in planting batteries and in conducting columns to their stations under the heavy fire of the enemy.  My personal staff—­Lieutenants Scott, Williams, and Lay, and Major Van Buren, who volunteered for the occasion—­gave me zealous and efficient assistance.  Our whole force present in action and in reserve was eight thousand five hundred.  The enemy is estimated at twelve thousand or more.  About three thousand prisoners, four or five thousand stands of arms, and forty-three pieces of artillery are taken.  By the accompanying return I regret to find our loss more severe than at first supposed, amounting in the two days to thirty-three officers and three hundred and ninety-eight men—­in all, four hundred and thirty-one, of whom sixty-three were killed.  The enemy’s loss is computed to be from one thousand to one thousand two hundred.  I am happy in communicating strong hopes of the recovery of the gallant General Shields, who is so much improved as to have been brought to this place.

  “Appended to this report are the following papers: 

  “(A) General return by name of killed and wounded.

  “(B) Copies of report of Lieutenant-Colonel Hitchcock, acting
  inspector general (of prisoners taken), and accompanying papers.

  “(C) Report of Brigadier-General Twiggs, and subreports.

“(D) Report of Major-General Patterson and report of brigade
commanders.

“(E) Copy of report of Brigadier-General Worth announcing the
occupation by his division of the castle and town of Perote without
opposition, with an inventory of ordnance there found.

“I have the honor to remain, sir, with high respect, your most
obedient servant,

“WINFIELD SCOTT.”

A Mexican historian gives the following account of the close of the battle:  “General Santa Anna, accompanied by some of his adjutants, was passing along the road to the left of the battery, when the enemy’s column, now out of the woods, appeared on his line of retreat and fired upon him, forcing him back.  The carriage in which he had left Jalapa was riddled with shot, the mules killed and taken by the enemy, as well as a wagon containing sixteen thousand dollars received the day before for the pay of the soldiers.  Every tie of command and obedience now being broken among our troops, safety alone being the object, and all being involved in a frightful whirl, they rushed desperately to the narrow pass of the defile that descended to the Plan del Rio, where the general in chief had preceded, with the chiefs and officers accompanying him.  Horrid indeed was the descent by that narrow and rocky path, where thousands rushed, disputing the passage, with desperation, and leaving a track of blood upon the road.  All classes being confounded, military distinction and respect were lost; and badges of rank became marks of sarcasm that were only meted out according to their grade and humiliation.  The enemy, now masters of our camp, turned their guns upon the fugitives, thus augmenting the terror of the multitude that crowded through the defile and pressed forward every instant by a new impulse, which increased the confusion and disgrace of the ill-fated day.”