Capture of La Vega.

with powder and labouring with his own hands, he fired his pieces slowly and with the usual deadly effect. A storm of copper balls came whizzing and crushing among the artillerists in reply, while Ridgely and his men limbered up, jumped on their pieces, and cheered as May dashed forward. An overwhelming discharge of grape and bullets from the other battery destroyed his first and second platoons, but he was unhurt, and with those who lived swept to the left of the road leaped over the battery and drove the Mexicans from their guns. But they seemed determined to retain their pieces or die: they rushed back to them with the bayonet, and commenced to load them again with grape. May then charged back enemy shrunk in terror

upon our own lines, and the from the stroke of his sword. One man, General La Vega, alone maintained his ground, and tried to rally his men; but was made a prisoner by Captain May, and carried under a galling fire from his own countrymen to our lines. The infantry now gathered round the batteries in masses, crossing bayonets for their possession, over the very muzzles of the guns. In a short time, Captain Belknap, with the 8th infantry, and Captain Martin Scott, with the 5th, were engaged in a hand-to-hand conflict with the far-famed Tampico veterans, who had been in twenty battles and were never defeated. The battery was carried, and the 8th and the 5th charged up the ravine amidst a terrible fire from the enemy's right and front. The battery of Colonel Duncan now came into the front, and the retreat of the enemy was hastened by his deadly fire. While the centre battery of the enemy was being carried, Lieutenants Ruggles and Crittenden, with a small command of the 5th and

Capture of Arista's Despatches.

the 8th infantry, all under Captain Montgomery, routed the right wing and carried the right battery. Between this and the centre battery, the Tampico regiment, had been posted, all of whom, except seventeen, are said to have fallen at their posts. Their tri-colour was the last Mexican flag waving on the field, and the gallant fellow who bore it, when all hope was lost, tore it from the staff, and concealed it about his person while he attempted to fly. He was ridden down by the dragoons, however, and made a prisoner, and his flag was a trophy of the victory.

The hurry of the Mexicans to escape was so great, that many of them were drowned in the river. Immense quantities of baggage, military stores, and camp equipage fell into the hands of the Americans; the personal, public, and private property of Arista, and all his despatches being among the spoils. The American army passed the night on the battle-field, in the enjoyment of the festival which had been prepared by the followers of the Mexican camp to regale their friends after the anticipated victory. In his despatch after this brilliant victory General Taylor says:

"The loss of the enemy in killed has been most severe. Our own has been very heavy, and I deeply regret to report that Lieutenant Inge, 2d dragoons, Lieutenant Cochrane, 4th infantry, and Lieutenant Chadbourne, 8th infantry, were killed on the field. Lieutenant-Colonel Payne, 4th artillery, Lieutenant-Colonel McIntosh, Lieutenant Dobbins, 3d infantry, Captain Hooe and Lieutenant Fowler, 5th infantry; and Captain Montgomery, Lieutenants Gates, Selden, McClay, Burbank, and Jordan, 8th infantry were wounded. The extent of

General Taylor's Despatch.

our loss in killed and wounded is not yet ascertained, and is reserved for a more detailed report.

The affair of to-day may be regarded as a proper supplement to the cannonade of yesterday; and the two taken together, exhibit the coolness and gallantry of our officers and men in the most favourable light. All have done their duty and done it nobly. It will be my pride, in a more circumstantial report of both actions, to dwell upon particular instances of individual distinction.

It affords me peculiar pleasure to report that the fieldwork opposite to Matamoras has sustained itself handsomely during a cannonade and bombardment of one hundred and sixty hours. But the pleasure is alloyed with profound regret at the loss of its heroic and indomitable commander, Major Brown, who died to-day from the effect of a shell. His loss would be a severe one to the service at any time, but to the army under my orders, it is indeed irreparable. One officer and one non-commissioned officer killed, and ten men wounded, comprise all the casualties incident to this severe bombardment.

I inadvertently omitted to mention the capture of a large number of pack-mules left in the Mexican camp."

"So confident," says Captain Henry, in his interesting work, Campaign Sketches of the War with Mexico,' "were the Mexicans of victory, that Ampudia, speaking to Captain Thornton, who was then their prisoner, said, 'it was utterly impossible it could be otherwise; that their numbers alone were sufficient, independent of those veteran regiments.' General La Vega said, that 'if he had any sum of money in camp he should have considered it as safe as if at the city of Mexico; and he

Taylor's march to Point Isabel.

would have bet any amount that no ten thousand men Icould have driven them off.""

Our loss in this action was three officers and thirty-six men killed, and twelve officers and fifty-nine men wounded. The loss of the enemy in killed, wounded, and missing, was not less than two thousand, taking the two days fighting together.

On the morning after the battle, General Taylor, with characteristic humanity, sent to Matamoras for Mexican surgeons to attend to their wounded, and for men to bury their dead. The American army was occupied at the same time upon the same mournful duty.

On the 11th General Taylor again left Fort Brown for Point Isabel, in order to arrange with Commodore Conner the plan of a combined land and naval attack upon the Mexican posts on the Rio Grande. While at the Point, he despatched a hasty letter to Washington, from which we make the following extracts: "I avail myself of this brief time at my command to report that the main body of the army is now occupying its former position opposite Matamoras. The Mexican forces are almost disorganized, and I shall lose no time in investing Matamoras, and opening the navigation of the river.” * "I have exchanged a sufficient number of prisoners to recover the command of Captain Thornton. The wounded prisoners have been sent to Matamoras; the wounded officers on their parole. General Vega and a few others have been sent to New Orleans, having declined a parole, and will be reported to Major-General Gaines. I am not conversant with the usages of war in such cases, and beg that such provision may be made for these prisoners as may be authorized by law. Our own prisoners

*

Capture of Barita.

have been treated with great kindness by the Mexican officers."

On the morning of the 13th he started for camp with an escort of dragoons, but having been met by an express with the information that large bodies of fresh troops had arrived at Matamoras, and that the enemy was concentrating troops at Barita, he returned to the Point. Here he found a newly arrived detachment of troops from New Orleans, including regulars and volunteers from Louisiana and Alabama, an accession which enabled him to withdraw from the Point a force of six hundred men with a train of artillery, two hundred and fifty wagons, and a large quantity of military and other stores. With this force he set out on the morning of the 14th for Fort Brown. He had previously arranged a plan for an attack upon Barita, a small town near the mouth of the Rio Grande, on the Mexican side of the river. This was executed by Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson, who captured the place without opposition. It speedily became a place of importance as the depot of the new base of operations, being the first high land reached in ascending the river above hurricane tides, and in a military point of view, commanding every thing around it, and commanded by nothing.

Want of the necessary means of transportation prevented General Taylor from crossing the Rio Grande to attack Matamoras until the 17th. On that day Colonel Twiggs was ordered to cross above the city, whilst Colonel Wilson was to make a demonstration from Barita. The Mexicans then attempted to induce General Taylor to agree to an armistice, that they might be able to carry off the public stores and munitions of war with which