Combat· Mexican-American War
Marines enter Mexico City at the National Palace
The climactic moment of the war for the Marine Corps, and the source of its hymn's most famous line.
On 14 September 1847, the day after the storming of Chapultepec, the Marine battalion advanced into the captured capital with the rest of Scott's army. The Marines marched into the Grand Plaza and took up positions at the National Palace, the ancient seat of Mexican government, the "Halls of Montezuma" of the Marines' Hymn. The occupation of the palace set the seal on the campaign that had carried the army from the coast at Vera Cruz to the heart of Mexico. No fighting attended the entry itself, the resistance having been broken at Chapultepec and the gates the day before. Two months later the battalion's commander, Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Watson, would die of disease at Vera Cruz, not living long to enjoy the triumph his Marines had shared.
Podcast episodes on Mexican-American War
Record no. 356