Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/466

414 watering with their blood the trains which they had vainly endeavored to ignite. In their haste, the attacking parties outstripped the stormers, who had moved on more slowly until the ground should be relinquished by their comrades; and when they gained the crest of the counterscarp, they were obliged to wait for the ladders, without which the works could not be carried: They then partially sheltered themselves in the crevices of the rocky acclivity, and poured an incessant fire upon the enemy behind their breastworks and parapets.

At the request of General Pillow, General Worth had detached Colonel Clarke with his brigade, consisting of the 5th, 6th, and 8th infantry, under Captain Chapman, and Majors Bonneville and Montgomery, to support the attack. Portions of these regiments joined the assaulting column, as Captain Mackenzie came up with his command. The delay was of brief duration. The ditch was crossed, and the ladders planted. Hand-grenades and musket-balls were poured upon the assailants, and the first who mounted the ladders fell to the earth, either killed or severely wounded; others took their places, and gained the parapet. The color-bearer of the voltigeurs being shot down, Captain Barnard snatched the flag, scaled the wall with it unfurled, and planted it in advance of any other color. One of the salients of the outer work was in their possession, and the columns moved forward upon the castle.

In the meantime, Lieutenant Colonel Johnstone, with his battalion, accompanied by Lieutenant Reno with two of the howitzers, had passed round to the right, up the paved road leading in a triangular form to the main gate on the south side of the castle. Here he encountered a warm fire from the parapet of the east terrace, and the battery at its base. Lieutenant Reno