he Mills before daylight. The engineers had reconnoitred
the ground as well as possible, and had acquired all the information
necessary to base proper orders both for approach and attack.

By daylight on the morning of the 8th, the troops to be engaged at
Molino were all at the places designated. The ground in front of the
Mills, to the south, was commanded by the artillery from the summit of
Chapultepec as well as by the lighter batteries at hand; but a charge
was made, and soon all was over. Worth's troops entered the Mills by
every door, and the enemy beat a hasty retreat back to Chapultepec. Had
this victory been followed up promptly, no doubt Americans and Mexicans
would have gone over the defences of Chapultepec so near together that
the place would have fallen into our hands without further loss. The
defenders of the works could not have fired upon us without endangering
their own men. This was not done, and five days later more valuable
lives were sacrificed to carry works which had been so nearly in our
possession on the 8th. I do not criticise the failure to capture
Chapultepec at this time. The result that followed the first assault
could not possibly have been foreseen, and to profit by the unexpected
advantage, the commanding general must have been on the spot and given
the necessary instructions at the moment, or the troops must have kept
on without orders. It is always, however, in order to follow a
retreating foe, unless stopped or otherwise directed. The loss on our
side at Molino del Rey was severe for the numbers engaged. It was
especially so among commissioned officers.

I was with the earliest of the troops to enter the Mills. In passing
through to the north side, looking towards Chapultepec, I happened to
notice that there were armed Mexicans still on top of the building, only
a few feet from many of our men. Not seeing any stairway or ladder
reaching to the top of the building, I took a few soldiers, and had a
cart that happened to be standing near brought up, and, placing the
shafts against the wall and chocking the wheels so that the cart could
not back, used the shafts as a sort of ladder extending to within three
or four feet of the top. By this I climbed to the roof of the building,
followed by a few men, but found a private soldier had preceded me by
some other way. There were still quite a number of Mexicans on the
roof, among them a major and five or six officers of lower gr