Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/455

Rh although the other approaches were not neglected. The garita of San Antonio was about a mile in advance of that on the causeway of Niño Perdido, and, between the two, there were three batteries, and a trench traversing diagonally the grazing grounds. On the east, between the garita of San Antonio and the Paséo de las Vigas, there were two batteries. These batteries were well supplied with heavy guns, which, being placed in position, could not be counter-battered with much hope of success, by the lighter pieces of the Americans planted in the open and unprotected ground. Near the Mexican lines there was also not far from 12,000 infantry, stationed there to support the batteries and repel an assault. From three to four hundred yards in advance of the Belén gate, on the Piedad causeway, was a battery without guns, with a breastwork for infantry, facing the west, intervening between it and the garita. At the gate there was a battery of three guns, with another battery of four guns eight hundred yards in its front, on the Chapultepec causeway. East and north of the garita of Belén, was the citadel with its fifteen guns, near the northwestern angle of which, on a paséo running north from the crate, was a battery of two guns. At the San Cosmé gate there was a battery mounting one heavy gun and a howitzer, and there were several other batteries, without guns, in advance of it, and on the branch causeway leading from the heights of Chapultepec. Some six or seven thousand Mexicans, cavalry and infantry, besides the permanent garrison of Chapultepec, were posted in its vicinity, and on the slopes south and east of Morales.

The route by the San Cosmé causeway was the most feasible of all; but, in order to reach it, it would