of April, to advance against a fortified position, with a steep ascent, almost directly in front of the main entrenchment. This was carried by Colonel Harney, with the rifles and some detachments of infantry and artillery, and a heavy gun having been dragged with immense toil up to the height, a demonstration was made against another fort in its rear. Early on the next morning, the troops moved forward in columns to make a general attack on the enemy's line. Pillow's brigade assaulted the right, but was compelled to retire; and it was of the less moment, because this was not the key of the position. Twiggs's division stormed the centre, carried the fortifications, and cut them off from support; while Riley's brigade drove the main body of the Mexicans into complete rout, and turned their own guns upon them as they fled. Shields's brigade, in the mean time, assaulted and carried the battery in the rear of the enemy's left, and deprived them of the opportunity of rallying.

The American loss was, sixty-four killed, and three hundred and fiftythree wounded. The loss of the Mexicans, in killed and wounded, was never known, but our countrymen took three thousand prisoners, amongst whom were five generals, four or five thousand stands of arms, and forty-three

pieces of artillery. Santa Anna himself with great difficulty escaped to Orizaba, where he exerted himself with great diligence to get together again a force sufficient to make head against Scott's advance upon the capital.

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The army advanced, as soon as pos sible after their victory, on Jalapa and Perote, which were abandoned to them without a blow; the latter on the 22d of April, and with it a vast accumulation of warlike stores. At Amozoque, they were unsuccessfully attacked by Santa Anna; and on the 22d of May, Puebla submitted to General Worth, whilst the Mexican forces retired upon the capital. This failure to retrieve the disaster at Cerro Gordo, kindled anew the flames of revolution in Mexico; and the various parties and factions in that unhappy country could agree upon no one point, except that the northern invaders were to be opposed to the last extremity, and that no peace was to be made while an enemy remained on the soil of Mexico.

The head-quarters of the army were now fixed at Puebla, where General Scott remained until the beginning of August; in part because of the necessity of recruiting his troops, and in part because the home government renewed their overtures of negotiations to the government of Mexico, as soon as the news of the victory at Cerro Gordo reached Washington. But this long halt grievously tried both the health and the morale of the army. The numbers in hospital were unprecedented, when the total strength of the forces are taken into consideration, amounting

Cư. VI.]

SCOTT'S ADVANCE ON THE CAPITAL.

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culiarly favorable to guerilla warfare, and in which no amount of contributions which might be levied could compensate for the destruction of its communications with the sea and the fleet. The attempts which were made to annoy and harass the advance of the American army confirm this statement in the most convincing manner.

sometimes to a fifth, and even to a quarter of the whole; and the desertions were more frequent and extensive than, under all the circumstances, could have been conceived. Into the unpleasant differences and disputes between the general-in-chief and the authorities at Washington, growing out of the scheme of superseding Scott, by the appointment of a lieutenant-general, we need As might be supposed, the Mexicans not enter; neither is it material to en- made intense efforts to defend their caplarge upon the mission of Mr. N. P. ital city. On every road approaching it Trist, who was sent by the president were strong earth-works and batteries, as commissioner, with full powers to and around the city itself was a comseize upon the earliest opportunity of plete girdle of entrenchments. There | negotiating a peace with Mexico. The was, however, an insufficiency of artilhistorians of the war, Ripley, Mansfield, lery, and the disposable troops were not and others, will furnish all the details above twenty thousand in number; the desired by the reader. services of some ten thousand armed Having at length been well rein- citizens might perhaps be reckoned forced, although he left behind him upon, in addition to the army; and aleighteen hundred men in hospital, on though the lines were long, the invadthe 7th of August, General Scott took ing force was too inconsiderable to the road to the capital of Mexico; and make this of any great moment. In in four days the advanced division view of all the circumstances, the plans reached Ayotla, about fifteen miles of Santa Anna (as stated by him after from the city of the Montezumas. By the battle was lost,) appear to have this route, however, it was soon been arranged with greater skill than discovered that Mexico was in- he had shown before. It was his deaccessible; a new road was therefore sign to have fallen back before Scott's constructed, to the south of that run- advance, and given battle on ground ning direct from Vera Cruz; and be- he had chosen, and in which his numtween the 15th and the 18th of the bers would have told with effect upon month, the army had rounded Lakes the comparatively small army of the Chalco and Xochimilco, and reached invaders. But the gross disobedience San Augustin, on the Acapulco road, of General Valencia disconcerted the only eight miles distant from the ob- whole plan. As if he had determined ject of its long journey. Nothing can to seize the first opportunity of attack better show the exhaustion of the mili- ing the Americans, in entire forgetful. tary power of the government, than ness of the first duty of a subordinate this daring march of less than eleven commander, and in spite of the untenthousand men, so far into a country pe-able character of the ground about

1847.

Contreras, (or Padierna,) he left his position at Coyoacan and San Angel, and advanced to Contreras, and on the heights there entrenched himself, not only without any orders from Santa Anna, but without so much as consulting him respecting the movement. By this means he weakened the force opposed to Scott's direct advance, and at the same time he could not prevent that advance, because the nature of the ground in his front neutralized the menace of his position on Scott's flank. It was, nevertheless, considered safest to dispose of Valencia's force in the first instance; and, accordingly, Worth was sent with Harney's cavalry to threaten San Antonio, and Pillow's division consisting of Pierce's and Cadwallader's brigades, was despatched against Contreras, on the left, across the Pedregal, an almost impassable lavatract, over which a party, covered by Twiggs's division, undertook the making of a road.

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On the afternoon of the 19th of August, these two divisions arrived within range of Valencia's guns; and the small field batteries of Magruder and Callender were, with great labor, brought into play against them, while the front was extended to the right in such a manner, that, by the aid of Morgan's regular infantry and Shields's volunteers, (which were sent to reinforce them at sunset,) the rancho of Ansaldo was carried, and Valencia's communications threatened. Amid the darkness and rain of the night, which rapidly fell upon the field, and terminated the conflict for a short time, General Persifer F. Smith proposed a plan for the assault

of Valencia's camp, which Captain Lee, of the engineers, toiling alone across the perilous intervening space, through the impervious gloom and storm, communicated to General Scott, and obtained his approbation for making trial of it.

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About three in the morning of the 20th of August, Riley's brigade, followed by Cadwallader's and Smith's, set out, and toiling through the rain and mud, by sunrise reached an elevation in the rear of the Mexican position, from which they were able to attack the entrenchments with such advantage, that in seventeen minutes they were carried. Scott had sent Twiggs's division against the works in front, to effect a diversion, if it should be required; Smith's brigade discovered and routed a mass of Mexican cavalry, while Shields's not only held other masses in check, but captured great numbers of fugitives from Contreras. The American force engaged in this brilliant action was about four thousand five hundred, whilst the enemy numbered about six thousand, and Santa Anna was sufficiently near, with double that number, to have shared in the fight if he had felt disposed.

This decisive victory, however, was not all that was accomplished on that day. Whilst the divisions just mentioned were engaged on the left, General Worth, by a skillful and daring movement on the right, had turned and forced the enemy's strong position at San Antonio, and then advanced directly upon a strong, well-built fortification, the tête du pont of Cheru busco, the other divisions hastening to

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