Home of the Brave (49 page)

The march was rendered
tedious by the darkness, rain, and mud ; but about sunrise, Riley,
conducted by Lieutenant Tower, Engineer, had reached an elevation
behind the enemy, whence he precipitated his columns ; stormed the
entrenchments, planted his several colors upon them, and carried
the work all in seventeen minutes.

Conducted by Lieutenant
Beauregard, Engineer, and Lieutenant Brooks of Twiggs’s Staff both
of whom, like Lieutenant Tower, had, in the night, twice
reconnoitered the ground Cadwallader brought up to the general
assault, two of his regiments the Voltigeurs and the 11th ; and at
the appointed time Colonel Eansom, with his temporary brigade,
conducted by Captain Lee, Engineer, not only made the movement in
front, to divert and to distract the enemy, but, after crossing the
deep ravine, advanced, and poured into the works and upon the
fugitives many volleys from his destructive musketry.

In the mean time Smith’s
own brigade, under the temporary command of Major Dimick, following
the movements of Riley and Cadwallader, discovered, opposite to,
and outside of the works, a long line of Mexican cavalry, drawn up
as a support. Dimick having at the head of the brigade the company
of Sappers and Miners, under Lieutenant G. W. Smith, Engineer, who
had conducted the march, was ordered by Brigadier-General Smith to
form his line faced to the enemy, and in a charge, against a flank,
routed the cavalry.

Shields, too, by the wise
disposition of his brigade and gallant activity, contributed much
to the general results. He held masses of cavalry and infantry,
supported by artillery, in check below him, and captured hundreds,
with one general (Mendoza), of those who fled from
above.

I doubt whether a more
brilliant or decisive victory taking into view ground, artificial
defenses, batteries, and the extreme disparity of numbers without
cavalry or artillery on our side is to be found on record.
Including all our corps directed against the entrenched camp, with
Shields’s brigade at the hamlet, we positively did not number over
four thousand five hundred rank and file ; and we knew by sight,
and since, more certainly, by many captured documents and letters,
that the enemy had actually engaged on the spot seven thousand men,
with at least twelve thousand more hovering within sight and
striking distance both on the 19th and 20th. All, not killed or
captured, now fled with precipitation.

Thus was the great victory
of Contreras achieved ; one road to the capital opened ; seven
hundred of the enemy killed; eight hundred and thirteen prisoners,
including, among eighty-eight officers, four generals ; besides
many colors and standards ; twenty-two pieces of brass ordnance
half of large caliber, thousands of small arms and accoutrements;
an immense quantity of shot, shells, powder, and cartridges seven
hundred pack mules, many horses, etc., etc. all in our
hands.

It is highly gratifying to
find that, by skilful arrangement and rapidity of execution, our
loss, in killed and wounded, did not exceed, on the spot, sixty
among the former the brave Captain Charles Hanson, of the 4th
Infantry not more distinguished for gallantry than for modesty,
morals, and piety. Lieutenant J. P. Johnstone, 1st Artillery,
serving with Magruder’s battery, a young officer of the highest
promise, was killed the evening before.

One of the most pleasing
incidents of the recapture, in their works, by Captain Drum,
Artillery, under Major Gardner, of the two brass 6- pounders, taken
from another company of the same regiment, though without the loss
of honor, at the glorious battle of Buena Vista about which guns
the whole regiment had mourned for so many long months ! Coming up
a little later I had the happiness to join in the protracted cheers
of the gallant 4th on the joyous event and, indeed, the whole army
sympathizes in its just pride and exultation.

The battle being won
before the advancing brigades of Worth’s and Quitman’s divisions
were in sight, both were ordered back to their late positions :
Worth, to attack San Antonio, in front, with his whole force, as
soon as approached in the rear by Pillow’s and Twiggs’s divisions
moving from Contreras, through San Angel and Coyoacan. By carrying
San Antonio, we knew that we should open another, a shorter and
better, road to the capital for our siege and other
trains.

Accordingly, the two
advanced divisions and Shields brigade marched from Contreras,
under the immediate orders of Major-General Pillow, who was now
joined by the gallant Brigadier-General Pierce of his division,
personally thrown out of activity, late the evening before, by a
severe hurt received from the fall of his horse.

After giving necessary
orders on the field, in the midst of prisoners and trophies, and
sending instructions to Harney’s brigade of cavalry (left at SAN
AUGUSTIN) to join me, I personally followed Pillow’s
command.

Arriving at Coyoacan, two
miles by a cross road, from the rear of San Antonio, I first
detached Captain Lee, Engineer, with Captain Kearny s troop, 1st
Dragoons, supported by the Rifle Regiment, under Major Loring, to
reconnoiter that strong point; and next dispatched Major-General
Pillow, with one of his brigades (Cadwallader’s), to make the
attack upon it, in concert with Major-General Worth on the opposite
side.

At the same time, by
another road to the left, Lieutenant Stevens of the Engineers,
supported by Lieutenant G. W. Smith’s company of sappers and
miners, of the same corps, was sent to reconnoiter a strongly
fortified church or convent of San Pablo, in the hamlet of
Churubusco one mile off. Twiggs with one of his brigades (Smith’s
less the Rifles) and Captain Taylor’s field battery, were ordered
to follow and to attack the convent. Major Smith, senior Engineer,
was dispatched to concert with Twiggs the mode and means of attack,
and Twiggs’s other brigade (Biley’s) I soon ordered up to support
him.

Next (but all in ten
minutes) I sent Pierce (just able to keep the saddle) with his
brigade (Pillow’s division), conducted by Captain Lee, Engineer, by
a third road a little farther to our left, to attack the enemy’s
right and rear, in order to favor the movement upon the convent,
and to cut off a retreat toward the capital. And finally, Shields,
senior brigadier to Pierce, with the New York and South Carolina
Volunteers (Quitman’s division), was ordered to follow Pierce
closely, and to take the command of our left wing All these
movements were made with the utmost alacrity by our gallant troops
and commanders.

Finding myself at
Coyoacan, from which so many roads conveniently branched, without
escort or reserve, I had to advance for safety close upon Twiggs’s
rear. The battle now raged from the right to the left of our whole
line.

Learning on the return of
Captain Lee, that Shields in the rear of Churubusco was hard
pressed, and in danger of being outflanked, if not overwhelmed, by
greatly superior numbers, I immediately sent under Major Sumner, 2d
Dragoons, the Rifles (Twiggs’s reserve) and Captain Sibley’s troop,
2d Dragoons, then at hand, to support our left, guided by the same
engineer.

About an hour earlier,
Worth had, by skilful and daring movements upon the front and
right, turned and forced San Antonio its garrison, no doubt, much
shaken by our decisive victory at Contreras.

His second brigade
(Colonel Clarke’s) conducted by Captain Mason, Engineer, assisted
by Lieutenant Hardcastle, Topographical Engineer, turned to the
left, and by a wide sweep came out upon the high road to the
capital. At this point the heavy garrison (three thousand men) in
retreat was, by Clarke, cut in the centre one portion, the rear,
driven upon Dolores, off to the right, and the other upon
Churubusco, in the direct line of our operations. The first brigade
(Colonel Garland’s), same division, consisting of the 2d Artillery,
under Major Gait, the 3d Artillery, under Lieutenant-Colonel
Belton, and the 4th Infantry, commanded by Major F. Lee, with
Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan’s field battery (temporarily) followed in
pursuit through the town, taking one general prisoner, the
abandoned guns (five pieces), much ammunition, and other public
property.

The forcing of San Antonio
was the second brilliant event of the day.

Worth’s division being
soon reunited in hot pursuit, he was joined by Major-General
Pillow, who, marching from Coyoacan and discovering that San
Antonio had been carried, immediately turned to the left according
to my instructions, and, though much impeded by ditches and swamps,
hastened to the attack of Churubusco.

The hamlet or scattered
houses bearing this name, presented besides the fortified convent,
a strong fieldwork (fete de pont) with regular bastions and
curtains at the head of a bridge over which the road passes from
San Antonio to the capital.

The whole remaining forces
of Mexico some twenty-seven thousand men cavalry, artillery, and
infantry, collected from every quarter were now in, on the flanks,
or within supporting distance of those works, and seemed resolved
to make a last and desperate stand for if beaten here, the feebler
defenses at the gates of the city four miles off could not, as was
well known to both parties, delay the victors an hour.

The capital of an ancient
empire, now of a great republic or an early peace, the assailants
were resolved to win. Not an American and we were less than a third
of the enemy’s numbers had a doubt as to the result.

The fortified church or
convent, hotly pressed by Twiggs, had already held out about an
hour, when Worth and Pillow the latter having with him
Cadwallader’s brigade began to maneuver closely upon the tete de
pont with the convent at half gunshot to their left. Garland’s
brigade (Worth’s division), to which had been added the light
battalion under Lieutenant-Colonel C. F. Smith, continued to
advance in front and under the fire of a long line of infantry off
on the left of the bridge ; and Clarke of the same division,
directed his brigade along the road or close by its side. Two of
Pillow’s and Cadwallader’s regiments, the 11th and 14th, supported
and participated in this direct movement the other (the Voltigeurs)
was left in reserve. Most of these corps particularly Clarke’s
brigade advancing perpendicularly, were made to suffer much by the
fire of the tete de pont, and they would have suffered greatly more
by flank attacks from the convent, but for the pressure of Twiggs
on the other side of that work.

This well-combined and
daring movement at length reached the principal point of attack,
and the formidable tete de pout was at once assaulted and carried
by the bayonet. Its deep wet ditch was first gallantly crossed by
the 8th and 5th Infantry, commanded respectively by Major Waite and
Lieutenant-Colonel Martin Scott followed closely by the 6th
Infantry (same brigade), which had been so much exposed on the road
the 11th regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Graham, and the 14th
commanded by Colonel Trousdale, both of Cadwallader’s brigade,
Pillow’s division. About the same time, the enemy in front of
Garland, after a hot conflict of an hour and a half gave way, in a
retreat toward the capital.

The immediate results of
this third signal triumph of the day were three field pieces, one
hundred and ninety-two prisoners, much ammunition and two colors
taken at the tete de pont.

Lieutenant I. F. Irons,
1st Artillery, aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General Cadwallader, a
young officer of great merit and conspicuous in battle on several
previous occasions, received in front of the work, a mortal wound.
(Since dead.)

As the concurrent attack
upon the convent favored, physically and morally, the assault upon
the tete de pont, so reciprocally, no doubt, the fall of the latter
contributed to the capture of the former. The two works were only
some four hundred and fifty yards apart ; and as soon as we were in
possession of the tete de pont, a captured 4-pounder was turned and
fired first by Captain Larkin Smith, and next by Lieutenant
Snelling, both of the 8th Infantry several times upon the convent.
In the same brief interval, Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan (also of
Worth’s division) gallantly brought two of his guns to bear at a
short range from the San Antonio road, upon the principal face of
the work and on the tower of the church, which in the obstinate
contest, had been often refilled with some of the best
sharpshooters of the enemy.

Finally, twenty minutes
after the tete de pont had been carried by Worth and Pillow, and at
the end of a desperate conflict of two hours and a half, the church
or convent the citadel of the strong line of defense along the
rivulet of Churubusco yielded to Twiggs’s division, and threw out
on all sides signals of surrender. The white flags, however, were
not exhibited until the moment when the 3d infantry, under Captain
Alexander, had cleared the way by fire and bayonet, and had entered
the work. Captain I. M. Smith and Lieutenant O. L. Shepherd, both
of that regiment, with their companies, had the glory of leading
the assault. The former received the surrender, and Captain
Alexander instantly hung out from the balcony the colors of the
gallant 3d. Major Dimick with a part of the 1st Artillery, serving
as infantry, entered nearly abreast with the leading
troops.

Captain Taylor’s field
battery, attached to Twiggs’s division, opened its effective fire
at an early moment upon the outworks of the convent and the tower
of its church. Exposed to the severest fire of the enemy, the
captain, his officers and men, won universal admiration but at
length much disabled in men and horses, the battery was by superior
orders withdrawn from the action, thirty minutes before the
surrender of the convent.