Castillo Chapultepec

Traffic in Mexico City. It often takes twice or three times as long as it should to get somewhere.

One afternoon Bryce & I got a taxi and went downtown to Chapultapec Park (Chapultapec means grasshopper) and toured the Chapultapec Castle. This castle is high on a hill and kings actually lived there. It was built in 1785 by Bernardo de Galvez. The second floor rooms were built during the administration of President Miguel Miramon (1859-1860) while the Emperor Maximilian and Empress Charlotte used it as an Imperial Palace. The area is revered because of the rivers and springs which erupted from its center. It was occupied by the presidents, Porfirio Diaz, Franciso I, Madero, Venustiano Curranza, Alvaro Obregon, Pascual Ortiz Rubio and Abelardo Rodrigues Lujan. It is next to a military academy. It was donated as a museum in 1939. It is very beautiful. It became the scene of the heroic battle of the cadets in 1847 against the North American invasion.

Chapultepec means Grasshopper.

Monument to Los Ninos and Castillo in background. Built in 1947, the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Chapultepec.

The remains of the six cadets are intered in the monument. In 1947, President Harry S. Truman laid a wreath on the Cadets Monument as a gesture of goodwill after Mexico aided the U.S. in World War II. He stood for several minutes in silence. An American reporter asked Pres. Truman why he honored ones who had been our enemy. He replied, "I honor brave men regardless of their country."

On September 13, 1847, in the costly Battle of Molino del Rey, U.S. forces had managed to drive the Mexicans from their positions near the base of Chapultepec Castle guarding Mexico City from the west. He understood that Chapultepec Castle was an important position for the defense of the city.

The castle sat atop a 200-foot (60 m) tall hill which in recent years was being used as the Mexican Military Academy. General Nicolás Bravo, of the Mexican army, however, had fewer than 1,000 men to hold the hill, including 200 cadets, some as young as 13 years old. A gradual slope from the castle down to the Molino del Rey made an inviting attack point.
According to military records at the General National Archives in Mexico City, Chapultepec Castle was only defended by 400 men, and the castle's garrison of 100 men, including the cadets.
Scott organized two storming parties numbering 250 hand-picked men.

The Americans began an artillery barrage against Chapultepec at dawn on September 12. It was halted at dark and resumed at first light on September 13. At 08:00, the bombardment was halted and Winfield Scott ordered the charge.

George Pickett was the first American to top the wall of the fort, and they soon planted their flag on the parapet. A column of artillery faced superior numbers of Mexicans in a spirited defense. One American general was severely wounded when his men poured over the walls, but his troops managed to raise the U.S. Flag over the castle. Caught between two fronts, General Bravo ordered a retreat back to the city. Before he could withdraw, Bravo was taken prisoner. The Mexicans retreated at night down the causeways leading into the city. Santa Anna watched the Americans take Chapultepec while an aide exclaimed "let the Mexican flag never be touched by a foreign enemy".

Los Niños Héroes - During the battle, six Mexican military cadets refused to fall back when General Bravo finally ordered retreat and fought to the death. Their names were: teniente (lieutenant) Juan de la Barrera (age 19), and cadets Agustín Melgar, Juan Escutia, Vicente Suárez, Francisco Márquez and Fernando Montes de Oca. One by one they fell; when one was left (Juan Escutia, a teenager), and the U.S. forces were about to kill him, he grabbed the Mexican flag, wrapped it around himself and jumped off the castle point to prevent the enemy from taking it. In 1967, Gabriel Flores painted a mural depicting "Los Niños Héroes".
A mural decorates the ceiling of the palace, showing Juan Escutia wrapped in the flag, apparently falling from above. A monument stands in Chapultepec Park commemorating their courage. The cadets are eulogized in Mexican history as the Los Niños Héroes, the "Child Heroes" or Heroic Cadets.
Saint Patrick's Battalion: Thirty men from the Saint Patrick's Battalion, a group of former United States Army soldiers who joined the Mexican side, were executed en masse during the battle. They had been previously captured at the Battle of Churubusco. General Scott specified that they were to be hanged with Chapultepec in view and that the precise moment of their death was to occur when the U.S. flag replaced the Mexican tricolor atop the citadel. Sam Chamberlain depicted the Hanging of the San Patricios following the Battle of Chapultepec

Gardens on the 2nd floor of the castle.

Tower Major from the 2nd floor of the castle.

Beautiful stained glass window in the stairway.