. Stories of the War of 1812, and the Mexican War .. . en, andwait for reinforcements. On the 7th ofAugust, he began his march for the ca-pital. General Santa Anna had fortifiednearly every available place to checkGeneral Scott^s progress, and it was ne-cessary that some of the strong positionsshould be taken before he could of these was Contreras, defended byGeneral Valencia, with a great body of (127) 123 STORMING OF CONTKERAS. troops and twenty-two cannon. A de-tachment from General Scotts army at-tacked this place on the 19th of August,but could not withstand the tremendousfire
. Stories of the War of 1812, and the Mexican War .. . en, andwait for reinforcements. On the 7th ofAugust, he began his march for the ca-pital. General Santa Anna had fortifiednearly every available place to checkGeneral Scott^s progress, and it was ne-cessary that some of the strong positionsshould be taken before he could of these was Contreras, defended byGeneral Valencia, with a great body of (127) 123 STORMING OF CONTKERAS. troops and twenty-two cannon. A de-tachment from General Scotts army at-tacked this place on the 19th of August,but could not withstand the tremendousfire of the enemy. The next morning,the detachment, which was commandedby General Smith, having gained a roadin the rear of the works, advanced to theassault. Colonel Riley headed the storm-ing party, rushed up to the works undera heavy fire, and after a short strugglecaptured the cannon and drove the enemybefore him. General Shields cut ofl theretreat, and whole companies were forcedto surrender. Thus another completetriumph was gained by the STORMING OF CHUEUBUSCO. By the capture of Contreras, the Mexi-cans were forced to concentrate at Chu-rubusco, which was still more strongly-fortified than Contreras. General Scottbrought his whole army to the attackupon Churubusco, and never did menbehave with more valor and fire of the Mexicans was tremendous,and the Americans suffered much fromit. But post after post was carried, andthe enemy found that their superiornumbers could not withstand the Worth stormed the bridge, whichwas the strongest part of the works, (131) 132 STORMING OF CHURUBUSCO. while General Twiggs brought his artil-lery to bear on a convent, which, how-ever, held out until General Twiggs wasreinforced, when it surrendered. In themeantime. General Shields, with twobrigades, encountered about four thou-sand Mexican infantry, whose flankswere protected by three thousand cavalry,and after a severe struggle defeatedthem. The enemy were
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectmexicanwar18461848
