Drum’s battery galloped rapidly to the front, and opened an effective fire, which was at once replied to by the enemy, with at least twenty heavy guns. In a few minutes nearly every officer and man of the battery was killed or wounded. Its chivalric commander lay in the road with both thighs shattered by a cannon ball, but true to the line of his duty, living and dying, he called out to the Infantry in the arches, “For God’s sake save my guns!” They quickly responded, and met the advancing foe with the bayonet, driving them back, and following them into their works, and the last sounds that reached the ears of the noble captain Simon Drum, were the victorious shouts of his comrades at the gate.
The magnificent Infantry of P. F. Smith’s and Pierce’s Brigades, were also at this time delivering a destructive fire at the enemy on our flanks.
The Mexican troops were soon driven from all their positions near the gate, and at twenty minutes past one o’clock on the afternoon of September 13th, 1847, the Palmetto flag of South Carolina was planted on the wall of the City of Mexico,—the first foreign ensign that had waved over that spot since Fernando Cortez had there unfurled the royal standard of Spain on August 13th, 1521.
Our further advance that day was checked by the fire of the citadel, a work with ten guns, about 600 yards from the Belén gate.
About six in the afternoon its commander, General Flores, offered to surrender, on the novel condition that General Quitman should give him a receipt for all his ordnance, quartermaster and commissary stores.
He was informed that receipts on such occasions were written with the sword, but his demand was acceded to, and the citadel surrendered the next morning, September 14th, at sunrise.
The main body of the army under General Worth drove the enemy from every position at the San Cosmo gate, and on the night of the 13th bivouacked within the walls of the city.
At noon on September 14th the entire army was united in the Plaza Mayor, or great square of the city of Mexico, the site of the ancient Tenochtitlan of the Aztec empire, nearly eight thousand feet above the level of the sea.
The stars and stripes were soon unfurled above the Palace of the Cortes, (Congress), and six thousand five hundred American soldiers stood triumphant in the capital of Mexico, with its hostile population numbering one hundred and fifty thousand souls.
The subsequent operations of our army, though brilliant, were but of a minor character. Early in October, Santa Anna laid siege to our garrison at Puebla which consisted of the First Pennsylvania regiment of volunteers, under Colonel Childs. He summoned the garrison to surrender, stating, with his usual mendacity, that he had routed the army of General Scott. Col. Childs occupying Fort Loretto, in the western suburb of Puebla, repelled four desperate assaults of the enemy, 5000 strong, and Santa Anna drew off his forces on the approach of General Joseph Lane who was advancing from the coast, with needed reinforcements for Scott’s army. The last engagement of the war was fought by Brig. General Sterling Price at Rosales, New Mexico, on March 15th, 1848. He there, with but 300 Missouri Volunteers, defeated a Mexican force of 1000, capturing their commanding General, and eleven pieces of artillery.