Home of the Brave (51 page)

Marina looked up from the
document. “There is nothing here that you do not already
know.”

“I want to know what Scott
is thinking.”

“He thinks that you intend
to sign a treaty of peace.”

“That is what I want the
fool to keep thinking while I prepare to destroy him.
Read!”

She sighed. “Headquarters of
the army, Tucubaya, at the gates of Mexico, August 28, 1847. From
Major-General Winfield Scott to William L. Marcy, Secretary of War,
at Washington, D.C. Sir. My report number twenty-one began on the
nineteenth and closed with the operations of that day…”

~

“The arrogance!” Santa Anna
raged. “He thinks he has beaten me.”

Marina closed the report and
put it down on the table beside her. “He has beaten you. You are
just too stupid to recognize it or too arrogant to admit
it.”

He slapped her across the
face then when she laughed at him, he turned and stormed out of the
room.

September 3,
1847

Tucubaya, Mexico

Negotiations for a treaty of
peace between the United States and Mexico had been ongoing for a
month with no real progress.

It was just past midnight
when General Winfield Scott climbed to the roof of the Bishop’s
Palace at Tucubaya, which he was using as his headquarters. “I was
dreaming of a roast turkey,” he grumbled. “This had better be
important.”

Yank pointed toward a red
glow beyond a group of big stone buildings.

“What is that? A
fire?”

“A forge. This armistice and
the negotiations for a peace treaty are a stalling tactic. While we
sit here negotiating, Santa Anna’s collecting the bells from
churches, monasteries and convents, then casting them into cannons,
right there, under our very noses.”

“Are you sure?”

“I was down there myself
right after dark. I could see the molds inside that building with
the forge.”

“What is that
building?”

“It’s called Casa Mata. It’s
one of several stone buildings. They’re known collectively as El
Molino del Rey.”

“The King’s
Mill?”

“Yes. The building to the
left of Casa Mata was once the Royal gunpowder mill when this was
under Spanish rule.”

“Why haven’t we noticed this
before now?”

“They’re moving back and
forth through the ravine and it’s well masked by the
forest.”

“How did you happen to see
it?”

Yank hesitated. “Thomas and
I were scouting the castle to see if we could find a way to rescue
Marina.”

Scott nodded. “I’ll send
Bill Worth down there in the morning to take the foundry and
destroy any ordinance he finds.”

“Let me scout it out a
little closer first. They may have increased the number of troops
too. There are a lot of tracks in the ravine.”

Scott nodded. “Let’s
tentatively plan for the morning of the 8
^th
, if we don’t have a signed
treaty by then.”

September 7,
1847

Tucubaya, Mexico

General William J. Worth
limped into the library that General Scott was using as his office
and sat down in the armchair next to Yank’s without an invitation.
“Are we finished talking peace at last, Win?”

Scott nodded. “Yes.” He got
up from behind the desk and joined the other two generals, sitting
down heavily in another armchair. “The leg bothering you,
Bill?”

“No more than usual,” Worth
replied. “It’s not very painful any more; it just doesn’t behave
well.”

“I remember when it happened
at Niagara,” Scott said. “It looked so bad that I was sure you were
going to lose it.”

“He would have lost it, if
all the surgeons hadn’t all run off with the militia,” Yank
chuckled.

“You were standing right
behind me when I was hit,” Worth said to Yank. “That grapeshot was
meant for you.”

Yank nodded. “So you’ve said
at least a half dozen times, and I’ve thanked you for stopping it
for me, at least that many times.”

“Didn’t Yank get you your
appointment as Commandant of West Point?” Scott asked.

Worth nodded. “But he did it
to avoid being appointed himself, not as thanks for me catching his
cannonballs.”

“I was wishing you were with
me at Detroit,” Yank chuckled.

“Well, let’s get to it,”
Scott said at last. “Yank, please tell Bill what you and Tom have
discovered while scouting the mill.”

Yank nodded. “El Molino del
Rey, or The King’s Mill, in English, consists of several buildings
that extend for about five hundred yards along a mill stream. The
main buildings are a gunpowder mill that’s been in and out of use
since the Spanish left, a flour mill that’s been in use until
recently, and Casa Mata which is now a full-fledged cannon foundry.
These are very well built stone buildings that will be impervious
to cannon fire.

“To the west, the ground
slopes upward to a wide ravine. Beyond that there’s a house owned
by someone named Morales. There’s a substantial force of perhaps
two brigades camped there.”

“I presume the mills
themselves are occupied by troops,” Worth said.

Yank nodded. “Three National
Guard regiments and a mixed brigade under Leon. And two regiments
between the mills and Casa Mata are under Ramirez. He also has six
field pieces. Perez has a reinforced regiment in Casa
Mata.”

“Do you know how many troops
Santa Anna has back in that grove of trees?” Worth
asked.

“Yes. Two light
battalions.”

“No cavalry?”

“No. All his cavalry is west
of the ravine.”

“How many horse?”

“About four thousand. His
total strength, not counting the cadets and other troops at
Chapultepec Castle is about fourteen thousand.”

“What about Chapultepec
Castle?” Worth asked. “Shouldn’t we take it?”

“Yes,” Scott replied. “As
soon as we move those people out of the King’s Mill.”

“The cadets call Chapultepec
Castle the Halls of Montezuma,” Worth said. “They say the place is
haunted by his ghost.”

“After we’ve taken El Molino
del Rey,” Yank said, “if you’ll lend me your United States Marines,
we’ll exorcize the ghost from the Halls of Montezuma, free my wife
and capture Santa Anna.”

September 8,
1847

Chapultepec Castle,
Mexico

Marina was jolted awake at
3:00 AM by the sound of artillery. She slipped out of bed and
without stopping to dress, ran to the French doors and onto the
narrow terrace. Below she could see the American guns pouring shot
into the low stone buildings of Molino del Rey.

After a quick glance at the
other terraces, she began to climb the ornate trim at the side of
the terrace door until she was balanced on the narrow ledge that
spanned the castle front. Finding handholds in the masonry and
testing the ledge before moving her weight, she edged to the corner
of the building and climbed to the roof.

The wind whipped her flimsy
nightgown and the cold made her shiver, but she ran barefoot across
the flat roof and climbed the ladder to the water tower. Once on
the top she walked the catwalk to the interior ladder and climbed
down to the small boat that floated in the water where she began to
dress in the clothes she’d hidden under the seat.

~

It was obvious to General
Worth that Captain Huger’s heavy guns were doing no damage to the
stone buildings, but he hoped that the pounding was having a
debilitating psychological affect on the troops inside.

At the signal, Huger’s guns
fell silent and the infantry, commanded by Major Wright, charged.
Almost immediately, a Mexican battery on Wright’s flank opened fire
and Mexican troops from inside the mills rushed out to form a line
or take up firing positions on the roofs.

Colonel Garland drove off
the Mexican infantry on the right and Captain Drum positioned his
battery under the guns of Chapultepec Castle where they soon
silenced the Mexican battery on Wright’s right flank.

As the American charge
continued, a large number of Mexican musketeers who had gained the
flat roofs fired a withering volley, killing all but three of the
fourteen American officers. The brigade under Colonel McIntosh, on
the right, then fell back until Captain Duncan brought his battery
to bear on Casa Mata and swept the defenders off the
roof.

~

Marina cringed as a huge
explosion rang the water tower like a bell and lighted the night.
Fearful of what might have happened she climbed the ladder to peek
out. The remains of Casa Mata were in flames and the blaze revealed
Americans rounding up prisoners. She climbed back down and
reclaimed her boat to wait for the Battle of
Chapultepec.

~

When the Americans began to
withdraw with their prisoners toward Tucubaya, an enraged Santa
Anna organized search teams to comb the castle for Marina. Shortly
after sunrise, he called off the search, executed the guards who
had allowed Marina to escape and left with his entourage for Mexico
City.

September 12,
1847

Chapultepec Castle,
Mexico

Marina had begun to despair
that the castle had been bypassed when the American artillery
barrage began at dawn. She had enough food to last for another week
but she had been unable to stay dry and was developing chilblains.
She prayed that a quick American victory might save her feet from
amputation.

The barrage continued
through the day, then halted at sunset.

September 12,
1847

Chapultepec Castle,
Mexico

When the bombardment began
at dawn, Marina had lost all feeling in her feet and could no
longer risk staying inside the water tower. Other than the odd
sensation of not feeling her weight on the rungs of the ladder, she
had no difficulty climbing to the top of the tower. She had
expected to risk discovery from the tall watchtower in the center
of the castle but to her surprise, it was not manned. Instead, the
roof parapet was lined with armed cadets, preparing to fire down at
the attackers.

With no other option, she
moved hand over hand to the opposite side of the tank, pulled
herself over and slid down the clay drain pipe to the corner of the
roof where she was hidden from the defenders by the tower. When she
at last removed her shoes, the color and appearance of her feet
frightened her.

At 8:00 AM, the bombardment
suddenly ceased. Marina stretched out along the parapet and peeked
over to see the courtyard and grounds far below. A fierce fight in
the cypress grove had broken out but the Mexicans were soon pushed
back and when a few began to flee toward the castle, the rest soon
followed.

~

Yank and Thomas were
standing side-by-side at the bottom of the hill with their backs to
the castle. Yank was holding Beelzebub’s reins. Thomas had no
horse. “Marines, fall-in,” Thomas bellowed.

Forty United States Marines
came running from the cypress grove to form four ranks facing the
castle.

“First squad,” Thomas
called. “Left-face. At the trail. Forward-march. Second squad.
Right-face. At the trail. Forward-march. Third squad. Left-face. At
the trail. Forward-march. Fourth squad. Right-face. At the trail.
Forward-march.”

He watched until the four
columns had created a jagged line. “Platoon-halt. First and third
squads, right-face. Second and fourth squads, left-face. Platoon,
dress-right, dress. Quickly, quickly. Ready-front.
Fix-bayonets.”

Thomas waited until the last
man had affixed his bayonet, then did a crisp about-face.
“Port-arms.” He drew his sword and raised it over his head.
“Forward, march. Double-time, march.”

Yank mounted Beelzebub and
drawing his sword, kicked him into a trot leaving Thomas to lead
the Marines.

The castle’s gunners had
bracketed the Marines now and the first ball found a man in the
center of the line and destroyed him. The line filled in and moved
on. Small arms now joined the growing cannonade but the Marines
never faltered.

At the top of the hill, in
front of the castle, the Mexicans that had abandoned the cypress
grove now joined the castle garrison to form a ragged defensive
line.

“Charge, bayonet.” Thomas
began to run with the Marines right behind him in perfect
step.

Yank raised himself in the
stirrups, leaned forward and pointed his sword at the castle doors.
“Okay, devil horse. Let’s see if you have the same stuff that your
grandfather had.” He gave Beelzebub a kick and had to hold on tight
with his knees to avoid being dumped by the big animal’s forward
surge.

The Mexicans fired an
ineffective volley. Some reloaded and some began to drift away. The
officer at Yank’s front aimed his pistol and fired but the ball
went high as Beelzebub crashed through the first rank of musketeers
and Yank took down the nearest mounted officer with one slash of
his sword.