The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, Volume I

134

TEXAS ST.\TE LIBRARY

maintaining such a fire against them, lo t their courage and were only able to bold out until nine in the morning at which time they fled precipitately. l\Iy troops were cheered, although there were only :fiftt'en men among them who were able to bear arm , either becaw;e their arms were u ele , or bet'ause they lacked flint stone . The larger force with armed bayonet wa awaiting the attack that the enemy wa attempting, and for which they had prepared by bringing up boards which, be ide the earth and moat, erved as a parapet. Immediately upon their retirement, and in spite of the artillery fire directed from the chooner, I sent out some horsemen who de- stroyed their brea t"·ork and brought back to the fort nineteen car- bines, sixteen pistols, powder-horns of powder, bullets, word , and some hatchets. Th<:y reported that there were eleven dead who could be seen from the fort itself. I ordeted both the rifle and cannon firing- to cease, notwithstanding the fact -that the enemy was firing at us from the schooner with both cannon and rifle. At thi time a hard rain came, which did u some harm. The enemy, seeing that we did not answer, cea,ed their firing, and only rfired from time to time at the sentinels, but killed none of them. I then ~ave my men a ration of whiskey-around, and they reported that bodie were being thrown overboard from the schooner. .I ordered them to stack arms, and to load the gun taken from the enemy. We were found to have forty u efnl rifles. I also ordered that care be taken of the wounded who numbered nineteen, nine of whom were eriou ly wounded, and the remaining ten who, although they were incapacitated becau e of wound in their hands and arms, only ran the ri k of 11ot l1aving medicine or a doctor to cure them. The five who were dead were buried at thi time. Among them a German named Generiguet, a prisoner who worked at the fort. B sides the e, two soldier were b1nied later who were not numbered among the wounded because they were ju t barely alive. These were buried in the immediate vicinity of the fort. I reviewed the military supplies, and we had only foUL: hundred cartridge £or the forty u eful soldiers, after hav- ing discharged forty- ix hundred cartridge , and only fourteen cannon balls remaining of the one hundred and eleven whlch we had had the day before. About twenty were supplied with the powder-horn. and the bullets which had been taken from the enemy. For the mall cannon there was no ammunition, a the eventy ix ball which we had for- merly, had been used. The powder itself was enough for forty. I cheered my soldier in turn by telling them that the bayonet were more useful in the fort now that we had made them retire. .Affairs continued thu until after the oldier had aten, when we prepared for a new attack. \Ve oon a\\; -with a py lass that a column of about one hundred fifty cavalrymen wa advancing toward the fort, but at a distance of about half a mile away they di mounted. Hunt- ing a means of gaining favor from the enemy for the benefit of my wounded and my worn-out soldier , (for the action had la ted eon- tinuou ly for a period of fifteen hours), I ordered a white flag to be raised. 'l'he enemy immediately answered with another, and about one hundred and fifty armed men began to leave the schooner. I com- manded Lieutenant Juan Moret to tell them that I had only given

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