at an attack upon us was intended;
but knowing the great value to the enemy of those mills (_Molinos
del Rey_), containing a cannon foundry, with a large deposit of
powder in _Casa Mata_ near them, and having heard two days before
that many church bells had been sent to be cast into guns, the
movement was easily understood, and I resolved at once to drive
him early the next morning, to seize the powder, and to destroy
the foundry.

Another motive for this decision, leaving the general plan of
attack upon the city for full reconnoissance, was, that we knew
our recent captures had left the enemy not a fourth of the guns
necessary to arm, all at the same time, the strong works at each
of the eight city gates; and we could not cut the communication
between the foundry and the capital without first taking the
formidable castle on the heights of Chapultepec, which overlooked
both and stood between.

For this difficult operation we were not entirely ready, and
moreover we might altogether neglect the castle, if, as we then
hoped, our reconnoissances should prove that the distant southern
approaches to the city were more eligible than this southwestern
one.

Hence the decision promptly taken, the execution of which was
assigned to Brevet Major-General Worth, whose division was
re-enforced with Cadwallader's brigade of Pillow's division,
three squadrons of dragoons under Major Sumner, and some heavy
guns of the siege train under Captain Huger of the Ordnance, and
Captain Drum of the 4th Artillery, two officers of the highest
merit.

For the decisive and brilliant results, I beg to refer to the
report of the immediate commander, Major-General Worth, in whose
commendations of the gallant officers and men, dead and living, I
heartily concur, having witnessed, but with little indifference,
their noble devotion to fame and to country.

The enemy having several times re-enforced his line, and the
action soon becoming much more general than I had expected, I
called up, from the distance of three miles, first Major-General
Pillow, with his remaining brigade (Pierce's), and next Riley's
brigade of Twiggs' division, leaving his other brigade (Smith's)
in observation at San Angel. Those corps approached with zeal (p. 325)
and rapidity, but t