ng
force in check, it was determined to make a night march and turn the
rear of the intrenchments on the ridge. The Commander-in-Chief was
beyond the Pedregal, opposite San Antonio, and it was necessary that
he should be informed of the projected movement.

"I have always understood," says an officer present in this quarter
of the field, "that what was devised and determined on was suggested
by Captain Lee; at all events the council was closed by his saying
that he desired to return to General Scott with the decision, and
that, as it was late, the decision must be given as soon as possible,
since General Scott wished him to return in time to give directions
for co-operation. During the council, and for hours after, the rain
fell in torrents, whilst the darkness was so intense that one could
move only by groping."

The Pedregal was infested by straggling bands of Mexicans; and yet,
over those five miles of desolation, with no guide but the wind, or
an occasional flash of lightning, Lee, unaccompanied by a single
orderly, made his way to Scott's headquarters. This perilous
adventure was characterised by the Commander-in-Chief as "the
greatest feat of physical and moral courage performed by any
individual during the entire campaign."

August 20.

The night march, although it entailed the passage of a deep ravine,
and was so slow that one company in two hours made no more than four
hundred yards, was completely successful. The Mexicans, trusting to
the strength of their position, and to the presence of the
reinforcements, had neglected to guard their left. The lesson of
Cerro Gordo had been forgotten. The storming parties, guided by the
engineers, Lee, Beauregard, and Gustavus Smith, established
themselves, under cover of the darkness, within five hundred paces of
the intrenchments, and as the day broke the works were carried at the
first rush. Seventeen minutes after the signal had been given, the
garrison, attacked in front and rear simultaneously, was completely
dispersed. 800 Mexicans were captured, and nearly as many killed.* (*
4500 Americans (rank and file) were engaged, and the losses did not
exceed 50. Scott's Memoirs.) The reinforcements, unable to intervene,
and probably demoralised by this unlooked-for defeat, fell back to
the village of Churubusco, and San Antonio was evacuated. The pursuit
was hotly pressed. Churubusco was heavily bombarded. For two hours
the American batteries played upon the church and