“We gwine to attack, jest the same,” Pompey proclaimed. “We cain’t see the enemy; enemy can’t see us. Fust t’ing dey know, dar we’ll be. Wind cain’t stop bagonets. No, suh! Oof! Don’t believe I laike dis country, nohow. If Gin’ral Scott don’t take us away, I’se gwine back to Virginny. Yaller feber’s done arriv. Dey’s got it yonduh in Very Cruz, already. Mebbe we don’t want dat Very Cruz. I ain’t pinin’ to stay ’round hyar. Nigger don’t stand no show ’gin yaller feber. Dey say dar’s a big passel ob Mexican sojers collectin’ in back country to capture us when yaller feber an’ dese no’thers gets done with us. So if Gin’ral Scott don’t quit foolin’ an’ mahch away, I’se gwine by myself.”
Soon after breakfast, or about eight o’clock, the firing stopped once more; another white flag had been taken in to General Scott. This time it proved to be in earnest, for the batteries did not reopen during the day, nor during the night.
The surrender was set for the morning of the twenty-ninth, at ten o’clock sharp.
Jerry looked up Hannibal, and learned more news from him than he could get by listening to Lieutenant Grant and Lieutenant Smith talk, or to Pompey chatter.
“We bagged ’em both,” Hannibal asserted. “City and castle, too. General Scott didn’t start in to say anything about the castle. All he wanted was the city, and then the castle would have to surrender or starve. But the Mexican general offered the two, and so of course we took ’em. General Worth, of our division, and Pillow, of the Tennessee Volunteers in the Third Division, and Colonel Totten, chief of engineers, did the talking. The surrender’s to be made at ten o’clock in the morning, day after to-morrow. Who did you say the Mexican general was?”
“General Morales.”
“Well, he isn’t. He escaped and left another general, Landero, to foot the bill. But you’ll see a great sight when all those Mexicans march out and pile up their guns. We took that city easy, too. Had only two officers and nine men killed in the army and one officer and four men killed in the navy, and less than sixty wounded. That’s pretty good for twenty days’ skirmishing and investing.”
“The Mexicans have lost a thousand, I guess,” proffered Jerry.
“They ought to have surrendered sooner. The longer they held out the worse they got it. We were going to storm the walls this very day. The navy was to carry the water front and the army the sides; and there’d have been bullets and shells and solid shot and bayonet work, all mixed.”
The morning for the surrender dawned clear and calm. The orders had called for every officer and man to clean up and wear his best uniform. So there were preparations as if for parade.