Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/523

Rh about half a mile west of the casa mata, prepared to advance, partly by the main road to the molino, narrowed by a bridge at a small intervening ravine, partly by a clear sweep round it to the left. Álvarez saw his opportunity as McIntosh prepared to assault the casa, and ordered a charge by front and flank. But his seconds bungled and dallied till Duncan, for the time unable to fire on the casa mata, was able to bring up his guns. A few shots sufficed to throw the advancing body into disorder, of which the voltigeur regiment took advantage for a vigorous assault that forced a retreat. Duncan was relieved just in time to renew his cannonade upon the casa, and this time with such effect as to seriously trouble Perez. The fort was a powder-magazine. By this time the mill had fallen, and seeing that soon the brunt would concentrate upon him, he determined to retreat in time. The pursuing Americans captured less than two score of his men.

At this moment, when the battle was practically over, reënforcements appeared along the road skirting the northern side of Chapultepec, under the direction of Santa Anna, as if to retake the mill; but the Americans quickly brought up and unlimbered their guns, assisting the infantry to repulse them, with the loss of a field-piece. Nevertheless the proximity of the commander-in-chief with additional troops restored a certain degree of confidence among those who had retreated into the grove, and assisted indirectly the retreat of Perez. A combined movement might therefore have been undertaken with good prospects, but for the approach of reënforcements