month the United States guards were relieved by Mexican troops, the United States flag was hauled down, and the Mexican hoisted upon the national palace and saluted by the artillery of both armies. Worth's division was the last to abandon the city, and after its departure the president and his ministers entered the capital.[1] The retiring troops spent a few days in Jalapa waiting for transport ships, and on their arrival repaired to Vera Cruz and embarked. The evacuation of the northern line was also effected rapidly and in good order, excepting a little dilatoriness on the part of Sterling Price at Chihuahua.
In Vera Cruz, where the custom-house had been restored to Mexican officials on the 11th of June, the surrender of the city and the fortress of San Juan de Ulúa took place with the usual formalities and salutes. On the same day, the last remaining force of the invaders reëmbarked, and the Mexican people breathed free again.
And now let us consider the results of the Mexican war for the United States, which may be summed up in three items, namely, loss of life, loss of money, and gain of territory. Of the first item, according to official returns, the actual loss in the field, by battle and sickness, was 15,000 men; in battles alone 5,101. This was not all, however. Many on their way to join their regiments in Mexico fell sick and died, without having appeared on the rolls of the actual force. Many died after being mustered out of service. It may therefore be said with truth that the loss of life was not less than 25,000 men.[2] What it is for 25,000 men to be killed, God knoweth; it was much to them, howsoever little to the magnates at Washington. According to a Mexican account, the
- ↑ A description of the events appears in a contemporaneous narrative, which is copied in Roa Bárcena, Recuerdos, 628. The official announcement of the reoccupation of the capital by the Mexican government appears in Méx., Col. Ley. y Dec., 1848, i. 70-2. In September next, honors were paid to the Mexican victims of the war.
- ↑ Mansfield's Mex. War, 347, 356-65; Roa Bárcena, Recuerdos, 537-8. Livermore sets 20,000 as a very moderate computation. War with Mex., 110.
