HIS SERVICES IN THE VALLEY OF MEXICO.
General Scott, who was at Puebla with the main army awaiting this
reenforcement, began his march towards the city of Mexico on the day
after General Pierce’s arrival. The battle of Contreras was fought on
the 19th of August.
The enemy’s force consisted of about seven thousand men, posted in a
strongly-intrenched camp, under General Valencia, one of the bravest and
ablest of the Mexican commanders. The object of the commanding general
appears to have been to cut off the communications of these detached
troops with Santa Anna’s main army, and thus to have them entirely at his
mercy. For this purpose a portion of the American forces were ordered to
move against Valencia’s left flank, and, by occupying strong positions in
the villages and on the roads towards the city, to prevent reenforcements
from reaching him. In the mean time, to draw the enemy’s attention from
this movement, a vigorous onset was made upon his front; and as the
operations upon his flank were not immediately and fully carried out
according to the plan, this front demonstration assumed the character of
a fierce and desperate attack, upon which the fortunes of the day much
depended. General Pierce’s brigade formed a part of the force engaged in
this latter movement, in which four thousand newly-recruited men, unable
to bring their artillery to bear, contended against seven thousand
disciplined soldiers, protected by intrenchments, and showering round
shot and shells against the assailing troops.
The ground in front was of the rudest and roughest character. The troops
made their way with difficulty over a broken tract called the Pedregal,
bristling with sharp points of rocks, and which is represented as having
been the crater of a now exhausted and extinct volcano. The enemy had
thrown out skirmishers, who were posted in great force among the crevices
and inequalities of this broken ground, and vigorously resisted the
American advance; while the artillery of the intrenched camp played upon
our troops, and shattered the very rocks over which they were to pass.
General Pierce’s immediate command had never before been under such a
fire of artillery. The enemy’s range was a little too high, or the havoc
in our ranks must have been dreadful. In the midst of this fire, General
Pierce, being the only officer mounted in the brigade, leaped his horse
upon an abrupt eminence, and addressed the colonels and captains of the
regiments, as they passed, in a few stirring words,--reminding them of
the honor of their country, of the victory their steady valor would
contribute to achieve. Pressing forward to the head of the column, he
had nearly reached the practicable ground that lay beyond, when his horse
slipped among the rocks, thrust his foot into a crevice, and fell,
breaking his own leg, and crushing his rider heavily beneath him.
Pierce’s mounted orderly soon came to his assistance. The general was
stunned, and almost insensible. When partially recovered, he found
himself suffering from severe bruises, and especially from a sprain of
the left knee, which was undermost when the horse came down. The orderly
assisted him to reach the shelter of a projecting rock; and as they made
their way thither, a shell fell close beside them and exploded, covering
them with earth. “That was a lucky miss,” said Pierce calmly. Leaving
him in such shelter as the rock afforded, the orderly went in search of
aid, and was fortunate to meet with Dr. Ritchie, of Virginia, who was
attached to Pierce’s brigade, and was following in close proximity to the
advancing column. The doctor administered to him as well as the
circumstances would admit. Immediately on recovering his full
consciousness, General Pierce had become anxious to rejoin his troops;
and now, in opposition to Dr. Ritchie’s advice and remonstrances, he
determined to proceed to the front.
With pain and difficulty, and leaning on his orderly’s arm, he reached
the battery commanded by Captain McGruder, where he found the horse of
Lieutenant Johnson, who had just before received a mortal wound. In
compliance with his wishes, he was assisted into the saddle; and, in
answer to a remark that he would be unable to keep his seat, “Then,” said
the general, “you must tie me on.” Whether his precaution was actually
taken is a point upon which authorities differ; but at all events, with
injuries so severe as would have sent almost any other man to the
hospital, he rode forward into the battle.
The contest was kept up until nightfall, without forcing Valencia’s
intrenchment. General Pierce remained in the saddle until eleven o’clock
at night. Finding himself, at nine o’clock, the senior officer in the
field, he, in that capacity, withdrew the troops from their advanced
position, and concentrated them at the point where they were to pass the
night. At eleven, beneath a torrent of rain, destitute of a tent or
other protection, and without food or refreshment, he lay down on an
ammunition wagon, but was prevented by the pain of his injuries,
especially that of his wounded knee, from finding any repose. At one
o’clock came orders from General Scott to put the brigade into a new
position, in front of the enemy’s works, preparatory to taking part in
the contemplated operations of the next morning. During the night, the
troops appointed for that service, under Riley, Shields, Smith, and
Cadwallader, had occupied the villages and roads between Valencia’s
position and the city; so that, with daylight, the commanding general’s
scheme of the battle was ready to be carried out, as it had originally
existed in his mind.
At daylight, accordingly, Valencia’s intrenched camp was assaulted.
General Pierce was soon in the saddle at the head of his brigade, which
retained its position in front, thus serving to attract the enemy’s
attention, and divert him from the true point of attack. The camp was
stormed in the rear by the American troops, led on by Riley, Cadwallader,
and Dimmick; and in the short space of seventeen minutes it had fallen
into the hands of the assailants, together with a multitude of prisoners.
The remnant of the routed enemy fled towards Churubusco. As Pierce led
his brigade in pursuit, crossing the battle-field, and passing through
the works that had just been stormed, he found the road and adjacent
fields everywhere strewn with the dead and dying. The pursuit was
continued until one o’clock, when the foremost of the Americans arrived
in front of the strong Mexican positions at Churubusco and San Antonio,
where Santa Alma’s army had been compelled to make a stand, and where the
great conflict of the day commenced.
General Santa Anna entertained the design of withdrawing his forces
towards the city. In order to intercept this movement, Pierce’s brigade,
with other troops, was ordered to pursue a route by which the enemy could
be attacked in the rear. Colonel Noah E. Smith (a patriotic American,
long resident in Mexico, whose local and topographical knowledge proved
eminently serviceable) had offered to point out the road, and was sent to
summon General Pierce to the presence of the commander-in-chief. When he
met Pierce, near Coyacan, at the head of his brigade, the heavy fire of
the batteries had commenced. “He was exceedingly thin,” writes Colonel
Smith, “worn down by the fatigue and pain of the day and night before,
and then evidently suffering severely. Still there was a glow in his
eye, as the cannon boomed, that showed within him a spirit ready for the
conflict.” He rode up to General Scott, who was at this time sitting on
horseback beneath a tree, near the church of Coyacan, issuing orders to
different individuals of his staff. Our account of this interview is
chiefly taken from the narrative of Colonel Smith, corroborated by other
testimony.
The commander-in-chief had already heard of the accident that befell
Pierce the day before; and as the latter approached, General Scott could
not but notice the marks of pain and physical exhaustion against which
only the sturdiest constancy of will could have enabled him to bear up.
“Pierce, my dear fellow,” said he,--and that epithet of familiar kindness
and friendship, upon the battle-field, was the highest of military
commendation from such a man,--“you are badly injured; you are not fit to
be in your saddle.” “Yes, general, I am,” replied Pierce, “in a case
like this.” “You cannot touch your foot to the stirrup,” said Scott.
“One of them I can,” answered Pierce. The general looked again at
Pierce’s almost disabled figure, and seemed on the point of taking his
irrevocable resolution. “You are rash, General Pierce,” said he; “we
shall lose you, and we cannot spare you. It is my duty to order you back
to St. Augustine.” “For God’s sake, general,” exclaimed Pierce, “don’t
say that! This is the last great battle, and I must lead my brigade!”
The commander-in-chief made no further remonstrance, but gave the order
for Pierce to advance with his brigade.
The way lay through thick standing corn, and over marshy ground
intersected with ditches, which were filled, or partially so, with water.
Over some of the narrower of these Pierce leaped his horse. When the
brigade had advanced about a mile, however, it found itself impeded by a
ditch ten or twelve feet wide, and six or eight feet deep. It being
impossible to leap it, General Pierce was lifted from his saddle, and in
some incomprehensible way, hurt as he was, contrived to wade or scramble
across this obstacle, leaving his horse on the hither side. The troops
were now under fire. In the excitement of the battle he forgot his
injury, and hurried forward, leading the brigade, a distance of two or
three hundred yards. But the exhaustion of his frame, and particularly
the anguish of his knee,--made more intolerable by such free use of it,--
was greater than any strength of nerve, or any degree of mental energy,
could struggle against. He fell, faint and almost insensible, within
full range of the enemy’s fire. It was proposed to bear him off the
field; but, as some of his soldiers approached to lift him, he became
aware of their purpose, and was partially revived by his determination to
resist it. “No,” said he, with all the strength he had left, “don’t
carry me off! Let me lie here!” And there he lay, under the tremendous
fire of Churubusco, until the enemy, in total rout, was driven from the
field.
Immediately after the victory, when the city of Mexico lay at the mercy
of the American commander, and might have been entered that very night,
Santa Anna sent a flag of truce, proposing an armistice, with a view to
negotiation for peace. It cannot be considered in any other light than
as a very high and signal compliment to his gallantry in the field that
General Pierce was appointed, by the commander-in-chief, one of the
commissioners on our part, together with General Quitman and General
Persifer F. Smith, to arrange the terms of this armistice. Pierce was
unable to walk, or to mount his horse without assistance, when
intelligence of his appointment reached him. He had not taken off his
spurs nor slept an hour, for two nights; but he immediately obeyed the
summons, was assisted into the saddle, and rode to Tacubaya, where, at
the house of the British consul-general, the American and Mexican
commissioners were assembled. The conference began late in the
afternoon, and continued till four o’clock the next morning, when the
articles were signed. Pierce then proceeded to the quarters of General
Worth, in the village of Tacubaya, where he obtained an hour or two of
repose.
The expectation of General Scott, that further bloodshed might be avoided
by means of the armistice, proved deceptive. Military operations, after
a temporary interruption, were actively renewed; and on the 8th of
September was fought the bloody battle of Molino del Rey, one of the
fiercest and most destructive of the war.
In this conflict General Worth, with three thousand troops, attacked and
routed fourteen thousand Mexicans, driving them under the protection of
the Castle of Chepultepec. Perceiving the obstinacy with which the field
was contested, the commander-in-chief dispatched an order to General
Pierce to advance to the support of General Worth’s division. He moved
forward with rapidity; and although the battle was won just as he reached
the field, he interposed his brigade between Worth and the retreating
enemy, and thus drew upon himself the fire of Chepultepec. A shell came
streaming from the castle, and, bursting within a few feet of him,
startled his horse, which was near plunging over an adjacent precipice.
Continuing a long time under fire, Pierce’s brigade was engaged in
removing the wounded and the captured ammunition. While thus occupied,
he led a portion of his command to repel the attacks of the enemy’s
skirmishers.
There remained but one other battle,--that of Chepultepec,--which was
fought on the 13th of September. On the preceding day (although the
injuries and the over-exertion resulting from previous marches and
battles had greatly enfeebled him), General Pierce had acted with his
brigade. In obedience to orders, it had occupied the field of Molino del
Rey. Contrary to expectation, it was found that the enemy’s force had
been withdrawn from this position. Pierce remained in the field until
noon, when, it being certain that the anticipated attack would not take
place before the following day, he returned to the quarters of General
Worth, which were near at hand. There he became extremely ill, and was
unable to leave his bed for the thirty-six hours next ensuing. In the
mean time, the Castle of Chepultepec was stormed by the troops under
Generals Pillow and Quitman. Pierce’s brigade behaved itself gallantly,
and suffered severely; and that accomplished officer, Colonel Ransom,
leading the Ninth Regiment to the attack, was shot through the head, and
fell, with many other brave men, in that last battle of the war.
The American troops, under Quitman and Worth, had established themselves
within the limits of the city, having possession of the gates of Belen
and of San Cosma, but, up till nightfall, had met with a vigorous
resistance from the Mexicans, led on by Santa Anna in person. They had
still, apparently, a desperate task before them. It was anticipated
that, with the next morning’s light, our troops would be ordered to storm
the citadel, and the city of Mexico itself. When this was told to
Pierce, upon his sick-bed, he rose, and attempted to dress himself; but
Captain Hardcastle, who had brought the intelligence from Worth,
prevailed upon him to remain in bed, and not to exhaust his scanty
strength until the imminence of the occasion should require his presence.
Pierce acquiesced for the time, but again arose, in the course of the
night, and made his way to the trenches, where he reported himself to
General Quitman, with whose division was a part of his brigade.
Quitman’s share in the anticipated assault, it was supposed, owing to the
position which his troops occupied, would be more perilous than that of
Worth.
But the last great battle had been fought. In the morning, it was
discovered that the citadel had been abandoned, and that Santa Anna had
withdrawn his army from the city.
There never was a more gallant body of officers than those who came from
civil life into the army on occasion of the Mexican War. All of them,
from the rank of general downward, appear to have been animated by the
spirit of young knights, in times of chivalry, when fighting for their
spurs. Hitherto known only as peaceful citizens, they felt it incumbent
on them, by daring and desperate valor, to prove their fitness to be
intrusted with the guardianship of their country’s honor. The old and
trained soldier, already distinguished on former fields, was free to be
discreet as well as brave; but these untried warriors were in a different
position, and therefore rushed on perils with a recklessness that found
its penalty on every battle-field--not one of which was won without a
grievous sacrifice of the best blood of America. In this band of gallant
men, it is not too much to say, General Pierce was as distinguished for
what we must term his temerity in personal exposure, as for the higher
traits of leadership, wherever there was an opportunity for their
display.
He had manifested, moreover, other and better qualities than these, and
such as it affords his biographer far greater pleasure to record. His
tenderness of heart, his sympathy, his brotherly or paternal care for his
men, had been displayed in a hundred instances, and had gained him the
enthusiastic affection of all who served under his command. During the
passage from America, under the tropics, he would go down into the
stifling air of the hold, with a lemon, a cup of tea, and, better and
more efficacious than all, a kind word for the sick. While encamped
before Vera Cruz, he gave up his own tent to a sick comrade, and went
himself to lodge in the pestilential city. On the march, and even on the
battle-field, he found occasion to exercise those feelings of humanity
which show most beautifully there. And, in the hospitals of Mexico, he
went among the diseased and wounded soldiers, cheering them with his
voice and the magic of his kindness, inquiring into their wants, and
relieving them to the utmost of his pecuniary means. There was not a man
of his brigade but loved him, and would have followed him to death, or
have sacrificed his own life in his general’s defence.
The officers of the old army, whose profession was war, and who well knew
what a soldier was and ought to be, fully recognized his merit. An
instance of their honorable testimony in his behalf may fitly be recorded
here. It was after General Pierce had returned to the United States. At
a dinner in the halls of Montezuma, at which forty or fifty of the brave
men above alluded to were present, a young officer of the New England
Regiment was called on for a toast. He made an address, in which he
spoke with irrepressible enthusiasm of General Pierce, and begged to
propose his health. One of the officers of the old line rose, and
observed that none of the recently appointed generals commanded more
unanimous and universal respect; that General Pierce had appreciated the
scientific knowledge of the regular military men, and had acquired their
respect by the independence, firmness, and promptitude with which he
exercised his own judgment, and acted on the intelligence derived from
them. In concluding this tribute of high, but well-considered praise,
the speaker very cordially acquiesced in the health of General Pierce,
and proposed that it should be drunk standing, with three times three.
General Pierce remained in Mexico until December, when, as the warfare
was over, and peace on the point of being concluded, he set out on his
return. In nine months, crowded full of incident, he had seen far more
of actual service than many professional soldiers during their whole
lives. As soon as the treaty of peace was signed, he gave up his
commission, and returned to the practice of the law, again proposing to
spend the remainder of his days in the bosom of his family. All the
dreams of his youth were now fulfilled; the military ardor, that had
struck an hereditary root in his breast, had enjoyed its scope, and was
satisfied; and he flattered himself that no circumstances could hereafter
occur to draw him from the retirement of domestic peace. New Hampshire
received him with even more enthusiastic affection than ever. At his
departure, he had received a splendid sword at the hands of many of his
friends, in token of their confidence; he had shown himself well worthy
to wear and able to use a soldier’s weapon; and his native state now gave
him another, the testimonial of approved valor and warlike conduct.