Read Ebook: Condensed History of the Mexican War and Its Glorious Results by Hungerford Daniel E McKay William Murphy Charles J Charles Joseph Cowan John E Compiler

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On the same evening a flag of truce arrived from Santa Anna who proposed an armistice of twenty days, stating that he desired to negociate terms of peace. General Scott assented, and having but three days' rations in his commissariat, imposed as one of the conditions, that he should be allowed to send a train with a proper escort into the city, and there purchase supplies for his army. This was accordingly done. On Sept. 6th, Gen. Scott declared the armistice at an end, having discovered that the wily Santa Anna, in violation of its solemn terms, was engaged in fortifying his position and reinforcing his army.

At dawn on Sept. 8th we again advanced. Santa Anna with his army occupied Molino del Rey or the King's Mill, a series of massive stone buildings surrounded by high walls, about one mile and a half west of the castle of Chapultepec and three miles from the city of Mexico. His force consisted of ten thousand men and twenty four pieces of artillery.

Our attacking columns numbered 3,600 with Drum's, Huger's, and Duncan's batteries, and a company of Voltigeurs, under the immediate command of General Worth, all regulars.

We attacked in three columns, and our first attack being repulsed, the Mexicans sallied from their works, and lanced our wounded officers and men, and cut their throats within full view of our army.

Worth rapidly reinforcing with Cadwallader's Brigade, and Stewart's rifles, that had been left to support Huger's Battery, and Duncan's heavy Battery of 24-pounders, attacked the enemy's right and centre, and having taken the Casa Mata, a strong stone citadel, the enemy abandoned all his other positions, and the day was won. In proportion to the force engaged, this was, for us, the most bloody battle of the war. We had 953 killed and wounded, among them seventy five officers. The loss of the enemy was 1200 killed and wounded, and 850 prisoners.

The desperate nature of the conflict may be indicated by the fact that towards its close, the guns of Drum's and Huger's batteries were served almost entirely by officers--graduates of West Point, nearly every enlisted artillery man having fallen at his post.

The victory was important as Molino del Rey was the chief cannon foundry of Mexico and its guns commanded some of the approaches to the Castle of Chapultepec.

That castle was a strong fortress of rock and masonry, mounting 26 guns, and garrisoned by 2,500 regular troops and 300 cadets under the command of General Bravo. It was the National Military Academy of Mexico. It was situated about one mile and a half from the capital, on the crest of a steep rocky height, which rose 189 feet above the road which entered the city at the Bel?n gate. About midway up the ascent was a strong redoubt on the south front, and just below that, a heavy stone wall, with a banquette, which ran along nearly the entire front, and was well manned with Mexican regulars. Our batteries opened fire on the castle at the distance of about 700 yards, on the morning of September 12th, and at night fall had made several breaches in its walls.

Soon after midnight our forces silently occupied the ditch that nearly encircled the foot of the hill, and which was bordered with a profuse growth of the Maguay plant or American aloe, which served to screen us from the view of the enemy. At day-dawn on the 13th our men stepped from the ditch, and being quickly aligned under the fire of the enemy, advanced to the assault. The entire army was brought into action, except three regiments of Worth's division held in reserve at Molino del Rey. In a whirlwind of fire from cannon and musketry, that swept down the hill, which was everywhere ablaze with the flashing guns, our men pressed upward, and onward, our artillery, in the road below, firing shot and shell over their heads as they advanced.

Another desperate rush, and their bayonets sparkled at every breach, and soon the flag of the First New York volunteers, the first to crown the castle, floated out above the battlements with its inspiring motto "Excelsior," and proclaimed that Chapultepec was ours!

The presence here to-night of one of the gallant survivors of that heroic regiment, Colonel Daniel E. Hungerford who is on my left, and Colonel Charles J. Murphy who is on my right, a soldier of another regiment, leads me to recall two incidents of that battle, one of which moves me deeply with a sense of personal gratitude and bereavement.

The Colonel of that Regiment, Ward B. Burnett, who proved himself worthy to lead it, was severely wounded at Cherutusco, and the command devolved upon its Lieutenant-Colonel Baxter, who was killed while most gallantly leading it at Chapultepec. Its brave Major Burnham then assumed command, but was soon temporarily disabled by a glancing shot or a flying fragment of rock.

At that critical moment, when the Regiment was nearing the breaches under a galling fire, Captain Daniel E. Hungerford, then but in his twenty-fifth year, though not entitled to command it, sprang to the front and cheered the regiment forward with his voice and waving sword.

Most vividly does he come back to my memory, as he sprang forward leading that forlorn hope, as cheerily as if he were going to meet his bride, and with the blood trickling from a wound upon his right cheek, pointing upward to the castle with the hilt of his sword, its blade having been shivered by a grape shot. But only two years later, he passed away among strangers in far distant from his home, and his eyes closed in a strange land in death by the brotherly ministrations of his old comrade-in-arms Colonel Charles J. Murphy, who was himself a gallant actor on that field, though but a youth of seventeen years. Well indeed has the poet written,

"The bravest are the tenderest. The loving are the daring."

But to continue my cursory narrative of events that would require a volume to detail them fully.

Worth's division pressed the enemy closely on his line of retreat to the eastern or San Cosmo gate of the city. General Scott decided to make his main attack at that gate, deeming it the most vulnerable point. With that view he ordered General Quitman with his division, to make a feint, and occupy the attention of the enemy at the Garita de Bel?n on the west.

Quitman's command moved rapidly along the causeway leading to the city near the margin of the lake, carrying several batteries of the enemy, he having determined to convert the intended feint into a real attack and win a victory in violation of orders.

Drum's battery galloped rapidly to the front, and opened an effective fire, which was at once replied to by the enemy, with at least twenty heavy guns. In a few minutes nearly every officer and man of the battery was killed or wounded. Its chivalric commander lay in the road with both thighs shattered by a cannon ball, but true to the line of his duty, living and dying, he called out to the Infantry in the arches, "For God's sake save my guns!" They quickly responded, and met the advancing foe with the bayonet, driving them back, and following them into their works, and the last sounds that reached the ears of the noble captain Simon Drum, were the victorious shouts of his comrades at the gate.

The magnificent Infantry of P. F. Smith's and Pierce's Brigades, were also at this time delivering a destructive fire at the enemy on our flanks.

Our further advance that day was checked by the fire of the citadel, a work with ten guns, about 600 yards from the Bel?n gate.

About six in the afternoon its commander, General Flores, offered to surrender, on the novel condition that General Quitman should give him a receipt for all his ordnance, quartermaster and commissary stores.

He was informed that receipts on such occasions were written with the sword, but his demand was acceded to, and the citadel surrendered the next morning, September 14th, at sunrise.

The main body of the army under General Worth drove the enemy from every position at the San Cosmo gate, and on the night of the 13th bivouacked within the walls of the city.

At noon on September 14th the entire army was united in the Plaza Mayor, or great square of the city of Mexico, the site of the ancient Tenochtitlan of the Aztec empire, nearly eight thousand feet above the level of the sea.

The stars and stripes were soon unfurled above the Palace of the Cortes, , and six thousand five hundred American soldiers stood triumphant in the capital of Mexico, with its hostile population numbering one hundred and fifty thousand souls.

The subsequent operations of our army, though brilliant, were but of a minor character. Early in October, Santa Anna laid siege to our garrison at Puebla which consisted of the First Pennsylvania regiment of volunteers, under Colonel Childs. He summoned the garrison to surrender, stating, with his usual mendacity, that he had routed the army of General Scott. Col. Childs occupying Fort Loretto, in the western suburb of Puebla, repelled four desperate assaults of the enemy, 5000 strong, and Santa Anna drew off his forces on the approach of General Joseph Lane who was advancing from the coast, with needed reinforcements for Scott's army. The last engagement of the war was fought by Brig. General Sterling Price at Rosales, New Mexico, on March 15th, 1848. He there, with but 300 Missouri Volunteers, defeated a Mexican force of 1000, capturing their commanding General, and eleven pieces of artillery.

The war ended by a treaty of peace, concluded at the Hacienda of Guadeloupe Hidalgo on February 2nd, 1848. Peace was formally announced in a proclamation by the President of the United States, on July 4th, 1848.

In this necessarily imperfect sketch of the salient events of the Mexican war, I have had to omit even the name of many an unforgotten hero.

It was no holiday war. It was replete with toilsome marches, with blistered and bleeding feet, through hot sands, under a tropical sun, and over jagged rocks, and snowy mountain ranges where horses and riders perished with cold. It abounded with nameless tragedies, both on bloody fields near many a battery's smoking guns, and in the deep gloom of fever stricken hospitals. In that memorable war of two years, we fought seventy battles and engagements without the final loss of a single gun or American ensign.

Engaged always against heavy odds, we bore the honor of our great republic triumphantly, on our ever advancing swords and bayonets.

Blended with this patriotic reflection, we proudly recall the fact that we marched nearly three thousand miles through the country of an enemy, alien to us in race and language, and performed no act to wound the modesty of woman, or to sully the sanctity of her person.

The flames of no defenceless homestead lighted up our line of march, and no matin hymn or vesper bell was silenced by our coming. We were always merciful in the hour of victory, and our army, while vindicating the prowess of our country, also illustrated its civilisation. What have been the material results of that victorious war? It acquired for us the vast territories of California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Arizona, and Utah, thus adding one million square miles or 640,000,000 of acres to the United States, nearly doubling its area.

According to authoritative statistics, there have been taken from the mines and rivers of the region thus acquired since 1848, gold and silver of the value of three thousand millions of dollars. Averaging the soldier at 140 pounds, this amount is sufficient to award to every soldier engaged in the battles of Mexico, were even all now living, his weight in pure gold.

But the enterprising men, who developed that imperial domain that had so long lain stagnant under a semi-barbaric rule, were more than mere delvers in mines, and gold-washers in river-sands. They were the builders of empire, the raw material, the muscle and the mind of great civilised States, whose industrial products have even exceeded in value during the past thirty five years, all the precious metals that have been taken from their rocks and streams.

Time, with its wide arch of forty years, has spanned many memorable events in our country, since we bore its flag in triumph over the smoking guns of hostile batteries on fields afar.

Within thirteen years after we had entered victoriously the capital of Mexico, the capital of the United States was itself menaced by a hostile army.

Through four years of internecine war the republic, founded by Washington, battled for its existence against armed legions that challenged its rightful supremacy within the State where Washington was born.

That war embraced within its theatre of operations more than 2,700,000 men, and was signalized by more than one thousand battles and engagements. Soon after its termination, every American State, through its duly elected representatives, answered to the roll call beneath the dome of the Nation's Capitol.

The magnanimous victors in that mighty war deserved victory, and they neither abridged the rights, nor wounded the self-respect of the vanquished.

Hence, to-day, all American citizens dwell together in loyal unity beneath the benign rule of our indestructible Union. And I can attest, as a Southerner, through five generations "native and to the manor born," that if my comrades in arms of the Confederate army ever dream of future wars, it is with the sincere hope, that they may aid in bearing the flag of the Union among a people who have never looked upon its starry folds, and into lands that have never felt the power of its eagle's beak.

TOASTS.

"The day we celebrate." Responded to by Judge McKay of South Carolina.

"The President of the United States."

This toast was received with great applause and drank standing.

Colonel Murphy in reply to the toast said:

It is significant of the ardent patriotism of our people, that however varied may be the character of our meetings, this toast to the President of the United States is always drunk with enthusiasm and unanimity. And you will, I am sure, agree with me, that the able and high-minded gentleman, who now presides over the destinies of the Republic, is a worthy successor to those who have gone before him in his exalted office. It is a matter of patriotic pride to us all that the pages of history have never yet been sullied by the misdeeds of an American President, and the representatives for the highest office in the gift of a free people have always been honored at home and respected and admired abroad.

We can justly claim that our Presidents form an unbroken line of wise and capable rulers, that leave indelible marks for good on the progress of civilization in the path of liberty, justice, and freedom. As for the present occupant of the White House, none can gainsay his devotion to duty, his ability and character, and his conscientious endeavour to serve faithfully the interest of our common country at home and abroad. Whoever our chief magistrate may be, we may be as Americans, sure that the national honor is always secure, and that our flag, the glorious "Stars and Stripes" will always be among the foremost standards among the nations of the earth. It can be truly said that our President is at the head of a happy family. Differences may divide us on election day, but at all times, love and reverence for our institutions, and liberties animate us, the fires of patriotism, obliterating the petty distinctions of politics, burn as brightly to-night in the North, South, East and West, of a united and prosperous country, as well as in the breasts of those around this board this evening. The public utterances of the President mark him as a statesman, who appreciates to the full the grandeur of our country, and the greatness of our people. In visiting through the several states last summer, the brave men of the South vied with the men of the North, in giving him an enthusiastic welcome, and proving to the world that, when the occasion calls for it, the spirit of loyalty and patriotism, and naught else, will be found in every American heart.

It is a pleasing spectacle to us, and a source of surprise and admiration to foreigners, that our President comes and goes, as an ordinary citizen; respect for his office and person being as general among our 75 million inhabitants that we need not even the slightest display of force to with-hold his authority or strengthen his public acts. This is indeed an impressive fact, perhaps unparalleled in the history of any country, and a tribute to the stability of our institutions, supported by the people's will and dominated by a spirit of justice and intellectual power. We have weathered a terrible storm, but the timbers of the ship of State have stood the strain. Our past has been glorious, and if we are true to our trust, we may look forward with optimism and faith to the future of our country, now the light of the world, and a beacon of hope to the oppressed of every land.

This elbow touch of cordiality and enjoyment with fellow-Americans on foreign soil is a most happy occasion for us all, but the grandest sight in this hall is our American flag, that symbol of beauty and glory, the red, white and blue, which recalls to our minds so much that is dear to our hearts, home, friends and native land.

I know I express as the feelings of all when I say we are better Americans for having travelled abroad. American citizenship is a title the proudest might envy, and it confers a distinction of inestimable value on its possessor. Let us assimilate all we can of the art and learning of the world, we freely draw from the treasures of her historic past, but let us always cherish and strengthen those grand principles of liberty, which the Fathers of the Republic fought for, and for the successful working of which we pledge ourselves.

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