“Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!”
The front rank broke; before the officers could stop them the men had rushed forward and were fighting to grasp General Scott’s hand, and even his stirrups. He could only spur his horse in careful fashion, and bowing and smiling, his wrinkled cheeks wet, finally galloped away. In a few minutes he was riding across country into the west, escorted by Harney’s dragoons.
About noon it was announced that all the wounded had been found and the bodies of the slain had been buried. The roll calls of the divisions were tabulated. Out of twenty-six hundred men the General Worth command had lost, in killed, wounded and missing, thirteen officers and three hundred and thirty-six rank and file; total, three hundred and forty-nine. The Mohawks of General Shields had lost two hundred and forty out of the two regiments. The Second Division, Regulars, had lost two hundred; the Pillow Regulars about the same. The grand total was one thousand and fifty-six, in which there were eighty-four officers.
The First Division was marched west out of Churubusco by a crossroad about two miles to the next main road, which had been opened by the capture of Contreras; then from this road, four miles by another road northwest to a town named Tacubaya, on the north slope of a hill only a mile and a half from the southwestern walls of the city itself.
General Scott was already here with the Harney dragoons detachment. They and the First Division had the advance position. It looked as though the general was side-stepping again. Instead of moving upon the city by the Acapulco road (the road from San Augustine through San Antonio and Churubusco), he was slipping around to the west and keeping Santa Anna guessing.
This evening word was spread that Santa Anna had proposed a truce for the purpose of talking surrender. The men grumbled somewhat. A truce appeared to them a Mexican trick, in order to gain time while guns and soldiers were shifted. The United States Peace Commissioner, Mr. Trist, who had accompanied the army from Puebla, held long meetings with the Mexican commissioners, but the two parties did not agree upon terms.
The peace talks continued for two weeks. During the truce neither army was to fortify further against the other. Both were to get food supplies without being interfered with. The Mexicans were to send out for provisions; the Americans were to purchase provisions wherever they could, even in the city.
The First Division occupied the advance position of Tacubaya, and had a good rest. Drum Major Brown and Corporal Finerty, of the Fourth Regiment, were able to hobble about and would soon be fit for duty. The General Pillow Third Division was a short distance south, at another village; the Twiggs Second Division was farther south, at San Angel; the Quitman Fourth Division of Volunteers and Marines was down at San Augustine, in charge of the prisoners and the extra supplies.
In Tacubaya General Scott and staff were quartered in the magnificent palace of the archbishop of Mexico, which from the western outskirts of the town overlooked the whole country below. Tacubaya itself was a kind of summer resort for Mexico City; a number of English gentlemen and wealthy city merchants lived here in great style, with villas and out-door baths and large gardens, enclosed by walls.
The slope of the hill fronted the capital. After duties Jerry and Hannibal and the other First Division men paid considerable attention to that view from the slope, for many of the city defenses were clearly outlined.