The New era. [volume] ([Portsmouth, Va.]) 1845-1847, 1846-11-05
FROM rHE ARMY

Letter from General Builer-Particuiars ofL;,
chnrge-Hs ,ronnd-Brapery cfhis troops-
Abandonment IF his attack. Sc,
The following are extracts rom a letter Of Gen
Butler 10 a near relative in Louisville, Kcniuckv
The General says in the same letter. tina, it is tho
opinion OF those Mexican officers, who have been
taken prisoners by our army, that their govern.
ment will at once offer to ouys terms of peace;
MONTEREY, Sept. 25, 1886.
Monterey Is ours, hut not without a heavy loss
and my division has probably sustained more than
one half If il. ] am myself wounded, but no,
badly. | was struck by a muskei ball below Tho
knee; it entered in front, grazed the bones with.
out lnjnring them. ranged round through the flesh.
and came out on the opposite side.
| beco ne faint frnrn The loss of bland, and wac
compelled 10 leave the field after having been in i,
under a heavy FIRE ofgrape and m~uskeiry for ,hree
hours. have been required by my surgeon to
keep PERFECTLY sill, ever SINCE the battle.
was in the ACT of leading the Ohio regiment
to storm two Of lhe most formidable batteries in
the town. fanked by a stnne wall. len feet high,
with q deep ditch in front, and covered by a strong
mnsketry FORGE in the rear, under complete shelter.
lhere were two other batteries of grape shot dis.
charged. that swept The ground continually.
Col, Mitchell, who commanded the regimen,
Of Ohio volunteers. was wounded about The sano
time that was. and we then prudently abandoned
the enterprise, as we became convinced that our
loss would have been probably at least one hun.
dred more men had W. perseveIed.
] hope you will not think | acted rashIy.
know that \ am often rash where | involve myself
alone not SO, however, when the fate Of others
are at stake.
The condition in which we were placed fully
justified, i IL did not positively require us to make
The attempt. The peculiarly Of our situation |
cannot now explain without going into greater de-.
Gil than | am able To do.
The battle commenced about Q o'clock, a. m.
and continued without intermission, with various
degrees ofintensity for eight hours.
had almost 900 men in the battle, (the
Louisville legion having been left Ia guard our
NOR crs,) and of that number we lost in killed and
wounded about $50.
We took one battery and a house fitted up as
iortlhcalion. and assisted the regulars in taking a
second. Gen. Worth, with great gallanlry and
equal success, and with far less loss, carried on
his operations on the opposite side of the town.
The loss of the regulars, who acted with US,
was nearly proportional to ours, | learn though
have not seen the official returns.
Under all the circumstances. the terms of the
caPitulation are favorable To us. There are still sew
eral strong forts in the hands Of The enemy, which
we would have been compelled 10 take by regnla,
approaches or with heavy losses. The plaza is Of
ITSELF an enormous fertilization Of continuous hous-
es, with thick stone walls, and all The streets
leading into i. strongly fortified and filled with
guns.
They admit that they will have at least 5000
lighting men, whilst on our part we cannot mnsler
5'O0O for duty, and have only a few heavy guns,
and them we took from them.
Never, | believe, did troops, both volunteers
and regulars. behave with more calmness and in
trepidiiy, and | do not believe tina, for downright,
straightforward, hard fighting, the battle of Mon
teIcy has ever been surpassed.