George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Major-General United States Army
George Gordon Meade, Ed.

[136] to be carried by infantry, a piece of artillery was taken to pieces and carried up by hand to the summit, which piece with great skill threw shrapnel shells (shells filled with musket balls) right into the palace and the open work in front. This made the place so untenable that the enemy undertook to drive us from the summit, and made a charge of cavalry and infantry up the hill. In this they were defeated, and, on retiring, were so vigorously pursued by our people, that they continued beyond the Bishop's Palace, leaving this work, with four pieces of artillery, in our hands, and they retired into the town. Thus, for to-day's work, we had the other two points, giving us four of the enemy's positions, with six of his guns, and the free entrance to the city by the Saltillo road. Our loss to-day was only one officer of the Texas Rangers, mortally wounded, and some five killed and half a dozen wounded; the loss of the enemy much more considerable.

At the eastern end of the town, so crippled were they the previous day, they contented themselves with keeping up from the redoubt they had taken a vigorous fire upon the other works of the enemy (marked D. E. T. G. H.).

On the 23d instant we opened a fire on the town, with the enemy's guns at the Bishop's Palace, and moved the gun taken in the redoubt on Federation Hill farther on the hill, to the point marked P. This fire was kept up vigorously all the morning. In the meantime the General sent me forward on a reconnoissance, to ascertain what batteries the enemy had in our direction. In doing this I ascertained the enemy had abandoned all that portion of the town in our direction, and had retired to the central plaza of the town, where they were barricaded, and all the houses occupied by their infantry. General Worth immediately advanced on the town and took possession, without resistance, of the plaza of La Purissima, where we found a cemetery and church, which our infantry occupied, and where we placed an eight-inch mortar in excellent range to play into the plaza, which was now the enemy's last stronghold.

After occupying the plaza of La Purissima, we threw forward our infantry to that portion of the town occupied by the enemy. They had occupied the main plaza and some two squares around it in each direction; they had erected across the streets solid masonry walls, with embrasures for guns to fire grape, sweeping the street; then all the houses in the neighborhood were occupied by their infantry, loopholes being made to enable them to fire in any direction. Had we