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Operations of General Worth.

mountains, which arise over us on the west, When the head of the column approached this ridge, a body of Mexican cavalry came dashing around that point to charge upon our advance. Captain Gillespie immediately ordered his men to dismount and place themselves in ambush. The enemy evidently did not perceive this manœuver; but the moment they came up, the Texans opened upon them a most destructive fire, unsaddling a number of them. McCulloch's company now dashed into them. Captain C. F. Smith's camp, and Captain Scott's camp of artillery, (acting as infantry,) and Lieu tenant Longstreet's company of the eighth infantry, with another company of the same regiment, likewise charged upon the enemy. The Texan horsemen were soon engaged with them in a sort of hand-to-hand skirmish, in which a number of them fell, and one Texan was killed and two wounded.

Colonel Duncan now opened upon them with his battery of light artillery, pouring a few discharges of grape upon them, and scattering them like chaff. Several men and horses fell under this destructive fire. I saw one horse and rider bound some feet into the air, and both fell dead and tumbled down the steep. The foot companies above named then rushed up the steep, and fired over the ridge at the retreating enemy, a considerable body of whom were concealed from our view, around the point of the hill. About thirty of the enemy were killed in this skirmish, and among them a captain, who, with two or three others, fell in the road. The captain was wounded in three places, the last shot hitting him in the forehead. He fought gallantly to the last, and I am sorry that I cannot learn his name.

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Operations of General Worth.

The light batteries, one of which is commanded by Lieutenant Mackall, were now driven upon the slope of the ridge, and the howitzers opened upon the height of Palace Hill. A few shots only were thrown, before the enemy commenced firing with a nine-pounder from the height immediately over the right of the column, aiming at Duncan's batteries. The several regiments took positions, and a few more shells were thrown towards Palace Hill, but did no execution. The nine-pounder continued to throw its shot with great precision at our batteries, one ball falling directly in the midst of the pieces, but, fortunately, hitting neither men nor guns. Finding his batteries thus exposed, and unable to effect any thing, Colonel Duncan removed his command to a rancho about half a mile farther up the Saltillo road, where General Worth took up his position, after ordering the foot regiments to form along the fence near the point of the ridge. The artillery battalion, 5th, 7th, and 8th infantry, and the Louisiana volunteers, remained in this position about two hours, directly under fire of the enemy's guns. The balls fell directly in their midst all this time without wounding a man! To begin with, the Mexicans manage their artillery in battery as well as the Americans do— this, I believe, is now conceded by every officer.

At half-past ten, the column moved towards the general's position. At this time, Captain McKavett of the 8th infantry, was shot through the heart by a ninepound ball, and a private of the 5th infantry was severely wounded in the thigh, and he died the next morning. About fifty Mexicans now appeared upon the side hill over the moving column, and fired at our troops some hundred musket-shot, without doing any harm. The

Operations of General Worth.

division deployed into the position pointed out, and remained an hour or two, when Captain C. F. Smith of the artillery battalion, with his own company, and Captain Scott's, together with four companies of Texan Rangers on foot, were ordered to storm the second height. This the gallant officer cheerfully undertook, and was followed with enthusiasm by the officers and men of his command. It was considered on all sides to be a dangerous undertaking, and his party was regarded most emphatically as a forlorn hope. That the height would be taken no one doubted, but that many brave fellows would fall in the attempt seemed inevitable. The distance to be climbed, after reaching the foot of the hill, was about a quarter of a mile; a part of the way almost perpendicular, through thorn-bushes and over sharp-pointed rocks and loose sliding stones.

The 7th infantry commanded by Captain Miles, was ordered to support Captain Smith's party, and by marching directly to the foot of the height, arrived before Captain Smith, who had been ordered to take a circuitous route. Captain Miles sent up Lieutenant Gantt, with a detachment of men upon the hill-side, to divert the attention of the enemy from Captain Smith's command, which could not yet be seen. The 7th had already sustained a heavy fire of grape and round-shot, as they forded the San Juan, which winds round the foot of the height, and which fell like a shower of hail in their ranks without killing a man. Lieutenant Gantt's party were greeted with grape and round-shot, which cut the shrubs, and tore up the loose stones about the ranks, without killing any one; but the gallant young officer came within an inch of being killed by a cannon-shot,

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