ferences between
the two republics should be settled. He mentioned (what was known to
the Mexican authorities) that a commissioner on the part of the United
States, clothed with full power to that end, was with his army. He
expressed his willingness on reasonable terms to agree to a short
armistice. While he proposed to wait until the next morning for a
reply, he announced his intention "in the meantime to seize and occupy
such positions outside of the capital as I may deem necessary to the
shelter and comfort of this army."

The Mexican authorities, through Alcorta, Secretary of War and of the
Navy, named two brigadier generals of the Mexican army, Mora y
Villamil and Benito Quijano, to act as commissioners.

General Scott appointed as commissioners Major General John
A. Quitman, Brigadier-General Franklin Pierce, and Brevet
Brigadier-General Persifor F. Smith. The convention concluded its work
on the 24th of August. It was agreed that hostilities should cease at
once within thirty leagues of the Mexican capital. No work of a
military character was to be done, and any re-enforcements or
munitions of war except that now on its way to either army was to be
stopped at a distance of twenty-eight leagues from the capital. The
American army was not to obstruct the passage from the surrounding
country into the capital of the ordinary supplies of food necessary
for the subsistence of the Mexican army and the inhabitants within the
city, nor were the Mexican authorities to obstruct the passage of
supplies of subsistence from the city or country necessary for the
supply of the American army. The armistice was to continue pending
negotiations or until the commander of either army should give notice
to the other of its cessation; and forty-eight hours after such
notice General Worth, on the night of the 21st, moved his division to
Tacubaya, where he was preceded by General Scott, and established his
headquarters in the Bishop's Palace. General Quitman remained at San
Augustin, to which point General Shields returned with his command.
General Twiggs was at San Angel, and General Pillow at Mexcoac.

Previous to the occurrences just narrated, Major Folliot Thornton
Lally had on August 6th marched with a force of about one thousand men
from Vera Cruz. He was joined _en route_ by a company of mounted
Georgia volunteers, one of Louisiana mounted men, and two
six-pounders, under command of Lieutenant Henry B. Sears, of the
Second Art