INTRODUCTION
Major General Scott entered the village of Tacubaya and established his headquarters there on the 21st of August, 1847. Tacubaya is one mile from Chapultepec (a fortified hill), which is itself about a mile and a half from one of the gates of the city of Mexico. On the morning of the 22d of August, a Mexican mail was intercepted by the American guards, containing two parcels of letters, one addressed to Toluca, the capital of the State of Mexico, and the other to Moreha. These letters are now in the possession of the Inspector General of the army—translations of them, carefully prepared by a capable hand, are here offered to the public, for reasons which will be manifest to the considerate reader. To make them intelligible, some few facts must be stated, which occurred before the letters were written, and a few also which transpired after the capture of the letters; but we wish it understood that it is not our purpose to give a history of the operations of the American army before and at the Mexican capital: we speak only of what the army has done as an army. No attempt is made to do justice to individuals, and we select this course for two reasons—we wish only to make the letters intelligible, and with our information and means, we cannot hope to award what is due to all. We therefore omit names, and deal only with events. Impartial history will in due time do justice to all. The distinguished judgment, ability and zeal of our engineer officers of both corps, will then stand out in broad relief, and the providence and skill of our ordnance officers will also be conspicuous, and justly so, as they are not content with service under cover in the arsenals, preparing guns and ammunition, but they follow to the field their heavy ordnance, and under the fire of the enemy give practical proof of its excellence and power. In like manner justice will be done to the judicious arrangements and abundant supplies of the quar-
