Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1874-01-09

the way to the coast above Vera Cruz,
and formed his line of circumvallatiOn.
We were two days conquering this line,
which was seven miles long, and
marked by the cOmmingled blood OF the
contestants. Without the loss Of an
hours time General Scott commenced
the construction of line Of works for
batteries and for mortars, which were
pushed forward day and night until
completed.
Our naval forces landed a number Of
their heavy-siege pieces and placed them
i'm battery, and worked and command
Ell them by naval officers. This battery,
being OF heavy and long naval guns,
first preached the enemy's walls. Al
ter battering down the enemy's works,
which were very solid and composed OF
stone, and preaching his walls, and re-
ducing nearly half the city to ashes and
ruins, the enemy capitulated upon terms
dictated by General Scot.
!. General Scott required the enemy's
forces to march out of their works and
the city, with their arms, colors and
music, between two divisions of his
army, aud lay down their arms, and sur
render their c0lors to our army, which was
drawn up on the surrounding nights,
with all the pomp of war to witness the
pageantry of the enemy marching under
''the Roman yoke"
General Scott now took poss essiOn of
the city, his future base of operations,
manned with his own forces the guns
of the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, intro
duced his shipping and supplies into the
harbor which furnished anchorage for
our navy, and after appointing q mill
tary governor for the city commenced
active preparations for advancing into
the interior. General Santa Anna, after
his defeat at Saltillo, had fallen back to
the City of Mexico and advanced on the
route 10 Vera Cruz for the relief of that
! besieged city, and was known to have
stopped at CerrO Gordo, and Is have
strongly fortified that naturally strong
position.
General Scott commenced the advance
into the interior and moved by divisions
aud in the course of four days marched
down upon the enemy's advance out
posts. These were driven in when Gen
ersl Scott, after crossing Plan del Rio,
found himself confronted with line Of
stone Notifications, connected by flank
ing works--aH of which supported each
other, reaching from the bluff bank OF
the river, on our left to the national
road and the mountain Of CerrO GOrdo
on our right. The position strengthened
by these works was defended by large
amount of artillery and supported by
hesvy columns of Infantry, and was eX-
ceedingIy strong. After thoroughly recon-
noitering the enemyls position andworBS,
General Scott issued general written
orders for an assault in front, with one
division, while the main army was
turned to the enemy's left, by road to
be cut through the mountains, and at
| tack the enemy in the rear. After 2
hard and bloody conflict, our arms were
crowned with brilliant and complete
/ victory, capturing all the enemy's fixed
artillery and field pieces, six general Of
! ficers and his main army, and complete
! ly routing the balance. Santa Au-a
escaped capture himself very nsT-
rowly, by flight under hot pursuit for
many miles Our loss in this battle ws>
! heavy. General Scott sent to the Unit
ed States all the captured guns for which
| he could get transportation, and cut down
the carriages and spiked the balance
/ he stacked and burnt upon the battle
! field great quantities of small arms, anG
| paroled the prisoners. After this battle
! he moved into Jallapa and halted to
provide for his wounded and to rest his
army. Upon reports coming in from
| his division commanders he found his
losses so heavy, and his army so much
reduced in strength, that be could not
penetrate further into the interior with
out reinforcements.
His army was further weakened by
! his orders, discharging the division of
twelve months volunteers, commanded
bv MaiOr-General Patterson, whose
! Of fvKyn la
of expiring. Having received some Ie
| Inducements, General Scott finally cul
/ loose from his base of operations, aud
sources of supply, and took up the
march, and entered the valley Of Mex
| leo, with eleven thousand five hundred
men, rank and file, on the twelfth o. Au-
gust, 1S47. He found in his front an my
| thirty-five thousand strong, entren ch-
ed in city of two hundred
thousand inhal itants and defend,3
by double lines of Notifications. The
| enemy had cut the dykes OF the lakes,
so as to flood the whole valley surround
ing the city, and make it jmpracticablc
to approach the city, except on the
roads, and these he had cut, and con-
structed batteries 50 as to sweep them
with his artillery.
An enterprise more peTilOus and daT
ing has seldom been undertaken, either
in ancient or modern times, than this
campaign.
In many Of its aspects it resembled
the daring Of Alexander the Great,
who with his small army of Maced mi
ans and Grecians dashed into the popu-
lOus empire Of India, to conquer that
vast empire, and then all Asia.
1t resembled still more that of
Cortez, who, three hundred years be-
fore, with a small army of Spaniards,
had seized Vera Cruz, burnt his ship
ping and struck into the interior 10
conquer the empire of the MOntezumas.
Scott had, with his small army,
marched three hundred miles from
the sea-coast, and with four days
ratiOns aud without any sources Of
supply, and, with no hopes of rein
| forcements, hurled his small army
but handful Of men-against an enc
my nearly four times its number, with
large population to sustain it, and
with double lines of defensive works
and regularly constructed field works,
mounting over two hundred pieces of
! artillery and defended lay a well-srmed
! force cf infantry and cavalry.
! Every man Of ScOtt's army knew that
with US it was conquer or die. He
fought the bloody battles of Contreras,
! ChnruhuscO, Molino del Rey, and
! Chapultepec These battles overcame
the enemy's Uut,I 80: a5. and let us into
the citadel and the San COsme GareteT,
where we fought again the HOcte triSte
of COrteZ.
/ We fought five days continuously on
starving ratiOns, extending into and
through the streets of Mexico, which
ran with the blood of the cOmbatants.
4 We auartered General Scott in the
/ Palace Of the HUrbide, in the capital OF
Mexico, as its cOnqueror.
/ At the end of the conflict our army
numbered about five thousand men for
duty. The balance of the eleven thou
sand five hundred men were left upon
! the battIe-fields over which we bad
! fought and in the hospitals, disabled by
wounds.
We had, without knowing it, fought
over the same fields that COrteZ had
done. and pursued the identical routes
he had marched. We had turned the
euemv's works at FL Pinior and MeXi-
calcingo, and marched around Lake
Chalco, aud fought on the mountain Of
! Zumcstapetl, and over the pedrigal TO
4 San Angel At Chapultepec we had
stormed and carried the works which
surrounded the old balis of the Monte
zumas, and at the san Cosme
Ciareter we had had our ''ROche trtstc, y
on entering the city. COrtez had burned
his shipping at Vera Cruz, that retreat
might be impossible, and that his hoops
might see that with them, ''it was vic
tory or death.u Scott had cut himself
loose from supplies and reinforeements,
and struck three hundred miles into the
Interior Of populous country ana hos
file people, that his army might see 1t
/ wss with them, Conquer or die"
! History. when Il sketches, with an