The record-union., 1897-07-29
WHERE SPURS WERE WON.
SOME DEEDS OF vALoR FIFTY
YEARS AGO.
Young Men Who Won Glory at
the Storming of Cha
pultepec.

The storrning of the battlements of
Chapultepec. at the gates of the City
of Mexico in 1917, fifty years ago, gave
a brilliant climax to Scott's campaign,
which from Vera Cruz onward, had
been a succession of victories, includ-
ing Cerro Gordo, Contreras and Churu-
busco. To have been gazetted for gal
lantry at Chapultepec was considered,
in the days intervening between the
Mexican and civil wars, equivalent to
a patent of nobility or rank in the or
der OF knighthood. And there was a
host of gallant men decorated with
honors and brevets won at Cha
pultepec, who, in both the Federal and
Confederate armies, displayed soldier
mettle on the great battle fields of the
of the war when put to the test OF
daring. To name them is to name
nearly all of the leaders of the civil war
who held rank in the old army. Grant
was brevetted Captain and was comph-
mented in person; Lee received three
'brevets; Mcclellan was brevetted Cap
tain; Joseph Z. Johnston, condemned
in the civil war for his Fabian policy,
won three brevets for conspicuous per-
sonal gallantry; Longstreet received ac-
tual promotion for a most glorious dis
play Of courage; Stonewal Jackson re-
.ceived two brevets; Fighting Joe"
Hooker and General Beauregard We're
both breveted; Charles F. Smith, the
soldier of whom Sherman made the re-
mark that, had he lived, Grant would
never have been heard Of after Fort
DonefSon, was honorably mentioned for
his deeds at that battle and breveted
Colonel for the campaign, and the Con-
federate. Pillow, who buried a good rec
ord by a single act Of poltroonery at
Donelson, was one of the heroes at
Chapultepec, and was wounded leading
his division in a charge. George +.
Pickett and.LeWis A. Armistead, names
ever to associated with the high
water mark at Gettysburg, were both
in the ront frank of heroes at Chapulte-
pee.
Besides<these distinguished leaders
there was a brilliant company of men
whose names adorn the pages of his
tory as gallant fighters for the North
or South, ,%amOng them "Old Bull Sum
ner, who was never known to cry
Hold, enough" but once, and that
was on the bloody field of Antietam:
Silas Casey, the brave but unfortunate
commander of the Federal outpostS at
Fair Oaks; John w. Geary of Gettys-
burg and Lookout Mountain fame;
Stevens. the brilliant leader Of the
Carolina. coast, who was killed with
Kearneys at Chantilly; Reno, who fell
at the head of his corps on the crest
of Souths Mountain; Magruder, the cap
tor of Galveston and the prince of good
fellows and fighters; James Shields, the
eccentric but gallant IriShman; Gabriel
r. Paul, who was struck blind while
gallantly leading his brigade at Gettys-
burg; Lyon, the hero martyr Of Wilson
Creek; Robert Anderson of Sumter
fame; Steele, Federal commander be-
yond the Mississippi; Richardson and
Thomas Williams, both killed while
their divisions on a charge; the Con-
federate Bernard Bee, who fell at Bull
Run after giving "StonewalF' jackson
his imperishable sobriquet; w. H. T..
Walker, the Confederate cavalryman;
Gustavus w. Smith, Benjamin Huger,
Edward Johnson, G. NJ. Wilcox, r. S.
Ewell, w. w. LOring, G. B. CTittenden,
Southern representative in the Civil
War of the great Kentucky family;
Uohn G.tWalker, D. H. Hill, one of the
fighting leaders in Longstreets corps;
Mansfield Lowell, Confederate COM
mander at New Orleans; Earl Van
Dorm, whose brilliant career was cut
short in 1868 by an assassin's bullet;
Roswell Ripley Pemberton, of Vicks-
burg fame; General Archer, whose bri-
gade of Tennesseeans opened the ball
at Gettysburg, and scores of others of
subordinate rank in the armies of the
South
To this long list must be added Han
cock, 1.-The superb" who won two brew
cts insthe Chapultepec campaign; Cor
don Granger, called by Thomas
~'Granger, great in battle: J. NJ. Bren-
nan, another of Thomas stalwart fight
ers at Chickamauga; J. p. Hatch, the
cavalry soldier; Hunt, who was chief Of
artillery under Meade at Gettysburg;
y. J. Peck, noted for his defense of
Southeastern Virginia; Uncle John"
tSedgewick of the Sixth Corps, killed at
Spottsylvania; FitzJohn Porter, J. G..
Foster, who fought with Burnside in
the Carolinas and Tennessee; the brave
but unfortunate Charles P. Stone
i(Stone Pasha), victim of the Balls
Bluff disaster; and William Hays, the
skillful general of artillery in the Army
OF thefPotomac.
And these were not gratuftous hon
Ors. Scott was a leader of the Napo-
7eonic school, who knew the power of
enthusiasm and also how sweet to a
soldier are the rewards of praise and
gratitude. He remembered how he,
himself proStrated with wounds at
1.undy's Lane, in the war of 1872, was
borne in a litter upon the shoulders
Df his admiring countrymen from the
Canada border half way across New
York He remembered likewise how
1he little American army, while sur
prisesi and oveTmatched ON British soil,
had been inspired that day by the he
Roic words of Colonel Miller, who, when
sold'to capture with his regiment a bat
EeTy that was doing more damage to the
American cause than all the rest of the
British army together, answered 'IH
try, sir" waved his sword and led on
TO victory, a victory which saved the
day. Scott's report of Chapultepec was
largely taken up with mention of the
heroes, and it would require a volume
TO tell in detail the stories of their
deeds while storming that famous
stronghold.