nio: 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 field-work
(_tete-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 defences 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 presse