deserters. Fifty were hanged, and the rest lashed, branded, and imprisoned.[1] The military depôt and hospitals were transferred from Tlalpam to Mixcoac, and orders issued approximating the corps in anticipation of a general assault on the capital, Riley's brigade advancing to Nalvarte, and Pillow dividing his forces between San Borja and Tacubaya.
Scott had been informed, perhaps at the instance of the astute Santa Anna, that at Molino del Rey, King's Mill, a mile from Tacubaya and near the western foot of Chapultepec hill, a cannon foundery was in operation. Worth received orders to make a night descent on the place between the 7th and 8th of September, and destroy the machinery, seizing the powder stored near by. A closer examination by this officer revealed, if not the full strength of the position, at least that the task would prove more than he could accomplish in the proposed raid. His force was accordingly increased, and fearing entanglement in the dark among unknown buildings, he was permitted to postpone the attack till dawn, and to have the help of the artillery. He also proposed to draw greater advantage from the fight than the destruction of a probably imaginary foundery, by following it up, if successful, with an assault on Chapultepec; but Scott's views had not yet risen to the great importance of this fortress, intent as he was
- ↑ The latter being saved by the mitigating circumstances of having deserted before the war began, etc. Hitherto deserters had been driven off in disgrace or lightly punished. Manfield's Mex. War, 280-1. In Mex. War, by English Soldier, 255, is an allusion to maltreatment by officers as a cause for desertion. Mexican writers naturally condemn the execution as barbarous; yet greater strictness in their own army would undoubtedly have improved its value. To the pleading of the clergy and influential residents in behalf of the deserters, Scott replied that the Mexican government was to blame for tempting them to desert; yet he enrolled guerrillas to raid upon their countrymen. A striking account of the execution is given in the fourth number of the American Star, Sept. 28, 1847, a journal brought out at Mexico by the followers of the invading army. See also Arco Iris, Sept. 12, Nov. 4, 7, 1847; Gen. of Lib., Oct. 19, 1847. Their form of organization is recorded in Mex., Col. Ley., 1847, 181-2; Correo Nac., Nov. 30, 1847; Sonorense, Sept. 10, 1847.
