his troops under shelter for the night. There was but one more obstacle—the San Cosme gate (custom house)—between him and the great square in front of the cathedral and palace—the heart of the city; and that barrier, it was known, could not, by daylight, resist our siege guns thirty minutes.
Scott had gone back to the foot of Chapultepec, the point from which the two aqueducts begin to diverge, some hours earlier, in order to be near that new depôt, and in easy communication with Quitman and Twiggs, as well as with Worth.
General Scott ordered all detachments and stragglers to their respective corps, then in advance; sent to Quitman additional siege guns, ammunition, entrenching tools; directed Twiggs' remaining brigade (Riley's) from Piedad, to support Worth, and Captain Steptoe's field battery, also at Piedad, to rejoin Quitman's division.
Quitman, supported by Shields and Smith—Shields badly wounded at Chapultepec and refusing to retire—as well as by all the officers and men of the column—continued to press forward under flank and direct fires; carried an intermediate battery of two guns, and then the Belen or South-Western gate, before two o'clock in the afternoon, but not without severe loss, increased by his steady maintenance of that position.
Here, of the heavy battery—Capt. Drum and Lieut. Benjamin were mortally wounded, and Lieut Porter, its third in rank, slightly. Lieuts. J. B. Moragne and Wm. Canty, of the South Carolina volunteers, also of high merit, fell on the same occasion—besides many of our bravest non-commissioned officers and men.
Quitman, within the city—adding several new defences
