CHAPTER VI

FROM CONTRERAS TO CHAPULTEPEC

While rushing up the heights of Chapultepec with the regimental flag in his hands, Longstreet was severely wounded by a musket-ball through the thigh. After Longstreet fell, George E. Pickett carried the old Eighth’s flag to the works on the hill and to the top of the castle.

On the 18th the brilliant action of Contreras was fought. Here Scott outmanœuvred the enemy completely, employing again the Cerro Gordo tactics, and striking him in flank and rear. The routed Mexicans fled back to the fortified lines about Churubusco. Many prisoners were captured at Contreras. The attack was pressed against the position of Churubusco on the 19th and 20th, resulting in the severest battle of the war, except perhaps Buena Vista. Longstreet’s regiment, the Eighth Infantry, of which he was adjutant, here distinguished itself, aiding in the capture of many prisoners and some guns. At one crucial point Longstreet had the proud honor to carry forward the regimental colors mentioned in Worth’s despatches. After the surrender some of the prisoners attempted to escape by a rush, and many of them did get away. Others were shot down and some were recaptured. A company of Americans who had deserted the year before from Taylor’s army and joined the Mexicans were here captured in a body. Their resistance had caused severe loss to the American army. They were tried for desertion, found guilty and a score or so of them shot to death.

Scott won Churubusco with less than nine thousand men. The routed enemy fled into the city and to the fortified hill of Chapultepec, and were followed pell mell by the American cavalry. It was in this charge that Phil Kearny lost his arm. He was afterwards killed at Chantilly, in Pope’s campaign of 1862, a Union major-general. The Americans could certainly have entered the city that day on the heels of the flying foe, but Scott thought it wisest to hold back and not disperse the Mexican government, to give the American peace commissioner, Mr. Trist, an opportunity to propose terms. An armistice followed, but the Mexican government declined the basis of peace proposed.

The Americans were in possession of the whole country practically; at least there was nothing left to successfully oppose their occupation of its territory to the farthest limits. Yet after these victories, they proposed to take only Texas, New Mexico, and California, and to pay for them a large sum of money. Texas was counted our own before the war began. The terms of our government were so liberal that the Mexicans probably suspected that there was alarm for the result of future operations. Perhaps they judged the terms would be no worse after another trial of arms. And they were not.

Molino del Rey and Chapultepec followed on September 8 and 13 respectively. At the first affair the Americans lost seven hundred and eighty-seven men in the two hours of severe fighting, but won a complete victory, as usual. The fight was made by Worth’s division, and Longstreet’s regiment was engaged, of course. Thus far he had got through without a scratch.

Scott’s army, at the outset not over-large for the contract he had undertaken, was now very much reduced, but its morale was still fine. It was a critical question to determine the point of attack on the city. On the 11th there was a council of nearly all the generals and engineer officers at Piedad. Major Smith, Captain Lee, and Lieutenants Tower and Stevens, of the engineers, reported in favor of attacking the San Antonio or southern gate. Generals Quitman, Shields, Pierce, and Cadwalader concurred. General Scott, on the contrary, favored the Chapultepec route, and General Twiggs supported the general-in-chief. Alone of the engineers, Lieutenant Beauregard favored the Chapultepec route. After hearing Beauregard’s reasons, General Pierce changed his opinion. At the conclusion of the conference General Scott said, “We will attack Chapultepec and then the western gate.”

“The Hill of the Grasshopper,” Chapultepec, is an isolated mound rising one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet above the valley. Nearly precipitous in some parts, it slopes off gradually to the westward. Heavy batteries frowned from its salient positions, sweeping the approaches from all directions. To the southward the ground was marshy. The position was regarded by both belligerents as the key to the capital.

The American batteries opened fire upon Chapultepec on the 12th, causing great destruction and killing and wounding many of its defenders. The Mexican leader, Santa Anna, a very brave fellow with only one leg, was under this heavy fire for a time, taking observations of its effect. On the 13th this fire was resumed, followed by an assault of infantry. The volunteers of Quitman and Pillow, led by picked storming parties, made the assault on two fronts. The hill was carried with a rush after Scott gave the signal of attack. Pillow calling for reinforcements, Longstreet’s brigade was ordered forward by General Worth, and he went into the enemy’s works on the hill with the others.

Longstreet did not quite reach the works, for while rushing up the hill with the regimental flag in his hands he was severely wounded by a musket-ball through the thigh. The castle, all the enemy’s guns, and many prisoners were captured. General Scott rode to the summit soon after and surveyed the work of his gallant army. It was well done. General Worth chased the fleeing enemy to the city’s gates. After Longstreet fell George E. Pickett carried the flag to the works on the hill, and to the top of the castle. The old Eighth’s flag was hoisted from the staff which but a month before flaunted the Mexican banner.

This was the last action in the valley. There was some fighting at the gates, and desultory firing from the houses as the American troops pushed in, but the city fell without much loss after Chapultepec. The Mexicans evacuated the capital that night, and General Scott entered the next day. The Mexican War was practically over. In a few months a treaty was made giving the United States about what was demanded by Mr. Trist after Churubusco in August, the United States salving up Mexico’s wounded pride with fifteen million dollars.

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