Page:A series of intercepted letters in Mexico.djvu/14

 comes into that of San Antonio at a point where, by a bridge, the San Antonio road or causeway crosses a small stream, or canal, called the Churubusco river. This bridge was defended by a perfectly constructed, scientific tete-de-pont, the defences here and at the convent forming a system mutually supporting each other.

No time was to be lost; and at a few minutes before 1 our troops were pushed forward to the attack of the fortified convent, where the firing became very severe with both artillery and small arms. There had been some firing at San Antonio on the 18th and again on the 19th; but on the 20th, after the defeat of the enemy at Contreras, Gen. Santa Anna saw that our troops, by the way of San Angel, would soon be in the rear of his fortified position at San Antonio, and he therefore ordered that place to be abandoned, directing some few of the guns, which there was no time to remove, to be spiked; but the American division in front, by passing a column to the left, had already turned the position and succeeded in cutting the line of the retreating troops, which were also attacked along the causeway itself by another portion of the division, and thus the Mexican force at San Antonio was broken and in great part dispersed or taken prisoners, only a few reaching the tete-de-pont—the American division now passing down to the attack of that place, while the attack upon the convent of Churubusco was going on. At about half past 1 the Mexicans were in force at the church or convent, and at the tete-de-pont, and had, besides, an immense body of infantry to their left, (our right,) along and behind the Churubusco river, nearly at right angles to the San Antonio causeway; they had also another body of infantry and an immense body of cavalry extending along the causeway itself from the tete-de-pont towards the city. The American general being on the San Angel road, in front of Churubusco, directed the whole of the operations, which soon after 1 became general, extending throughout the entire Mexican army. He directed columns to support the main attack in front, and other columscolumns [sic] to the right to support the San Antonio division in the attack upon the tetede-pont and the extensive line of infantry along the Churubusco river; other columns again, to the left, in order to turn both the convent and the tete-de-pont, in which operation the enemy's force along the causeway beyond the tete-de-pont was engaged. The battle now raged at all points and in all directions, wherever the enemy was found in position, and continued without intercession during a period of nearly three hours, when the convent and the tete-de-pont were both carried, and the enemy was driven from the river and the causeway, and