Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/457

Rh with the 12th infantry, Lieutenant Colonel Bonham, one company of the 3rd and one of the 7th infantry, the whole commanded by Colonel Harney, were ordered to garrison Mixcoac, now the general depot of the army.

During the night of the 11th, and in the morning of the 12th, four batteries were traced and established L near the height of Chapultepec, by Captains Huger and Lee, with the assistance. of other ordnance. and engineer officers, and working parties detailed for the purpose. Number 1, mounting two sixteen-pounders, and one 8-inch howitzer, was placed on the Tacubaya causeway, to fire on the south side of the castle; number 2, mounting one twenty-four pounder, and one 8-inch howitzer, On the ridge south of El Molino Del Rey, and opposite the south-west angle of the castle; number 3, which received, in the course of the day, one sixteen-pounder and one 8-inch howitzer, near the mill, some three hundred yards to the north and east of number 2, having the wall of the aqueduct as a parapet; and number 4, mounted with a 10-inch mortar, at El Molino, under cover of the high wall formed by the aqueduct, and opposite the west front of the castle. Numbers 1 and 2 were well masked by bushes, and ready to commence cannonading the castle, at an early hour on the 12th.

An unusual degree of alarm pervaded the city on the afternoon of the 11th, when General Quitman was discovered advancing along the Piedad causeway with his division; but, as no further movement was perceived, it soon subsided. All was yet still on the ensuing day, when the rising sun first threw his golden