and his men. We went lo work and fortified ourselves, pulling down and burning all the houses in the place. We went down tlie San Antonio river, on one occasion, after some suspicious f cllows. We took nineteen of them prisoners and returned in a few days. On the Friday, previous lo our final departure, our horsemen came in and gave the alarm, that there were a great many persons in the woods opposite the fort. Col. Fannin ordered our company and the red-rovers lo cross the river and cover the retreat of the horsemen. We fired two or three rounds of artillery at them, but they soon made off. Thal night we intended starting after dark, but some of our horsemen came up from the river, and said, that there was a picket guard of the Mexicans al each ford. Col. Fannin then ordered Col. Horton lo take his horse company and cross over the river with one of our company behind each of them and to watch until he could have the artillery and baggage carried over. We thought it a very singular order, but we obeyed. The horsemen went forward, and, in a short time, one of them came galloping back, and told us, that there were at least two hundred horsemen in the act of crossing. In a few minutes, we heard horses corning, and were ordered to form to receive a charge. They came within fifty yards of us before we could see them on account of the darkness. Capt. Duval hailed them, when we found them to be our men that we had sent to see if there was any chance of crossing that night. We were very near shooting al them. One of our guns snapped; and, if it had gone off, we should certainly have killed nearly every man, for we all had our triggers sprung and our rines cocked. IL was so dark thac the Mexicans dld not pursue us. We then returned to the fort, and, the next morning, at 11 o'clock, we were across the river. We marched about 6 miles, when Col. Fannin ordered us to haJt and Jet the oxen rest. We stopped about one hour or an hour and a half, in which time, had we proceeded, we might have reached the woods in safety. We had not marched mote than two or three miles, when our flank guard came riding in, and said, that the Mexican army was advancing on us. By this time they were in sight. We immediately halted and fired two or three cannons at them, but they were too far off to be injured. We then hitched our oxen and marched about half a mile further when we saw a large body of Mexicans in our rear and on both sides advancing on us very rapidly. We halted, formed a hollow square, and commenced again with our artillery, but they still advanced until within about 400 yards, when, at about 3 o'clock, they commenced firing with their muskets but still continued to advance. They marched towards us slowly until they got within
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