"

Twiggs enters Jalapa.

and without the intrenchments about six thousand, of which a third was cavalry. The army was composed of the best soldiers in Mexico. The infantry who had fought so bravely at Buena Vista, and all the regular artillerists of the republic, including several naval officers, were present. Some of the officers whom General Scott released at the capitulation of Vera Cruz without extorting the parole on account of their gallantry, were found among the killed and wounded. Of the latter was a gallant young officer named Halzinger, a German by birth, who excited the admiration of our army during the bombardment of Vera Cruz, by seizing a flag which had been cut down by our balls, and holding it in his right hand until a staff could be procured. He had been released by General Scott without a parole, and was found on the field of Cerro Gordo dangerously wounded. In addition to the loss of the enemy in killed and taken they lost about thirty pieces of brass cannon, mostly of large calibre, manufactured at the royal foundry of Seville. A large quantity of fixed ammunition, of a very superior quality, together with the private baggage and money-chest of Santa Anna, containing twenty thousand dollars, was also captured."

Leaving the scene of this great victory the army moved forward towards the capital. On the 19th of April, General Twiggs took the city of Jalapa with one detachment, and on the 22d, another under General Worth entered the city of Perote, where, to use the words of a humorous writer, "an officer politely handed over the keys of the well-known castle and prison, bowed, and followed the footsteps of his twice-whipped excellency."

Worth enters Puebla.

"The enemy's forces had all left that place, and our general took possession of the castle, with its armament in perfect order. Colonel Velasques had been left behind to surrender all things in the name of the government. Fifty cannons, three mortars, four stone mortars, and four or five howitzers, together with a large number of round shot and shells, and great quantities of other ammunition, and small arms were delivered up to us. Generals Morales and Landero, who had been imprisoned by Santa Anna for capitulating at Vera Cruz, were released on the appearance of the Americans. Two South Carolina volunteers, and an American sailor, taken near Vera Cruz, were prisoners in the castle, and of course released by our troops. Ampudia was in the vicinity of Perote on the approach of General Worth, but had not the politeness to visit him before taking his departure, which is said to have been hurried. Some two or three thousand infantry and cavalry of the enemy were also in the neighbourhood at the time.

On the road the inhabitants complained bitterly of outrages perpetrated by the retreating soldiers from Cerro Gordo, and many of them had left their homes."

This treatment received from their own countrymen contrasted strongly with that experienced from their generous foe. Pushing on from Perote, General Worth took possession on the 15th of May of the city of Puebla, Santa Anna retiring before him with nothing more than a show of opposition.

When General Worth had reached a point some miles distant from Puebla, General Santa Anna was in the city, engaged in distributing shoes to his soldiers, and a detachment, with which General Worth had a skirmish,