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There I began to work with the object of enlisting some volunteer troops, a it could not be done otherwise for lack of funds (and I did not wish ·to compromise the government in thi ) . By exercising a moderate policy in this matter, I snceeeded in organizing four hundred men, and on the twelfth of .August I marched with them upon Nacog- doche , the first stron~hold within the Province of Vexar. There was a garrison of one hundred and fifty men there under the command of Father SamLrano who fled at the first shot. All the troops scattered and two-thirds of them joined me.u I took up my march for the Capital, one hundred and sixty leagues distan"t, with seven hundred men. Of thi number four hundred and fifty were well armed, united and determined to be iege tlte Inferno it elf, if I should so order. When we had travelled half the distance, I was infonned that the go,·ernors were awaiting me with two thousand men ten leagues from Vexar. At the same time I found that the Fort of Bahia del Espiritu to. was guarded by a small garrison, and I considered it expedient to go and take that important strongl}old. We turned off, and by making forced marches arrived there and took the fort with all its supplies and the garrison before the enemy suspected this operation. I fonnd three pieces of cannon there wh.ich I ordered to be mounted and placed upon the bastions. After three days all the enemy's forces fell upon us; and after making some skirmishe , they formed their army into three divisions and attacked the stonghold with the...greatest boldnes . After having garrisoned the fort, I sallied forth with the remainder of my forces, to meet the enemy at" the entrance to the Precidio where we had a terrible combat. After three l1ours of firin~, we repulsed them ";th heavy loss; our loss being only a few in wounded. We fell back to the fort. The enemy pitched three camps in the form of a triangle leaving us in the center only a cannon shot distance from each eamp. The siege continued in this way with va- rious encounters every day, continual skirmishe and sometimes at- tacks upon the stronghold, but they always came out losing in both the heavy and light attacks. The siege continued thus for a period of four months. During all this time we uffcred every kind of calamity, the greatest of all being this: the American colonel, who was my second in conunand, was a man of military genius lmt very cowardly; and, moreover, he was a vile traitor as was afterwards shown by his wickedne · in promising to sell me to Salcedo for £fteen thousand pesos and the position of colonel in the Royalist ranks. Por this rea on he was always opposed to my using trategy and other means by which I could have harmed tlie enemy greatly. But the divine Omnipotence who always favored u , permitted this Yillain to fall ick and die, as a result of some poi on which he had taken to avoid b ing hot. I immediately began to enconrage my troops and to prepare for a general action, which I carried into effect on the tenth of February, 1813. At two o'clock in the morning of the aforementioned day, I ordered a band of troops to attack the principal guard of the enemy's ccnte"r at a point where the~• were most expo ed. 'l'hc enemy was ••\Vblle In acogdoches Gutierrez Issued a proclamation which waa printed In Nile, Rcgt,ter, III, 104.
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