bombardment of the city on the eighteenth, aided, afloat and on shore, by the guns of the fleet which had been transferred from Commodore Connor to the command of Commodore Perry. The town was thus invested by land and water, and although the Mexican castle, city walls and forts, were but poorly garrisoned and provided, they held out bravely during the terrible siege, which nearly converted Vera Cruz into a slaughter-house. On the morning of the twenty-sixth, when no hope remained for the Mexicans, General Landero, the commander, made overtures for a capitulation, which being satisfactorily arranged, the principal commercial port, and the most renowned fortress in Mexico were surrendered, together with four hundred guns, five thousand stand of arms and as many prisoners who were released on parole.
General Scott had endeavored to mitigate the dangers of this terrific attack upon Vera Cruz by the employment of such a force as would honorably satisfy the inefficient garrison of the town and castle that it was in truth unable to cope with the American forces. He delayed opening his batteries to allow the escape of non-combatants; he refrained, moreover, from storming the town, a mode of assault in which multitudes would have fallen on both sides in the indiscriminate slaughter which always occurs when an enemy's town is invaded in hot blood and with a reckless spirit of conquest and carnage. Yet, weak and badly provided as was the garrison of both strongholds, the walls of the city, its batteries and its guardian castle held out for sixteen days, during which time it is estimated that our army and navy, threw into the town about six thousand shot and shells, weighing upwards of 463,000 pounds. On the side of the Mexicans the slaughter was exceedingly great. Nearly a thousand fell victims during the siege; and, among the slain, numerous unfortunate citizens, women and children, were found to have perished by the bombs or paixhan shot which destroyed the public and private edifices, and ruined many important portions of the city.