Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/468

416 the impetuous onset of their antagonists, the enemy abandoned their guns, and retired in haste.

The remaining regiments of General Quitman's division, — the New York and South Carolina volunteers, under Lieutenant Colonel Baxter and Major Gladden, and the 2nd Pennsylvania, under Lieutenant Colonel Geary, Colonel Roberts being confined to a sick bed, — led by General Shields, who had solicited the command of the storming parties, but had been refused on account of his rank, after proceeding about half a mile along the causeway, turned to the left, and making their way through fields intersected by deep ditches, filled with water, under a severe fire of grape and musketry, approached the southern wall of Chapultepec. The Palmettos broke through it, and charged up the height, without firing a gun. Lieutenant Colonel Baxter being mortally wounded, Major Burnham placed himself at the head of the New Yorkers, and entered the inclosure, in company with the 2nd Pennsylvania, through an abandoned battery, to the left. Lieutenant Reid, with his company of the New York regiment, and a company of marines, moving still further to the left, passed through the breach made by the heavy guns, and was soon among the foremost of the parties who had assaulted the work from the west. A portion of the storming party from General Twiggs' division, under Lieutenant Gantt, of the 7th infantry, also ascended the hill.

A simultaneous rush was now made upon the east, south, and west of the castle. Scaling-ladders were applied on all sides. Major Seymour, of the 9th infantry, reached the ﬂag-staff, and hauled down the Mexican standard, — and the national color of the New York regiment, the first on the fortress, was displayed,