60 They discover the Convent of San Pablo, with its formidable defences, on the left of the causeway, the tête de pont garnished with heavy guns and crowded with troops, the continuous line of infantry between the two; and beyond the river, far as the eye can reach, stretch away the glittering bayonets of the A tremendous raking volley from the tête de pont, an enfilading fire from the convent, render this exposed highway untenable; and both brigades deploy through the cornfields on their right, to strike the bridge-head on the flank. reserves. --- Meanwhile, the division of Twiggs, having but six hours ago annihilated the army of Valencia at Contreras, faithful to its appointment, has pushed on to its promised rendezvous here, and is now hammering the convent, and the intrenchments which the enemy presents on the right. Shields's and Pierce's brigades have forded the river, and fallen on the enemy's reserves in the marshes beyond it. The battle rages at three points at once, on the left, the right, the rear. Victory wavers, and it is doubtful upon which banner she will perch. Garland's and Clarke's brigades are stunned in their onslaught upon the flank of the tête de pont. The veteran Sixth Infantry stagger back, decimated, from their furious leap upon its front. Duncan's battery is obliged to mask itself before the heavier metal of its guns. Taylor's battery, operating with Twiggs upon the right, crippled in men and horses, is driven from its position by the expert gunnery of San Pablo; while the assailing infantry there are terribly galled by the sharpshooters of its tower and roof; and Shields, on the meadows, is outflanked by the Mexican cavalry. One daring exploit redeems the fortunes of the day, -Lieut. Longstreet, bearing the colors of the Eighth Infantry, and leading the regiment which he inspirits both by exhortation and example, leaps with it into the dry-ditch of the tête de pont, escalades the curtain without ladder or scaling-implement, and, with the cold steel alone, clears its bastions of defenders, and drives them over the bridge upon their reserve. Quicker than thought, he turns its captured guns upon San Pablo, which is still slaughtering the columns of Twiggs upon the right. Relieved from the pressure of the same metal, Lieut.-Col. Duncan gallops forward with his splendid battery. He opens, at a distance of two hundred yards, upon the walls around the convent; and seizing the prolongation of its principal face, in the space of five minutes, by a fire of astonishing rapidity, drives the artillery-men from the guns in that quarter, and the infantry from their intrenchments; and then turns his battery upon the conventtower. While its garrison are shocked and half demoralized by this overwhelming attack of Duncan from the left, the stormers upon the right capture the nearest salient which confronts them in that direction; the light artillery advance rapidly within effective range; San Pablo slackens fire; and a dozen white flags appear just as Capt. Alexander of the Third Infantry is entering it, sword in hand. The whole fortified position of Churubusco is taken. When the tête de pont, which had so long withstood Worth's division, gives way, like pent-up floods, with resistless power, it sweeps across the bridge, down the causeway, over the ditch, overflowing the fugitives 62 from the works and the unbroken battalions of the foe upon the meadows. Shields, who is sorely beset by the reserves, feels their iron grasp relax, their stout ranks waver before the inflowing tide of victory, until they are borne away in dismay. Garland, with deafening shout; Ayers, with a captured Mexican gun; Hoffman, with a remnant of the gallant Sixth; Harney, with his dragoons,-while goring the retreating Mexicans, intersect the now exulting lines of Shields. Palmettoes, New-Yorkers, New-Englanders of the Ninth, survivors of that desperate charge on Partales, join the tumultuous throng which pursues the vanquished army of Santa Anna until halted by the discharge of batteries at the gate of his capital. Headquarters are established at Tacubaya, the army is cantoned there and in the neighboring villages; and then ensues for a fortnight that ill-advised armistice and futile attempt of Commissioner Trist to conquer a peace from Santa Anna in the field of diplomacy. It is yet dark on the morning of the 8th of September, when Grant, in regimental battle-line, confronts the last fortified position upon which depends the fate of the enemy's capital. Directly in his front, the solid walls of Molino del Rey, five hundred feet in length, rise like a precipice, save that drowsy candles twinkle through its windows, intimating what is in store when from them shall stare the muzzles of the rifles. On its right the Casa Mata, or arsenal, presents a forbidding mass of heavy masonry, pierced for musketry, and enveloped by a quadrangular field-work. Between the two is the station of the enemy's field battery and of the infantry deployed on either side for its protection. On its left, wrapped in the solemn shade of gigantic cypresses, towers from the summit of a porphyritic rock the royal castle of Chapultepec. We may, for the purposes of this narrative, erase Chapultepec from our topographical survey; for the skilful tactical arrangements of the division-commander have isolated it from this morning's operations. Casa Mata is assigned to Grant's comrades of the Second Brigade as their exclusive prey. Garland, under whom he serves, is aimed at the Molino alone, which, by the masking of Chapultepec, has become the extreme left of the enemy; and his business is threefold — to sustain Wright's storming party, to protect Huger's battery of twenty-fourpounders, to cut off supports from the castle. The co-operating forces for the single movement in which Grant is personally concerned are all now in position. Garland is on the plain, staring directly into the eyes of the Molino; and on the Tacubaya ridge, within five hundred yards of it, Huger, with his matches lighted; Wright, with his forlorn hope in leash; Cadwallader and Kirby Smith, as reserves against mishaps, all with hearts kindled, muscles braced, teeth set, awaiting the opening of an exciting drama. Morn has hardly purpled the east, before the heavy missiles of Huger's battering train pound the walls and penetrate the roof of the Molino; and, before the nearest mountain brings back the echo of his first gun, lights flash, bugles sound, shouts run, and arms clash along the whole line of the enemy's de fences, as the roused garrison begird themselves for action. At the first indication that the mason-work is yielding, Wright, with his half-legion of stormers, advances at double-quick down the Tacubaya slope; and unchecked by the ditch which environs the structure, unshaken by the sheet of flame which flashes from the light battery, by the musketry which showers upon them, by the canister and grape which enfilade every approach, in spite of its supports, captures the enemy's field-battery between the Casa Mata and the Molino. But as they are trailing the guns upon the retreating mass, and before they are discharged, the garrison, perceiving that it has been dispossessed by a handful of men, and re-assured by the active support of its collateral lines, rallies in force, and temporarily discomfits and drives the victors. While they are bayoneting the wounded Americans left upon the field, Cadwallader's and Kirby Smith's reserves are on the assassins. Garland now rapidly moves forward with Drum's section of artillery, and carries an apparently impregnable position under the guns of Chapultepec; and, stimulated by victory, wheels up his glittering line of bayonets to the support of the storming party. The Fourth joins the mélange of all arms which have closed in upon the Molino, firing into its apertures, climbing to its roof, and striving, with the butts of muskets and extemporized battering-rams, to burst its doors. Major Buchanan of the Fourth, with Alden and Grant, are forcing the southern gate. Ayres and Anderson, with some dashing acrobats, vault through an embrasure at the north-west angle. A hand-to-hand fight |