Last in Their Class. James Robbins
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the valley towards the Mexican defenses, in high morale, confident in their leaders and themselves. Kirby grimly appreciated the fact that they were heading for the climactic battle. “Welcome the danger, welcome the toil,” he wrote, “welcome the fierce conflict and the bloody field, if it will but close the war.”25
“The Day Will Be Ours!”
THE CITY OF MEXICO WAS well sited, being surrounded by lakes, marshes, and hardened lava flows known as pedregal. Santa Anna had incorporated the natural chokepoints into a system of interlocking defenses. General Scott had scouted the Mexican positions, much of the dangerous reconnaissance work done by Robert E. Lee and George McClellan. Scott attempted a flanking maneuver, around the western edges of Lakes Chalco and Xochimilco, towards the villages of Contreras, San Antonio and Churubusco. He opened his attack on August 20, carrying the first two objectives after a hard fight, and sending the Mexican forces into headlong retreat north towards the city. Santa Anna, hoping to stop the rout, sent reserve troops under Major General Manuel Rincón to hold the Franciscan convent of San Mateo and the nearby tête-du-pont, a fortified bridge over the Churubusco River along the line of retreat. The river, which at that point was walled like a canal, cut perpendicularly across the road, and a line of Mexican forces deployed along the stone banks between the two fortified positions. Scott ordered an immediate two-column assault against the convent and the bridgehead. The Americans were tired and in some disorder, but Scott pushed forward, hoping to outrace the retreating Mexicans. If he could cut the road at the bridge, he would have a substantial number of their troops in a bag.
The Mexican position at San Mateo was strong; the convent had high, thick adobe walls and was fronted with earthworks. Among its defenders was the San Patricio battalion of foreign mercenaries and American deserters, who fought furiously, knowing their fate should they lose. They beat back several waves of American attacks, inflicting heavy casualties. With the left flank stalled before the convent, it was up to Worth’s division to storm the fortress bridge. The road to the tête-du-pont was soggy from a drenching rain the night before, and heavy traffic from the Mexican retreat had created viscous mud that was impassable to artillery. However, seeing the disorganized mass of enemy troops, Worth was confident he could take the objective. He sent the Sixth Infantry regiment straight up the road. But the position was stronger than Worth expected, and the unit was twice repulsed with bloody losses. Among them was First Lieutenant John Danforth Bacon, the Goat of 1840, who fell mortally wounded, leading his platoon. Worth then deployed the two other regiments of the Second Brigade, the Fifth and Eighth Infantry, into the cornfields to the right side of the road to attempt to outflank the Mexicans.
Kirby Smith had yet to get into the fight that day. Earlier, he and the Fifth had bypassed the Mexican positions at San Antonio, seeking to cut off the retreat towards the strongpoints at Churubusco. For two hours the Americans raced across the rough, difficult pedregal, the enemy in column to their right, moving rapidly up the road towards the bridge, parallel to their line of advance, just out of musket range. North of San Antonio, the Fifth emerged from the pedregal, made a right oblique, and slammed into the Mexican column, starting a vicious mêlée. “It will be entirely impossible for me to give any lucid description of this terrible battle,” Kirby wrote to his wife. His company was a mile and a half behind the main action when he came to the road, “a broad stone causeway with corn fields and pastures on each side of it, divided by broad ditches filled with water from three to six feet deep, the corn very tall and thick.”26 Rain had left the irrigation ditches full and the fields ankle-deep with mud. Kirby moved a mile up the road, then was ordered to assault the eastern flank of the Churubusco defenses. His men deployed in line in a field behind a tall stand of corn, then moved forward.
The corn was higher than the soldiers’ heads, and the men could see only a few files in front. Unseen officers shouted orders, sometimes contradictory, adding to the confusion. Soldiers lost sight of their regimental standards, and the units began to break up. Long-range Mexican cannonballs tore through the plants as they advanced, and there were sounds of a hot battle taking place in front of them. Kirby moved forward blindly, knowing only that he was headed for action. “Immediately in front of us, at perhaps five hundred yards, the roll of the Mexican fire exceeded anything I have ever heard,” he wrote. “The din was most horrible, the roar of cannon and musketry, the screams of the wounded, the awful cry of terrified horses and mules, and the yells of the fierce combatants all combined in a sound as hellish as can be conceived.”27 The first waves of Americans had stumbled into the strongest Mexican defenses yet encountered in the war.
Kirby charged forward through the corn, emerging suddenly into the clear, and into a scene of horror. American dead and wounded lay across the field before the bridge, and those who were still able to fight were scattered, seeking cover in ditches or behind a nearby copse of trees. William M. Gardner had been in the first wave, and he lay seriously wounded at the edge of the corn stand. Many of his command had dropped in the first volley, and those who were not able to stumble back into cover were bayoneted by the Mexicans as they lay on the field. A storm of crossfire, both musket and grape, rained down on Kirby’s men as they emerged, its sheer volume knocking the men back into the concealment of the corn.
The soldiers dropped to the ground, seeking shelter from the balls whipping through the leaves. Kirby stood, trying to rally them, finally forming his company. He could see no other officers, and the battalion was collapsing. Kirby gave command to his second, Lieutenant Farrelly, and ordered his men to charge. They set out against the stronghold while Kirby sought to assemble the remaining companies. He formed another group and was about to lead them against the fortress when he heard a desperate cry rising from the left.
“We are repulsed!” Terrified officers and men appeared, rushing back through the corn, bowling over Kirby’s men, breaking his line. The American front was crumbling and panic had set in.
Kirby disentangled himself from the mass of retreating men. The battle hung on this moment. He drew to full height, placing himself in front of the panicking mass, and shouted:
“Men! We are not repulsed! Form up! Form up! Charge! The day will be ours!”
The rout slowed, then stopped. The men turned, encouraged each other, began to form. Colonel C. F. Smith appeared as the men rallied. Kirby shouted, “Forward! Forward!” The cry was echoed through the field and he and his men burst out through the corn, charging the Mexican defenses.
AROUND THIS TIME, ON THE EXTREME RIGHT flank of the American line, elements of the Eighth Infantry approached the tête-du-pont. The line moved over the fields to within 150 yards of the strongpoint, where concentrated fire stalled the advance, near one of the large irrigation channels. Some Americans struggled forward. The standard bearer of Company H came up to the ditch and fell, and the unit began to move back. Company commander Captain James V. Bomford (USMA 1832) picked up the colors and charged ahead with his junior officers, Lieutenant James Longstreet, and Second Lieutenants James Snelling (USMA 1845) and George Pickett.28 The men of Company H, seeing their officers dashing towards the fortress, rallied, and the rest of the regiment began to follow.
Bomford reached the ditch, handed the colors to Longstreet and jumped in. He waded quickly across to the other side and clambered up the stone wall. Longstreet threw him the colors, and he, Pickett and Snelling navigated the passage under fire, with their men leaping in after them. Some were shot down by musket fire or grapeshot; some were wounded in midpassage and sank beneath the surface, drowning. But most made it across and followed the officers, who had raced up under the walls of the tête-du-pont. They probed for weakness in the fort as their men provided covering fire. Finally Bomford himself, standing on the shoulders of his men, forced an entry through one of the embrasures, with Longstreet and Pickett close behind, handing up the colors as they went. Other soldiers followed, and after a sharp hand-to-hand skirmish on the top of the fortress, the regimental banner was raised, to the cheers of the men below.
At this moment, Kirby and the Fifth regiment came charging onto the scene, emerging from the cornfield with a shout and running down the Mexican defenders outside the fort. The Mexicans inside panicked and tried to