The Battle of Churubusco [pp. 78-116]

1852.J Battle of Churu~usco. 93
trick battalion, who manned three guns at the church,
and perhaps one or two in the other work,* were in part
taken, and the halter and the gibbet repaid sixteen of
them for their treachery. They fought with desperation,
knowing the doom that awaited them, if captured, and
several times pulled down the white flag which had
been hoisted in token of surrender. Capt. Anderson, 2d
infantry, one of the noblest spirits in the army, among
others, was slain by their fire.
While the strife was raging at the fortified works, there
was yet another field, and a severe conflict, to which we
will now revert. The results of the others have been
given, but perhaps this wielded a potent influence towards
achieving their success. It is the last to be mention 4,
but before we conclude, the reader will probably concur,
that it was not the least important in its effects, nor the
least eventful in its vicissitudes, while it exhibited full as
much heroism as any of that memorable day. Pierce had
been ordered with parts of three regiments and Reno's
battery, (Callender wounded at Contreras,) to attack the
flank of the Mexican reserves. Shields soon fbllowed
with his brigade, to assume command, and add to the operation at least the efficiency of numbers. This, on the
part of Scott, was the great strategic feat of the day. It
was one of those flashes of inspiration which denote the
able commander, while they are often, almost always, de
cisive of a field. It was a blow at, tactically, the weak *Letter from an officer, quoted in Mansfield, p. 266. He says furff.ermore
that these base men in desperation tore down the white flag of surrender tltree
times from the convent. We are not aware of the number taken here, but
probably few, since they would aim to escape. Shields captured 42 of them.
Worth says 27 were taken in the tet&d'e-~ont. An error-because Col. Waite,
commanding the 5th regiment, the first inside, says (see report) that 4 officers
and 20 men are all who were taken. Col. Belton (report) says that a column
approached the tete-depont from the convent, after the former fell, and surrendered. Thus Worth procured his prisoners. Ripley, 2d vol., p. 273, says that
27 officers and privates were taken in the w~rk, but does not designate them
the deserters. Pillow, in his report, says the 14th regiment (his division) took
"a large number of prisoners in the fort, among whom was the 6ody of deserters." Doe No. 1, p 335. A palpable error.
It must have been amusing to witness the repugnance shown by the prisoners
in the convent, vn the appearance of Dominguez, at the head of a corps of
Mexican renegades. Scott had employed them as a spy company. The enemy abuse us fiercely for hanging our deserters. it iiiay be wondeuett what
treatment they would have shown these men, who were not deserters, but robber traitors. They would perhaps have roasted them alive! See "The Other
Side."