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After a careful reconnoissance of the surrounding country, which proved the necessity of a separate operation against the Bishop's Palace, General Worth was ordered toward that station. He left the camp at 2 o'clock P. M., on the 20th, and at the same time Generals Twiggs and Butler were ordered to make a diversion to favour his march. At night, a small battery was erected opposite the citadel. In the morning, a second diversion was made to favour the march of General Worth. The infantry and artillery of the first division, May's dragoons, Texas volunteers, and some other troops, were ordered to this service. The firing soon commenced with spirit, and both armies fought with a fierce determination to conquer. Lieutenant-colonel Garland's command entered the city, and attempted a capture of the first fort; but their loss soon became so heavy that they were withdrawn. Captain Backus, however, mounted the roof of a tannery, from which he poured a most destructive fire into the fort, and at the same time a large body of volunteers attacked it with energy. It was finally carried by General Quitman's brigade. About the same time General Butler was wounded and compelled to quit the field.

A heavy fire was now kept up by almost all the enemy's batteries. Colonel Garland made a second attempt to enter the town by carrying a bridge; but, although nobly supported by his men, he was obliged to desist, and withdrew to No. 1. At the same time the enemy made a demonstration of cavalry near the battery opposite the citadel; but they were repulsed by Captain Bragg. The lancers had previously charged upon the Ohio and a part of the Mississippi regiments in some fields at a distance from the town, and were repulsed with loss. At the approach of night, operations ceased, and the men were ordered to give additional strength to the captured works during the night.

On this first day's attack the Americans lost, in killed and wounded, three hundred and ninety-four.

During the night, the enemy evacuated nearly all his defences in the lower part of the city; and on the following morning, General Quitman commenced his march for the main plaza. The commander ordered General Henderson to his support, assisted by Captain Bragg's artillery. Their firing soon became destructive, and a portion of the large cathedral was battered down. The troops advanced from house to house, and from square to square, until they reached a street but one square in rear of the plaza, near which the enemy's force was principally concentrated. The advance was continued with due caution, until the falling buildings renaered it dangerous to continue the fire, when the troops were ordered to fall back. This they did in good order. Nothing was effected during the night, and the reception of overtures of capitulation on the following morning terminated all further hostilities.

In the following letter we have a description of the principal operations :

"At noon of the 20th, General Worth marched from the camp, east of the town, in the direction of the heights west, McCulloch's and Gillespie's companies of rangers forming the reconnoitering party. At night, the division bivouacked almost within range of the guns stationed upon the highest point of the hill on which the Bishop's Palace is situated. At daylight of the twenty-first, the column was again in motion, and, in a few moments, was turning the point of a ridge, which protruded out toward the enemy's guns, bringing us as near to them as their gunners could desire. They immediately opened upon the column with a howitzer and twelve-pounder, firing shell and round-shot as fast as they could discharge their pieces.

“The road now wound in toward a gorge, but not far enough to be out of range of their guns, which still played upon us. Another ridge lay about three-fourths of a mile beyond the first, around the termination of which the road wound, bringing it under the lofty summit of a height which rises between Palace Hill and the mountains, which arise over us on the west. When the head of the column approached this ridge, a body of Mexican cavalry came dashing around that point to charge upon our advance. Captain Gillespie immediately ordered his men to dismount and place themselves in ambush. The enemy evidently did not perceive this manœuvre; but the moment they came up, the Texians opened upon them a most destructive fire, unsaddling a number of them. McCulloch's company now dashed into them. Captain C. F. Smith's camp, and Captain Scott's camp of artillery, (acting as infantry,) and Lieutenant Longstreet's company of the eighth infantry, with another company of the same regiment, likewise charged upon the enemy. The Texan horsemen were soon engaged with them in a sort of hand to hand skirmish, in which a number of them fell, and one Texan was killed and two wounded.

"Colonel Duncan now opened upon them with his battery of light artillery, pouring a few discharges of grape upon them, and scattering them like chaff. Several men and horses fell under this destructive fire. I saw one horse and rider bound some feet into the air, and both fell dead and tumbled down the steep. The foot companies above named then rushed up the steep, and fired over the ridge at the retreating enemy, a considerable body of whom were concealed from our view, around the point of the hill. About thirty of the enemy were killed in this skirmish, and among them a captain, who, with two or three others, fell in the road. The captain was wounded in three places, the last shot hitting him in the forehead. He fought gallantly to the last, and I am sorry that I cannot learn his name.

"The light batteries, one of which is commanded by Lieutenant Mackall, were now driven upon the slope of the ridge, and the howitzers opened

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