se of the day, communicated
to Major-General Quitman; but being in hot pursuit, gallant
himself, and ably supported by Brigadier-Generals Shields and
Smith, Shields badly wounded before Chapultepec, and refusing to
retire, as well as by all the officers and men of the column,
Quitman continued to press forward, under flank and direct fires,
carried an intermediate battery of two guns, and then the gate,
before two o'clock in the afternoon, but not without
proportionate loss, increased by his steady maintenance of that
position.

Here, of the heavy battery, (4th Artillery,) Captain Drum and
Lieutenant Benjamin were mortally wounded, and Lieutenant Porter,
its third in rank, slightly. The loss of those two most
distinguished officers the army will long mourn. Lieutenants J.
B. Morange and William Canty, of the South Carolina Volunteers,
also of high merit, fell on the same occasion, besides many of
our bravest non-commissioned officers and men, particularly in
Captain Drum's veteran company. I cannot, in this place, give
names or numbers; but full returns of the killed and wounded, of
all corps, in their recent operations, will accompany this
report.

Quitman within the city, adding several new defences to the
position he had won, and sheltering his corps as well as
practicable, now awaited the return of daylight under the guns of
the formidable citadel, yet to be subdued.

About 4 o'clock next morning (September 14th) a deputation (p. 332)
of the _ayuntamiento_ (city council) waited upon me to report
that the federal government and the army of Mexico had fled
from the capital some three hours before; and to demand
terms of capitulation in favor of the church, the citizens, and
the municipal authorities. I promptly replied that I would sign
no capitulation; that the city had been virtually in our
possession from the time of the lodgments effected by Worth and
Quitman the day before; that I regretted the silent escape of the
Mexican army; that I should levy upon the city a moderate
contribution, for special purposes; and that the American army
should come under no terms not self-imposed: such only as its own
honor, the dignity of the United States, and the spirit of the
age, should, in my opinion, imperiously demand and impose.