Not an enemy appeared to obstruct their march, until, on emerging from the pass of Rio Frio, they commenced descending into the valley, in the midst of which, like some bright vision of fairy land, lay the city of Mexico, whose shining domes and sculptured façades were bathed in the rich flood of golden light that streamed down through the transparent atmosphere. On approaching the hacienda of Buena Vista, Major Sumner, of the 2nd dragoons, who commanded the advanced corps, descried a party of Mexican lancers apparently drawn up to defend the passage. Dashing fiercely upon the enemy, without pausing to count their numbers, he compelled them to make a hasty retreat. General Twiggs’ division halted at Ayotla, fifteen miles from Mexico, on the eleventh of August, and as the other divisions came up, they encamped in the rear, about the head of Lake Chalco.

The Mexican capital lies about three miles west of Lake Tezcuco, and six miles from the northwest point of Lake Xochimilco. It is approached by six principal roads, which terminate in massive stone causeways, elevated from ten to twenty feet above the low marshy grounds that surround the city. On the east, is the National Road, along which the American army moved; on the south, the Acapulco road, entering on the San Antonio causeway; on the south-west, the Tacubaya road and causeway; on the west, the San Cosmé road and causeway; and on the north, are the remaining two roads.

After his repulse at Amasoque, Santa Anna returned to the capital, and began diligently to fortify it. The National Road, which runs close to the southern shore of Lake Tezcuco, was defended by El Peñon, an isolated hill three hundred feet high, seven miles from the city, on the south side of the road; this was garnished with twenty batteries mounting fifty-one guns, and fifteen infantry breastworks; and there was, also, a strong battery on the road, or causeway, four hundred yards in advance of the height, another by its side, and a third about a mile from the gate of San Lazaro. Between the National Road and Lake Xochimilco, is a lateral road, leading to the San Antonio causeway by way of the village of Mexicalcingo, which lies on the outlet or canal reaching from the lake to the city. The bridge over the outlet was fortified, and flanked by strong works,—there being, in all, eight batteries, with thirty-eight guns, and one breastwork for infantry.

On the opposite side of Lake Xochimilco, upon the San Antonio causeway, was a tête du pont of heavy mason work, at the bridge over the Churubusco river, over two miles south of the city. To the left of the bridge, were the church and convent of San Pablo, surrounded by a high wall and designed to be used for purposes of defence. Between two and three miles further south, at San Antonio, there were extensive field works, containing seven batteries, mounting twenty-four heavy guns, and two infantry breastworks. Five miles northwest of the tête du pont, on the Tacubaya causeway, and distant only one and a half miles from the Belén garita, or fortified gateway, was the frowning fortress of Chapultepec, situated on a rocky eminence in an oblong inclosure, the walls at the foot of which, on the north and south, were formed by aqueducts extending into the city, over heavy arches, by the Tacubaya and San Cosmé causeways, which were thus divided into double roadways. On the heights of Chapultepec, there were seven batteries, including those in the main fortification, which mounted nineteen guns, and seven infantry breastworks. Beneath this fortress, on the west, twelve hundred yards distant from the acclivity, was El Molino del Rey—“the Mill of the King”—a long range of stone buildings now occupied by the Mexican troops; and four or five hundred yards further to the west, on a retired line, was Casa de Mata, an old square building, with thick stone walls, and surrounded by ditches and bastioned intrenchments.

In addition to the exterior chain of defences, there was an interior line equally formidable. A wide and deep navigable canal, extremely difficult, if not impossible, to bridge in the face of an active enemy, girded the city throughout its greater extent. There were eight main entrances, at each of which there was a fortified garita; and on the left and north of the Tacubaya causeway, a short distance in rear of the garita Belén, was the Ciudadela, or citadel, a rectangular work, containing fifteen heavy guns. Batteries and redans were constructed upon and near the causeways and garitas, and preparations were made to connect all the works of the interior line by a continuous chain of redoubts. Guns could not be obtained in sufficient quantities to arm all the works, but it was the intention of the Mexican commander to withdraw his pieces from the outer batteries, whenever it became necessary to take up a new position. For the defence of these fortifications, and the protection of the city, he had collected an army of over thirty thousand men, mainly consisting of the battalions of the National Guard, but all well armed and equipped.

From his camp at Ayotla, General Scott threw forward several reconnoitering parties, through whom he obtained definite and reliable information in regard to the enemy’s fortifications. He was able to break through the chain at any point, but his army was weak in numbers, and no reïnforcements could be expected for some time to come; consequently, he decided to husband his strength, and avoid the more important and stronger works at El Peñon and Mexicalcingo, by making a détour to the left, round Lakes Chalco and Xochimilco. He had long had this project in contemplation, and on the fourteenth of August, a reconnaissance was made in that direction, which demonstrated its entire practicability. Directions were forthwith given for the columns to be put in motion. The order of march was now reversed; General Worth leading the van, with Colonel Harney’s brigade in the advance, and the other divisions closely following the movement.

The enemy’s light troops and skirmishers were repeatedly encountered while making the circuit of the lakes; the route was found to be low and uneven, sometimes crossing deep pits and marshes, and at others running underneath overhanging scaurs which threatened to fall down upon the heads of the soldiers; but the tedious march was terminated on the evening of the seventeenth of August, by the arrival of General Worth at San Augustin, on the Acapulco road,—twenty-seven miles from Ayotla by this circuitous route, and nine miles south of the city of Mexico. In the morning of the eighteenth, General Worth moved along the causeway, towards San Antonio, to allow the other divisions to close on him.

Reconnaissances having been made by the engineer officers, it was found that the fortifications at San Antonio commanded the causeway and the marshes on their left, as far as Lake Xochimilco. West of the road there was a vast field of volcanic rocks, called a "pedregal, utterly impassable for cavalry or artillery, and nearly so for infantry, which extended some four or five miles, to the San Angel road, leading from the factory of Magdalena, down the valley of the Churubusco river, to the San Antonio causeway. General Scott again resolved that the skill of the enemy should avail them nothing. His plan—to gain the San Angel road, and then move round to the attack of San Antonio in rear—was soon formed, and the necessary orders given to carry it into effect. A mule path was discovered running westward from San Augustin, and connecting with the San Angel road, which the engineers reported could be made practicable for artillery. On the morning of the nineteenth instant General Pillow advanced to open the path with his division and the corps of sappers and miners,—the movement being covered by the division of General Twiggs.

In the meantime, Santa Anna had moved his forces to the southern side of the city. Eight guns were planted in battery at the tête du pont; the defences of San Pablo were increased, and seven guns mounted; and General Valencia was thrown forward on the San Angel road, with a corps of seven thousand men, and twenty-four pieces of artillery, half of which were of heavy calibre. In the morning of the eighteenth of August, he had been directed to fall back to Coyoacan, near San Pablo; but he proceeded to the Hill of Contreras, situated in a bend of the San Angel road, opposite the opening of the mule path leading from San Augustin, where he intrenched himself and planted his guns.

The working parties under General Pillow encountered innumerable difficulties, but they overcame them all, with cheerfulness and alacrity; and at three o’clock in the afternoon, he opened a lively and well-directed fire from a battery of field pieces, and a mountain howitzer battery, which he had planted within nine hundred yards of the Hill of Contreras. The fire was answered with spirit; and slugs, shot, and fragments, were thrown from the enemy’s guns with terrible effect. Meanwhile, Colonel Riley had moved round to the right, with his brigade of General Twiggs’ division, across the field of lava,—officers and men, the latter divested of their knapsacks, picking their way on foot,—to attack the Mexicans in the rear. Strong detachments of the enemy’s infantry, supported by heavy guns, being discovered moving up the slopes west of the San Angel road, General Pillow detached General Cadwalader, with his brigade, to the support of Colonel Riley. General Smith also crossed the "pedregal, with the remaining brigade of General Twiggs’ division; and, subsequently, General Scott dispatched Colonel Morgan, with the fifteenth infantry, and General Shields, with his brigade, in the same direction.

No serious impression being made against the heavier metal of the enemy, by the American guns, they ceased playing after nightfall. A violent storm of wind and rain now came on, which served to heighten the anxiety of General Scott and his officers, to learn the situation and prospects of the troops who had crossed the "pedregal. Late at night, when all was uncertainty and gloom, Captain Lee, of the engineers, returned from the opposite side of the bed of lava, with the information that General Smith, who had taken the command of the detachments, numbering altogether about thirty-three hundred men, would storm the camp of General Valencia at sunrise. Shortly after the day broke on the twentieth instant, the intrenchments on the hill of Contreras were gallantly carried, as had been promised, and the enemy driven from their position with great loss.

General Scott immediately followed the mule path to the San Angel road, with the brigades of General Pierce and Colonel Harney, and ordered a rapid pursuit of the retreating enemy, who were concentrating at San Pablo and the tête du pont. At the same time, General Worth moved against San Antonio in front, with his division; but the enemy evacuated their works on his approach, and retired to the bridge, whither he pursued them as rapidly as possible.

A general action, of more than two hours’ duration, which was hotly contested on both sides, now took place in and about the tête du pont and the defences of San Pablo. At length, the fierce onset of General Worth compelled the enemy to give way on the right; the whole line soon staggered and broke, and a complete rout ensued. At the request of Colonel Harney, the way was cleared, and he was permitted to follow the retreating columns of the enemy along the San Antonio causeway, to the very gates of the city. His squadrons dashed through and through the files of Mexican infantry, smiting terrible blows on every side; spurring in upon the crowding fugitives, they cleft down all who refused to surrender; and up to the very garita, their shouts and cheers, their pistol shots and sabre strokes, spread terror and alarm.

In this action, the old war-spirit of General Scott was fully aroused. When the clangor of the battle was the wildest and the highest, careless and indifferent in regard to the exposure of his person, he ventured again and again within range of the enemy’s guns. In the course of the engagement, he received a slight wound from a grape-shot, but he entered the church of San Pablo soon after it was taken, and was received by his brave soldiers with many a glad hurrah.

This series of bloody contests finally terminated at sunset. During the day, the enemy lost four thousand men in killed and wounded, and there were over twenty-five hundred taken prisoners. Among the prisoners were eight general officers. Thirty-seven pieces of artillery, and large quantities of small arms and ammunition, standards, pack-mules and horses, were also captured. The American loss was far less in proportion, yet it was very severe; there were one hundred and thirty-seven killed, eight hundred and seventy-nine wounded, and forty missing.

It is not improbable, that General Scott might have forced his way into the city, on the night after this action; but it was far too hazardous an undertaking for eight thousand men to enter a hostile town, containing a population of two hundred thousand souls, whose convents and public edifices could be readily converted into fortifications, and the "azoteas, or flat roofs, of whose dwellings, would afford a secure shelter for thousands upon thousands of sharp-shooters. It was not half so well provided for defence, when Guatemozin, “the last of the Aztecs,” resisted for three months the utmost efforts of Cortés, though the latter was aided by two hundred thousand Tlascalan allies.

On the night of the twentieth of August, while the thunders of the battle were yet echoing among the gorges of the Cordilleras, and ere the dark flocks of the "zopilote—the voracious vulture of the country—which hovered over the ensanguined plain, had descended to their unhallowed carnival, General Scott was visited by the British Consul, and other foreign residents of the Mexican capital, at whose suggestion, in the spirit of a magnanimous victor, he addressed a note to Santa Anna on the following morning, proposing an armistice with a view to negotiation. Previous to this time, on the morning of the twenty-first, General Scott was waited on by General Mora y Villamil, who came out to propose a truce; but the terms not being satisfactory, nothing was agreed on. Upon the receipt of General Scott’s note, Santa Anna appointed commissioners to confer with such as might be appointed on the other side. An armistice was ultimately signed, and ratified on the twenty-fourth instant.

Negotiations were instantly opened; but the duplicity and bad faith of the Mexican government daily became more and more apparent. Infractions of the armistice constantly took place; and on the sixth of September General Scott notified Santa Anna, that unless full satisfaction was made, before twelve o’clock, meridian, on the following day, he should consider it at an end from and after that hour. The reply of the Mexican President was both insulting and evasive,—and General Scott made immediate preparations to renew offensive operations. Having been informed that there was a cannon foundry in El Molino del Rey, to which a number of bells had been sent from the city to be cast into guns—though this afterwards proved to be a mistake—and that there was a large deposit of powder in Casa de Mata, he determined to drive the enemy from these works, and to seize the powder and destroy the foundry. The performance of this service was confided to General Worth, with his division, reïnforced by the brigade of General Cadwalader and other small detachments. It was brilliantly executed on the eighth of September, in spite of the opposition of nearly the whole Mexican army, but with the loss of near eight hundred men killed and wounded, out of thirty-four hundred.

The capital itself still remained in the possession of the enemy, who labored night and day to complete their defences. Including the works at the garitas, there were forty-seven batteries, designed for one hundred and seventy-seven guns, and seventeen infantry breastworks, constructed around the city. All the batteries, however, could not be manned at the same time, in consequence of the deficiency in artillery. The most formidable works were at the garita of San Antonio, and on the heights of Chapultepec.

After completing his reconnaissances, General Scott made a demonstration before the southern gates of the city, with the divisions of Generals Pillow and Quitman, on the afternoon of the eleventh of September, in order to deceive the enemy; but when it became dark, he directed those officers to join him with their columns, at Tacubuya, whither his headquarters had been sometime previous removed. General Twiggs was left at Piedad with his division, to threaten, or make false attacks, on the batteries near the garita of San Antonio.

On the twelfth instant, four heavy batteries were planted, and opened, on the castle of Chapultepec, less than a mile distant from Tacubaya,—while General Twiggs directed a vigorous fire upon the batteries in the vicinity of the southern gates. The cannonade was very effective; the enemy were driven from their outworks on the heights of Chapultepec, and the main fortification was seriously crippled. On the night of the twelfth, final arrangements were made for storming the castle early on the following morning. Before midday on the thirteenth, the works were bravely carried at the point of the bayonet, by the divisions of Generals Pillow and Quitman,—the former being supported by the division of General Worth, and the latter by the brigade of General Smith. Immediately after the reduction of the castle, Generals Worth and Quitman followed the retreating masses of the Mexican troops along the San Cosmé, and Chapultepec, or Tacubaya causeways. The latter was the first to gain a foothold in the city; the garita of Belén being carried by his men shortly after one o’clock in the afternoon. The route taken by General Worth was much longer, but he steadily advanced on his way, driving the enemy from every redoubt and battery; and, during the evening, he securely established himself inside of the garita of San Cosmé. Between nine and ten o’clock, a few shells were thrown from a mortar brought up to his column, in the direction of the National Palace, on the great plaza, in order to obtain the exact distance.

Santa Anna and his ministers did not think it advisable again to encounter the American army, or to bring upon the city the horrors of a bombardment. During the night of the thirteenth, the Mexican commander hastily evacuated the capital with all his forces; and on the morning of the fourteenth of September, General Scott entered and took possession with his troops,—the civil officers making an unconditional surrender of the town. For upwards of twenty-four hours, the Americans were annoyed by the "leperos, and lower classes of the populace, who fired, and hurled missiles upon them, from the roofs and windows. The vigilant measures of General Scott speedily checked the émeute, and the American flag waved undisturbed over the Palacio of Mexico.⁠[48]⁠

A rigid system of police was at once established and enforced by the American commander,—whose watchful care for the comfort and welfare of his men, whose regard for the rights of the citizens, and whose respect for his vanquished opponents, manifested at all times and on all occasions, won golden opinions from both friends and foes.

The brilliant campaign of General Scott,—especially remarkable for the wonderful display of his military knowledge and ability, his rapidity of decision, the power and compass of his mind, the clearness of his plans, and the strategical skill which so often rendered all the labors of the enemy completely nugatory,—terminated with the fall of the Mexican capital. Large reïnforcements were sent to join him, by the aid of which his communications with the seacoast were effectually opened. For a few weeks, Santa Anna, who had resigned his office of provisional president, attempted to continue the war, but he eventually abandoned the contest and quitted the country. The new administration exhibited a more friendly and pacific disposition; the negotiations were resumed, and on the second day of February, 1848, a treaty of peace was signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, which was subsequently duly ratified.

On the nineteenth of February, General Scott was relieved from duty in Mexico, at his own request; and shortly thereafter he returned to the United States, where he was received with the most flattering demonstrations of respect. The thanks of Congress and a gold medal were voted to him. Resolutions of congratulation were adopted by a number of State Legislatures, and in the city of New York and other towns, public processions and festivities were had, in honor of the gallant commander and successful soldier.

The athletic frame and robust constitution of General Scott indicate that his life may be prolonged for many years. While he is still living, and occupying so high a place in the estimation of his countrymen, it would, perhaps, be as unwise, as it is unnecessary, to speak of his character more in detail. It may be, that he is reserved for other and higher honors,—but whatever fortune befal him, it will ever be a proud satisfaction to his friends, to point to his triumphant march to the Mexican capital, as the most splendid achievement recorded in modern history.

THE END.