On this day, the Mexican defenders of Chapultepec were crushed by American forces under Winfield Scott. The outcome was not in doubt with Chapultepect Castle being defended by around 100 men, some of them as young as 13. It was the battle at which "the child soldiers" died defending the Castle against overwhelming odds, and it was also at this site where 30 catholic soldiers of the Saint Patrick's Batallion were hanged for having previously deserted the US Army to join the Mexicans. The existence of the St Patrick's Batallion was denied by the army for many years.
American casualties in the battle were light, some 135 with the highest ranked being Major Robert E Lee and Lieutenant Ulysses S Grant. nevertheless, the battle did change history, the examples of six child soldiers who refused to retreat and fought to the death, the last wrapping himself in the Mexican flag and throwing himself from the ramparts, along with the fate of the St Patrick's Batallion, shifted the world's sympathy away from the United States toward Mexico.
This was a battle Mexico could never have won but perhaps, had it been conducted differently, Mexico's fate could have been far worse.
This is different from most... In both realities, the United States won the battle and the war, but I've just casually written two great generals from the American Civil War out of history. What if both Lee and/or Grant had died at Chapultepec? Who would know how September 13 1847 had changed thw world?
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