Page:Into Mexico with General Scott (1920).djvu/240

 First Division has the honor of forcing San Antonio from the front, to open the road for the heavy artillery, while the Pillow new regiments are taking it in reverse or at the rear. But they have the longer way to come, from Contreras, and the First Division must get in first. Then we shall push right on to Churubusco and join the fight there."

"Huzzah! Huzzah!"

"We have good news to support us, and do not need any help from the Pillow men."

"No, no!"

"Contreras entrenchments were taken in seventeen minutes by only two thousand men. The Riley Brigade of the Second Division, composed of the Second and Seventh Infantry, the Fourth Artillery, with the Rifles added, took it alone at the point of the bayonet. General Cadwalader's Eleventh Infantry and Voltiguers followed close. The remainder of the Second Division, being the Third Infantry and First Artillery, led by Major Dimick in place of General Persifor Smith, who commanded the whole movement, arrived in time to break the last resistance, and the rout was received by General Shield's New Yorkers and Palmettos on the road north. But the colors of the Seventh Infantry were again the first to be raised. The Fourth Artillery captured two of its guns that had been lost at Buena Vista last spring. The entire Mexican force of seven thousand troops, called the 'flower of the Mexican army,' was dispersed, leaving two thousand dead, wounded and prisoners, all the artillery, ammunition, provisions, and the military chest. Our own loss is less than sixty. The only fortified points between us and