Reconnoissances of the adjacent country were immediately made and it was resolved to attack the city by a bold movement towards its southern side that would cut off its communications through the gap in the mountains by which the road led to Saltillo. Accordingly General Worth was detached on this difficult but honorable service with a strong and reliable corps, and, after excessive toil, hard fighting and wonderful endurance upon the part of our men, the desired object was successfully gained. An unfinished and fortified edifice called the Bishop's Palace, on the summit of a steep hill was stormed and taken, and thus an important vantage ground, commanding the city by a plunging shot, was secured.
Meanwhile, General Taylor seeking to withdraw or distract the enemy from his designs on the southern and western sides of the city, made a movement under General Butler, of Kentucky, upon its northern front. What was probably designed only as a feint
soon became a severe and deadly conflict. Our men,—especially the volunteers,—eager to flesh their swords in the first conflict with which the war indulged them, rushed into the city, which seems to have been amply prepared, in that quarter, with barricades, forts, loop-holes, and every means of defence suitable for the narrow streets and flat roofed and parapeted houses of a Spanish town. After the first deadly onset there was, of course, no intention or desire to abandon the conflict, fatal as its prosecution might ultimately become. On they fought from street to street, and house to house, and yard to yard, until night closed over the dying and the dead. On the second day a different system of approach was adopted. Instead of risking life in the street which was raked from end to end by artillery, or rendered untenable by the hidden marksmen who shot our men from behind the walls of the house tops, our forces were thrown into the dwellings, and breaking onward through walls and enclosures, gradually mined their way towards the plaza or great square of Monterey.