“The Hill of the Grasshopper,” Chapultepec, is an isolated mound rising one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet above the valley. Nearly precipitous in some parts, it slopes off gradually to the westward. Heavy batteries frowned from its salient positions, sweeping the approaches from all directions. To the southward the ground was marshy. The position was regarded by both belligerents as the key to the capital.
The American batteries opened fire upon Chapultepec on the 12th, causing great destruction and killing and wounding many of its defenders. The Mexican leader, Santa Anna, a very brave fellow with only one leg, was under this heavy fire for a time, taking observations of its effect. On the 13th this fire was resumed, followed by an assault of infantry. The volunteers of Quitman and Pillow, led by picked storming parties, made the assault on two fronts. The hill was carried with a rush after Scott gave the signal of attack. Pillow calling for reinforcements, Longstreet’s brigade was ordered forward by General Worth, and he went into the enemy’s works on the hill with the others.
Longstreet did not quite reach the works, for while rushing up the hill with the regimental flag in his hands he was severely wounded by a musket-ball through the thigh. The castle, all the enemy’s guns, and many prisoners were captured. General Scott rode to the summit soon after and surveyed the work of his gallant army. It was well done. General Worth chased the fleeing enemy to the city’s gates. After Longstreet fell George E. Pickett carried the flag to the works on the hill, and to the top of the castle. The old Eighth’s flag was hoisted from the staff which but a month before flaunted the Mexican banner.
This was the last action in the valley. There was some fighting at the gates, and desultory firing from the houses as the American troops pushed in, but the city fell without much loss after Chapultepec. The Mexicans evacuated the capital that night, and General Scott entered the next day. The Mexican War was practically over. In a few months a treaty was made giving the United States about what was demanded by Mr. Trist after Churubusco in August, the United States salving up Mexico’s wounded pride with fifteen million dollars.
CHAPTER VII
LONGSTREET’S HONEYMOON
After reaching home from Mexico, Longstreet soon regained his strength. He then wrote to Colonel John Garland, of Virginia, his old brigade commander, asking for his youngest daughter. Colonel Garland promptly replied, “Yes, with all my heart.”
With several wounded comrades Longstreet was assigned quarters with the Escandons, a kind-hearted, refined Mexican family. They could not conceal their deep chagrin at the defeat of their army, and were doubtless mortified by the enforced presence of the wounded Americans. Nevertheless they insisted that those officers confined to their beds should be supplied from their own table. Delicacies without stint were sent. The days of confinement were greatly brightened by their delicate attentions. On the 1st of December the accomplished surgeons, Satterlee and DeLeon, thought that Longstreet was strong enough to travel, and announced that he was to be ordered out of the country on sick-leave.
With others he left Mexico on December 9. A few days later he sailed from Vera Cruz with a large number of sick and wounded, among whom was Brigadier-General Pierce, who was very popular in the army. After reaching home Longstreet soon regained his strength. He then wrote to Colonel John Garland, of Virginia, his late brigade commander, asking for his youngest daughter. Colonel Garland promptly replied, “Yes, with all my heart.” He had won fame in Mexico and returned home on leave a month before Longstreet was well enough to travel, and was then with his family. The young lady and her soldier sweetheart already had a pretty good understanding on the subject, and her answer was equally flattering. On the 8th of March, 1848, the marriage occurred at Lynchburg. After a brief honeymoon orders were received from the War Department detailing Longstreet for recruiting service, with station at Poughkeepsie, New York. Before autumn of that year nearly all the troops in Mexico were withdrawn, and the Eighth, Longstreet’s old regiment, was ordered to Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, where he had been stationed before the war, then a brevet second lieutenant in the Fourth.
After fifty years General Longstreet found that many of the physical details of the battle terrain in the valley of Mexico differed quite materially from the memory conveyed by his younger eyes in the heat of action. There was no real change in fixed landmarks, but the depressions were not so deep, nor the impregnable hills the Americans attacked so high, as they appeared when the Mexicans were defending them with sword, musket, and cannon. In instants of supreme danger it is very difficult for the soldier or subordinate officer to see things exactly as they are on a battle-field. His eye and mind are inevitably and anxiously concentrated on the enemy or the battery that is dealing death and destruction round about.