General Quitman had advanced along his line very successfully on the 13th, so that at night his command occupied nearly the same position at Belen that Worth’s troops did about San Cosme.  After the interview above related between General Scott and the city council, orders were issued for the cautious entry of both columns in the morning.  The troops under Worth were to stop at the Alameda, a park near the west end of the city.  Quitman was to go directly to the Plaza, and take possession of the Palace—­a mass of buildings on the east side in which Congress has its sessions, the national courts are held, the public offices are all located, the President resides, and much room is left for museums, receptions, etc.  This is the building generally designated as the “Halls of the Montezumas.”

CHAPTER XII.

Promotion to first lieutenant—­capture of the city of Mexico—­the army —­Mexican soldiers—­peace negotiations.

On entering the city the troops were fired upon by the released convicts, and possibly by deserters and hostile citizens.  The streets were deserted, and the place presented the appearance of a “city of the dead,” except for this firing by unseen persons from house-tops, windows, and around corners.  In this firing the lieutenant-colonel of my regiment, Garland, was badly wounded, Lieutenant Sidney Smith, of the 4th infantry, was also wounded mortally.  He died a few days after, and by his death I was promoted to the grade of first lieutenant.(4) I had gone into the battle of Palo Alto in May, 1846, a second lieutenant, and I entered the city of Mexico sixteen months later with the same rank, after having been in all the engagements possible for any one man and in a regiment that lost more officers during the war than it ever had present at any one engagement.  My regiment lost four commissioned officers, all senior to me, by steamboat explosions during the Mexican war.  The Mexicans were not so discriminating.  They sometimes picked off my juniors.

General Scott soon followed the troops into the city, in state.  I wonder that he was not fired upon, but I believe he was not; at all events he was not hurt.  He took quarters at first in the “Halls of the Montezumas,” and from there issued his wise and discreet orders for the government of a conquered city, and for suppressing the hostile acts of liberated convicts already spoken of—­orders which challenge the respect of all who study them.  Lawlessness was soon suppressed, and the City of Mexico settled down into a quiet, law-abiding place.  The people began to make their appearance upon the streets without fear of the invaders.  Shortly afterwards the bulk of the troops were sent from the city to the villages at the foot of the mountains, four or five miles to the south and south-west.