The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-08-09


ont to meet the army chat did go. The senator
says that the fortifcatiops were not commenced
before September. Nov, the great fertilization
at Monterey--that called the New Citadel,
! which, among the volunteers, had the soubriqllet
of the Black Fort-was dusky with age. Its
stone battlements stood, and still stand, proof
against any strength we ever had, and, a ainst
the assaults OF mounted rihemen, might stand
! thousand years. That never was taken. sir, and
we never had the power to take it, save by capt.
ulation. Admirably situated as it was, and hav-
ing all the massive strength of Spanish fOrtlhca-
ton, it commanded the town, which it had the
! power to demosh. Against small arms the
! town itself was a fertilization from one end to
the other. The houses being built of stone,
| with stone walls three or four feet thick, with
flat roofs, surrounded by ballustrades fitted for
the exact purposes of breastwork, made the
whole town fertilization. The houses, for
the most part, are only one story high, and i'm
| mediately overlooking the narrow streets. This
was no place, sir, for the charge Of h0rsemen-
| This error may have resulted from another,
which was indicated when the senator referred
to the fact that the heavy ordnance was kept be-
hind. He supposes it was left by choice Not
so, sir. 1t was left behind solely from necessity,
and for the want of transportation.
The deficiency of heavy artillery was sup
| Y.
1 Unbroken horses We're taken and harnessed in
to supply the means of transportation. The
commanding general had to depend upon the
enemy for the transportation of the provisions
to supply his troops The transportation, WAS
to great extent, obtained from the Mexicans
| themselves. That march was an extraordinary
one. 1t was hurried, as the Generals cores
pondence shows, in order to aid the Govern
ment in concluding negotiations and a peace,
and with the hope of preventing the necessity
Of a general war. The march was therefore
undertaken, all unprepared as the army was. II
became necessary for him, therefore, to reduce
his army by leaving behind every inefficient
man--regiments of 900 or 1000 men We're cut
down to 500. With this picked force he CON-
menced his march, which was believed at the
time would terminate in one of the most seve-
rely contested battles ever fought And, sir
the struggle among the volunteer regiments
was as to who should be permitted to go. The
letters read by the senator from Maryland, and
which will not read again, show that the Gen
eral otferea the Texan infantry an opportunity
to go on with the army. But, sir, they did not
want to go. do not say that they were afraid
to go, but they did not want to go on foot. Ii
was with difficulty that one regiment was in
duced to consent to 60 OH foot, and that regi-
ment declined at the eleventh hour
But, sir the senator says these Texan troops
did good service-that is, the mounted men
that they took the plaza, took the heights, and
took the Bishops palace. WE'LL sir | am at n
loss to know upon what grounds the senator
rests these statements. The plaza was never
taken There is, therefore, no question as to
who took that. 1t was never taken. No one
Fever saw it even except ut one corner, and that
at distance, until after the equalization. 1t
remained in the hands of the Mexicans. They
mad concentrated their troops on it. They
covered with troops the roofs of the neighbor-
| ing houses, which surrounded the plaza, over
which they hung as black clouds up to the time
when it was finally surrendered by capitul .ton
! Therefore, it is useless to argue about who took
the plaza.
| Then, as to the Bishops palace, which the
senator seems to invest with all the charms once
attached to the .IIalls of the Montezumas," he
evidently supposes that Bishops palace to have
| been n most formidable place Probably he
considers it fortified castle, with moat and
drawbridge, and tower, and garrisoned battle
ments if so, he is much mistaken. On the
contrary, that Bishops palace was the remains
of house once commenced but never finished,
never garrisoned, and never susceptible of being
defended. 1t stood then as unapproprated and
as unfit for defence as the bare walls of the
burnt theatre upon Pennsylvania avenue. Even
the little redoubt at the end Of the palace was
built upon the opposite side to that which was
attacked. That redoubt was not built to resist
an attack, but to cover the army if it should re-
treat on the Satillo road, after being driven out
Of the town. 1t was work of defence for
retreating army, and not work for resistance to
an invading one 1t was on the wrong side Of
the palace for that, looking to the town of Mon
terey, and not wards the troops who attacked
| it. As to the heights, the taking of which he
| ascribes to the Texans, they were taken by all
the troops of WOrth's division; and that gallant
soldier to whose memory we have recently paid
| a tribute-the soldier who bore to his grave the
wound honorably received at Lundy's Lane-that
soldier, most competent to command a division
composed of various arms, led, besides a reg-
ment of Texans, the veteran troops tried at Pa
10 Alto and Resaca de la Palma. With those
| troops the Texans in brave and generous rival
nv struggled, and modest man would be slow to
say that they achieved the feats on which rests
the fame Of that field. Gen. Worth was never
accused of prejudice against the Texans, though
he was sometimes accused of favoring them
too much will read extracts from his report
touching each event, and it will be seen how the
heights were carried and by whom:
Extracts from General Worths report Of the battle of
Monterey.
son the morning of the 2lst the division was
| put in motion, and with such formation as to pre-
sent the readiest order of battle on any point of
assault. At six the advance, consisting of Hayss
Texans, supported by the light companies, first
brigade, under Captain c. F. Smith, (both ex-
tended as the valley widened or contracted, } close
| ly followed by Duncan's light artillery and bat
talon heads of columns, on turning the angle of
the mountains the hacienda called San Jerominc
came upon strong force of cavalry and infantry,
mostly the former. A conflict Immediately en-
| sued. The Texans received the heavy charge of
cavalry with their unerring rifles and usual gall
lantry; the light companies opened rapid and well
directed fire; Duncan's battery was in action in
one minute, promptly supported by a se:tion o.
Mackall's, delivering its fire the heads Of our
men, Ere the close of the combat, which lasted
but fifteen minutes, the first brigade had formed
to the front on the right and left, and delivered
| its fire. The second brigade was held in reserve
the ground not admitting of its depoyment. The
enemy retired in disorder.
cat u M a force was detached under Captain